“I don’t know what world you’re living in,” Lo banters, “but that one sounds f**king weird.”
Ryke laughs, his eyes lightening.
“You can stay here as long as you want,” Lo professes, his voice filled with sincerity.
“Just the night,” Ryke says. “I love you and Lily, but I just can’t be around Connor for that long.”
“I thought I wouldn’t be able to withstand Rose for long either, but it’s going on ten months, and she hasn’t even killed me yet.” His arms fall to my legs, lifting me higher on his lap so our chests touch. It just happened out of the blue.
Flirting should be full of fearless advances like this.
Somewhere in our timeline together, fear has snuck in and invaded our peace. Hopefully that’ll change for good.
“Why don’t you like Connor?” Daisy asks Ryke, tearing my attention away from Loren Hale.
“He’s just annoying.”
I think we all know there’s more to the story.
“He’s cool,” Lo says easily. “I’m annoying, and somehow you like me more?”
“You’re not that f**king annoying.” He runs his hand through his hair, not explaining why Connor gets on his nerves so much.
“Is that it?” Lo wonders with pinched brows.
Ryke shakes his head. It takes him a moment to gather his thoughts. Then he says, “You let everyone see every part of you, and Connor offers a very small portion of himself. I don’t like watching you stand vulnerable in front of someone who wears more armor than you can ever have. It’s not fair, and it’s a f**king shitty thing for Connor to do to you.”
Lo lets his words sink in, and my stomach flips at the idea that Connor may hurt Lo. I never even considered it. Not once.
“I don’t mind it as much as you,” Lo tells his brother, though his forehead creases like Ryke has planted a seed. He’s never thought of it like that before. Neither have I.
“And I don’t f**king understand why that is.”
“You said that he wears armor, and I’m what—naked? I don’t think he’ll turn around and stab me…so I’m happy with our friendship.” Lo pauses and rubs his lips in contemplation, and he leaves it at that.
With the silence, I steal the remote from Lo and increase the volume of the New Year’s broadcast. “We’re here in Times Square…” the host announces cheerfully.
“Hey,” Ryke says, pelting popcorn at Daisy. A kernel hits her square in the eyeball. He doesn’t apologize. “What are you doing at your sister’s house?”
Daisy picks the popcorn out of her hair and crosses her legs. “I just decided to crash here.”
“It’s more than that,” Lo says, exchanging a concerned look with Ryke. As someone who’s been on the receiving end of their united brotherly force, it’s very hard not to succumb to their demands.
Daisy has no chance.
And while I should be all Girl Power, Team Calloway—I care about my sister too much to blindly side with her. I just hope that she won’t use the only ammunition she has against us. Lo and I had sex in the kitchen. That’s definitely something she can fling at Ryke to take the heat off her situation.
It scares me, but her wellbeing means more than sheltering our lie.
Daisy shakes her head. “I’m okay.”
“You were crying,” Lo says.
“What?” Ryke’s dark frown casts a shadow over the room.
“It was just prep school people being rude, not my close friends,” Daisy says vaguely. “The crying part was an accident…sorry.”
Ryke’s face contorts in confusion and agitation. He throws a handful of popcorn at her. I stretch across Lo to reach his brother’s chair and snatch the bag from his hands. He barely even notices that I’ve taken his snack.
“Are you seriously f**king apologizing for crying?” he growls.
“I guess so.”
Ryke shakes his head repeatedly while I munch on the popcorn and stare between them, my head whipping from side to side.
Lo digs his hand in the bag to eat some too.
“Don’t,” Ryke says.
“You didn’t cry about your friends,” Daisy states.
“I stormed in here cursing. You’re allowed to show some human emotion, Dais. I did.”
Daisy shifts again like she can’t get comfortable. She smashes a pillow on her lap, and I hold my breath, expecting her to distract Ryke right about now with our issues. She says, “Is it okay if we don’t talk about it?”
I exhale.
Ryke’s muscles constrict. He clearly doesn’t want to drop it. Daisy kicks off her boots, a little more fidgety than I’ve last seen her. She eyes the door. I imagine my fearless sister speeding down the dark roads on her motorcycle.
Death comes next.
“Daisy,” I say in warning.
“You’re not leaving,” Lo tells her.
I nod in agreement. “We all want you here.”
“I saw ice cream in the fridge,” Ryke says as he stands. “I can make you a bowl.”
“I have a photo shoot—”
“Run with me tomorrow morning.”
Okaaayy…that sounded more like a proposition for a date, but everything about Ryke is kind of sexual. The way he stands, the way he moves. I bet he thinks about sex just as often as me too.
“Sounds like a date,” Daisy says exactly what I was thinking. I can’t tell if she’s hoping it is. She’s sixteen. He’s twenty-three. She can have a crush on him, but it can’t progress further than that.
I rest my palms on Lo’s chest, his muscles hard as a rock, too rigid right now.
Ryke tenses. “It’s not, Calloway. I run with Lo all the time, and we’re just brothers.”
“So I’m like your sister then?” she asks.
Good question, I think, shoveling more popcorn in my mouth.
His face darkens. “No.”
“Then what am I?”
“My f**king friend.” His eyebrows rise. “Any more questions?”
She smiles weakly. “That’s it.”
“I’m going to get you a bowl of ice cream,” he says. “Okay?”
“Yeah.” She bites her lip and he rounds the corner. When he disappears, both Lo and I glance back at Daisy who has moved on to twisting the button in the pillow.
“Thanks,” Lo whispers to her, “for not ratting us out.”
“Even though you ratted me out,” she finishes. She’s too smart for us.
His eyes narrow. “That’s different.”
“I hope it is,” she whispers back.
“It is,” he says adamantly. “You’re doing the right thing.”
She nods, and then Ryke returns with a bowl of double fudge ice cream. He places it in her hands and then brushes the popcorn off the cushion before sitting next to her.
Lo kisses my cheek, tearing my gaze off them and onto him. I like this view better.
I smile. “Do you think Rose is swiping her V-card tonight?”
“Most definitely.”
We all stay quiet as we watch a few bands perform in Times Square. I rest my head on Lo’s shoulder, and thirty minutes must past before noises escalate…from outside.
“He was not flirting with me. Your definition is wrong.”
That is one-hundred percent Rose’s fierce voice.