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“Hey,” he says, stuffing a handful of crisps in his mouth. “What’s up?”
“Mattie and Jared are choosing wedding colors and themes.”
“Ouch.” He sucks air through his teeth. “Sounds like a nightmare.” He holds the bag out to me and says with a full mouth, “Want a chip?”
I make a face. “No, thanks. Your hand’s been in there, and I don’t know where your hand has been.”
He cocks a shoulder. “Your loss.” Turning back into the house, he says, “My parents went grocery shopping. There’s not much to munch in the house.”
I follow him inside. “I’m not hungry.”
Not today. Usually, I always have an appetite. I’m just too out of sorts to be in the mood for snacks.
We walk through the television room toward the deck at the back and stop next to the pool where Clara is swimming a length underwater.
She surfaces at the shallow end and wipes drops from her eyes. “Hey, Bella.”
I give a little wave. “Hi.”
She kicks away from the side, dives under the water, and resumes her swimming.
Colin goes to the bar and opens the fridge. “There’s only Pepsi and tonic water.”
“I’m not thirsty.”
He pulls his head from the fridge and gives me a mock-horrified look. “What? Sabella Edwards not hungry or thirsty? It’s going to snow, and I’ve had enough of that in New York.”
My tone is sarcastic. “Ha-ha.”
He grabs a can of Pepsi. “Sure you don’t want one?”
“I do,” Clara says, pushing herself out of the water.
He throws the can to his sister and takes another for himself. After cracking it open, he plonks down on a deckchair.
Clara takes a few gulps before setting the soft drink on a table and snatching a towel from the pile on the shelf next to the bar.
Colin and Clara are three years apart, but if you didn’t know they were brother and sister, you’d never guess. Their resemblance ends with their golden hair and clear blue eyes. Her face is narrower and her small body pixie-like in build.
She wags her eyebrows. “I’m going for a shower to give you two time to, you know, catch up.” At catch up, she makes a heart shape with her hands.
Colin flips her off. She giggles as she waltzes past me and into the house.
“You won’t grow taller by standing there,” Colin says. “Grab a seat.”
Too agitated for lounging, I shove my hands in my back pockets and kick at the pebbles on the border of the deck.
He sits up and swings a leg over each side of the chair, clasping the can in both hands. “Clara is going to a sleepover at five. I have to watch her until then, but I’m free after. Do you want to go catch a movie?”
“Nope.” I sigh. “I’m grounded from going to town.”
“Grounded? Wow. What happened?”
I exhale through my nose. “Angelo.”
“What did you do?”
“Nothing.” I throw my hands in the air. “I got grounded for talking to him.” Alone. Outside.
He takes a sip of his drink, watching me from over the rim of the can. “Just for talking to him?”
“Yes.”
He rests his elbows on his thighs. “That’s harsh.”
“Tell me about it.” I go over to the ping-pong table and pick up the ball and a bat. “My dad said I should’ve refused the stuff he bought for Pirate. He’s angry that I walked him out. He wanted to know what we talked about alone outside as if I’m a child who can’t be trusted. I’m supposed to tell Angelo he’s not welcome if he ever shows up again.”
“Why?”
I bounce the ball with the bat. “Dad said he comes from a bad family and that he’s only doing business with them because he doesn’t have a choice.”
“Don’t you believe your dad?”
“You know my dad is overprotective. I looked Angelo up on Google. There wasn’t a lot of personal information, only that his family owns tons of businesses in Corsica. They donate shitloads of money to charity. His mom is an angel investor in several startups and the patron of a program that reintegrates runaway teenagers into society.”
“Anything can look good on paper. You have to admit, the dude is weird.”
I look at him quickly, missing a hit. The ball hops off the table and rolls under a rosebush. “Why do you say that?”
“He looked like he wanted to rip my head off and eat my brains for breakfast.”
Busying myself with going after the ball, I avoid his gaze. “You’re exaggerating.”
“What’s the deal with the two of you?”
Heat pushes up my neck. I take a moment to gather myself before straightening. “There’s no deal.”
“Come on, Bella. I don’t know you from yesterday. The guy walks into a room and you turn redder than a stop sign.”
I throw the ball and catch it mid-air. “I was surprised, that’s all. He didn’t have to buy all those things for Pirate.”
