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“What do you mean what did I do, Lally?” He glances at me. “Oh, you mean this? She did it to herself. Always does.”
I scoff and shrug my arm away. “It’s a bee sting.”
“So, you admit it,” he says.
“I never denied it.”
“You also never apologized for running me over.”
“I did not run you over.”
“Did so, Nugget.”
Lally clicks her tongue and says, “I’m going to leave you two to bicker like an old married couple and get the girl some ice.”
Ryan calls, “I’m going to tell Magnus you said that.”
She scoops ice into a cup and cuts him a glare. “I didn’t saywe’regoing to bicker when we’re an old married couple. We communicate quite nicely, thank you very much.”
“You communicate with my stoically silent brother? I find that hard to believe.”
Lally smiles primly then, ignoring Ryan, turns to me. “Hi. I’m Lally McGuinness. The latest soon-to-be-member of the McGregor family.” She flashes a massive rock around her finger.
“And the woman who single-handedly tamed the Beast that is Magnus.”
“I’m also telling him you said that.” She winks. “I prefer him wild.”
If I wasn’t already a ghost, I wouldn’t be sure what to make of this exchange or anything that’s happened since returning to Coco Key. The McGregors getting married off? The Coconut Wireless reporting their grandfather passed away and left them a strange will? The reopening of the Driftwood? Me running Ryan over?
Stunned, I don’t hear my phone buzzing in my back pocket until I notice Ryan staring at my backside.
“Eyes off. Ice on.” I nod to the cup Lally holds and pull my phone out, worried about Luke. Instead, it’s Harper blowing up my phone with texts. The first one says:You will not believe this.Then there are links to article after article with headlines containing a familiar name.
The name of the man standing over my shoulder, icing the sting on my arm.
Before I can tuck my phone away, he goes still. I sense his gaze travel from the sting on my arm to the phone in my hand.
And just like that, his world explodes.
Ryan
CHAPTER 4
It’s time to face the music, as Chip used to say when he’d make us come clean about our shenanigans. Believe it or not, Royal and I were guilty of most of them. Magnus sometimes led our adventures, but those were mostly exploring the islands and less frequently involved defacing property and pranking.
I also have to face the press and, as it turns out, Harley.
It’s hard to believe I only left Miami this morning. It’s barely past noon. I’d hoped to put this off until later. Unfortunately, later comes too soon.
Harley, pink-faced, tucks away her phone with the links to the headlines about me, a runaway groom. Is she embarrassed for me or were she and her sister gloating about my misfortune?
Ouch.
Does she hate me so much that she revels in my being smeared by the media?
Harley’s hand brushes mine as she takes the cup full of ice, making my pulse kick even though the ice is cold.
“I should go,” she says.
