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“We just ate,” Riley says.
“So?” Lainey stands up and grabs her bag off the couch.
“I worked really hard on that meal, it would be a waste to throw it up. Besides, Daniel can’t hike with his knee—”
“That’s fine,” Lainey says out loud, then under her breath, but not low enough I can’t hear her say, “Not like he was invited.”
“Lainey!” Riley snaps.
“It’s fine,” I say taking Riley’s hand. “Go.”
“I don’t want to go without you though. Or at all,” Riley says low enough Lainey can’t hear.
“I know but she’s your sister and even though we don’t see each other much, you see her even less now. You should go.”
Her eyes play out the battle I don’t have to guess she’s having with herself. Stay or go. Stay or go.
Of course, I would much rather she stay but I know she should go. That she should never have to choose.
“I’ll be back soon.”
She’ll never have to choose again.
∞∞∞
RILEY
I hold my breath as Daniel’s eyes focus on me. Drinking me in like he’s dying of a thirst he can’t quench.
Then he kisses me with a quiet desperation telling me he doesn’t want to let me go.
I don’t want to go.
But I can’t blow off Lainey. The way she feels about Daniel, if I choose him over her… I’d never hear the end of it.
“I’ll be back even sooner now,” I tell him, breathless.
“Don’t rush on my account.”
“No. I’ll rush for my own selfish reasons.”
After changing, I meet Lainey at her car, parked in a metered spot on the street outside Daniel’s shop. She never planned on staying long, did she?
The drive to the hill is quiet. I fully expected her to rip into me but she doesn’t say a thing. When we get there, I understand a little better why she didn’t feel the need to chew me out, she was just trying to keep me calm for her plan to stick me with Spencer before taking off with Will and Jax without me.
“It’s good to see you again, Riley,” Spencer says.
“Yeah. Sure.” I’m seething watching Lainey disappear into the trees. I can’t believe she did this to me. Even if I wasn’t with Daniel, she knows I’m not interested in Spencer. How could she leave me alone with someone she knows I don’t want to be alone with?
“I’m sorry, Spencer. You go on ahead. I think I’m just going to hang out here until Lainey gets back.” I don’t want to be here anyway and now, judging by the dark clouds moving in, I’d rather not get stuck out in the rain on top of everything else.
Spencer huffs and rubs his hand on the back of his neck. “That sister of yours is a real piece of work, isn’t she?”
“What?”
“Is it that she can’t or won’t see the obvious?”
My eyebrows come together. “I’m confused.”
