Right on time, Lily calls me. I answer, and before I even ask, she explains. “Rose got a flat tire, and she refuses to call a tow truck.”
“I can fix it myself.” Rose’s icy voice bleeds through the speaker. She grunts a little, as though trying to lift the f**king spare tire.
“She’s in five-inch heels,” Lily notes. “I am impressed. I really am, but it’d be even more impressive if she knew what she was doing.”
“I can read,” Rose says. “I have the manual right here. I don’t need a man to show me how to fix a f**king tire.”
I scratch my jaw. Both Connor and Lo are glaring the hell out of me, hearing bits and pieces of both the girls’ voices without understanding what’s going on. I think Cobalt may snatch the f**king phone from my hand.
Off my gaze, he says, “Rose isn’t answering my texts.” That’s where his agitation stemmed from—he can sense when things aren’t right better than anyone.
“You want me to come out there?” I ask Lily. I’m going to anyway, but I figured that’s why she called. I motion to Lo to ask for the bill. Guess I’ll have to take my sub to-go. He flags down the waitress.
“Just in case Rose can’t fix it,” Lily says
“Doesn’t she have a husband for these situations?” Even though Connor wears suits and rides around in a limo, I’m fairly certain he’s smart enough to fix a f**king tire.
“She doesn’t want him to rub this in her face.”
I roll my eyes again.
“I can do this better than him,” Rose insists in the background. “I don’t need his help.”
Lily sighs. “I’m afraid she’s going to take an hour and then strangers are going to stop and try to help.”
“That’s why I handed you the pepper spray,” Rose tells her. She lets out an irritated scream. “Why is this so f**king heavy?”
“Maybe because it’s a f**king tire,” I deadpan.
Lily says, “You’re lucky she can’t hear you.” So I’m not on speaker then. She must turn to Rose because she adds, “And I’m not pepper spraying a nice person who tries to help us.”
“You would if they tried to rape you,” Rose retorts.
They’re so f**king dramatic. “No one is going to rape the two of you.”
Just like that, both Connor and Lo reach over the table to try and steal the phone from my hand. I hold it high above my head and lean further back.
“Bro,” Lo sneers, “I’m not messing around. Let me talk to her.”
“Is that Lo?” Lily says. “You have to come alone, Ryke. Lo will bicker with Rose and cause more problems. She’s already in a bad mood.” Anxiety pitches her voice, and I imagine her nervously biting her nails.
“I’ll come help you. Just text me the address,” I tell Lily before I hang up. Lo’s eyes flash murderously at me, and even Connor looks pissed. Rose has been putting a serious f**king wall up between them lately. But they have a strange relationship already, filled with mind games that I can’t keep up with.
“The girls have a flat tire,” I explain. “Lily said Rose didn’t want you there.” I nod to Connor. “And since you get on Rose’s last f**king nerve…” I nod to Lo. “She doesn’t want you there either.” I stand and open my wallet, throwing a hundred dollar bill down. “I’ll drive.”
There’s no way I wouldn’t bring Connor and Lo with me.
That’s his wife and his fiancée.
I’m just the manual f**king labor.
* * *
When we arrive, Rose is crouched down beside the back right tire, the treads unraveled and the rubber flat, like they popped it somehow. She inspects the tire from a distance, careful not to grease her hands. Not because she’s a f**king girl but because Rose is OCD. She freaks when a layer of dirt crusts beneath her nails.
She’s also treating her black dress like it’s a living creature she hopes to protect. That’s not entirely right. If she had to pick between nurturing a stranded cat or saving a purse from the rain, she’d choose the f**king purse. She rests her ass on her ankles, supported by heels, very aware not to touch the ground and ruin her clothes.
I park the car behind her Escalade. The back road is quiet, no houses around, just one lane towards a hill, trees and grass. Lo climbs out first, heading towards Lily who unsurprisingly bites her nails and flips through an instruction manual, a canister of pepper spray in her back pocket.
The minute she sees him, her whole body lifts, and my brother—he wears a smile that’s rare in anyone else’s presence but hers. I’ve never really seen love until I saw them together, truly.
They kiss, and I go to help Rose just as Connor shuts his car door.
Lo has to say something. “This is the progress you made?” he asks Rose. “I thought you were supposed to be Wonder Woman.”
She huffs, her cheeks reddening with anger. “Not now, Loren.”
“How many geniuses does it take to change a tire?” Lo taunts with a smile. Lily punches him in the shoulder, and he mock winces. He rubs his arm. “That hurt, love.”
“Be nice.”
He kisses her temple. “I’m just happy you’re okay.”
This causes her to smile again. It’s cute. All of it. But it’s also annoying the hell out of me because I think of Daisy. Normally she’d be here too. Normally she’d be standing over my shoulder, peering at the car and helping me out.
Instead, I know I’m going to have to jack the Escalade by my f**king self and put in the spare. The couples are paired off, and I’m left alone this time.
Maybe a year ago, I would have been used to being the fifth wheel.
Not anymore.
Now it’s frustrating.
I don’t take Rose away from inspecting the underbelly of the car from afar. I let Connor do that.
He towers over her, six-foot-four, his hands in his pockets. “If you’re trying to prove a point that you’re better than me, you do realize that I wouldn’t have tried to change the tire myself,” he tells her. “I would have been smart enough to call a tow truck.”
She shoots him a withering glare. “Don’t make this about you, Richard.”
“You made it about me the moment you didn’t want me here.” He grabs her wrist and pulls her to her feet with strong force.
She straightens out her dress, fire still in her eyes. I bend down and start working on replacing the flat, but they’re close enough that I hear their whole conversation.
“What are you scared of?” Connor asks her with a frown.
“Je n’ai pas peur,” Rose replies in fluent French. I translate easily: I’m not scared.
I act like I can’t understand them. They think I’m just as clueless about the foreign language as Lily and Lo, but I’ve been fluent since I was a little kid. I just don’t feel like explaining why I know French to anyone. It’s easier to ignore it.
“Alors, dites-moi ce qui ne va pas,” he says. Then tell me what’s wrong.
Rose jerks her hand away from him and raises her chin. “I wanted to do it myself.”
“It’s more than that,” he says. “You and I both know this isn’t about a tire. You’ve been shutting me out for weeks.”
“If you’re so smart, shouldn’t you be able to figure out why?” She crosses her arms in challenge.