“Fucking, right.” Nothing but sarcasm passed Dorian’s lips. “It was casual like when Sloane and I were hooking up.”

He was saying the kind of shit that would lay him out. I accepted that he was with my sister, but we had a gentleman’s agreement I was never to hear about any of that shit. Like ever. “Watch yourself.”

Ignoring me, he just closed more distance. I had height on my best friend, but he had mass. The fact was even more so now because he was doing college football, and honestly, these days, I wasn’t sure I could take him. Not like before. Dorian’s eyes narrowed. “I didn’t ask if something happened between you. That much was a fucking given. What I asked was what are you going to do about it? Because something did happen, and you are in love with her.”

There was no question, only a statement.

“And I swear to God, that’s the only reason I’m not punching you out right now,” he continued, laughing a little. I was obviously testing him here. “Because shit got complicated, and your ass fell in love. I blame your continued idiocy, aka lying to us and not coming clean sooner, on that because I know what that shit does to you.”

I was sure he did with my sister. I swallowed. “I’m not in love with her. That was all a lie. We were a lie. It was fake.”

“Yeah, that’s what she said,” he stated, and I hadn’t been prepared for that.

Nor the stomach clench that came with it.

Swallowing, I studied my friend, and Dorian paced a bit before wetting his lips.

“So, how about some truth now from you?” Dorian braced his big arms. “Come on, Ares. You know, I know you.”

I’d been saved from the stupid response I know was about to come out of my mouth. The door swung open, and through it came a girl who looked like me but was shorter and wasn’t as much in her fucking feelings.

“Well, since you’re up,” my sister, Sloane, quipped, and I had to say, she didn’t appear any less pissed than she had downstairs. She started to get in my face too until Dorian shifted positions. He got the underside of her arms in the delicate way a quarterback received a pass. My buddy was just as good at that as calming my sister.

Because that’s what he did as soon as she stepped up on me, but the action definitely wasn’t for me. Things were still fucking heated between Dorian and me, and my sister was the only thing that could ever divert his attention. She was riled up, and he wanted her to feel better first and foremost.

The babys and little fighters in her direction told me that. Little fighter was his nickname for her.

“Dorian,” she warned, but she was a sucker for him too. He did calm her down, massaging her shoulders, but the dynamic of the room shifted again when my bedroom door apparently became a revolving one.

“Since we’re having a meeting.” The kid made his appearance, and fucking hell, if he hadn’t gotten bigger since I’d seen him. Bru was wearing a cutoff tee like me, and his arms fucking bulged.

I’d have asked him more questions if, I don’t know, he hadn’t been ruining my life earlier with Fawn. I almost wondered if she’d be flanking behind him, and I still had fucking questions about that.

I squeezed the bridge of my nose. “Kid—”

“Hello?” Wells’s snowy-white head popped into the room, and what the fuck? Like clockwork, Thatcher’s head appeared above him. Thatcher had the hood of his hoodie pulled up over his head, and both my friends pushed open the door fully dressed. Everyone else was in bed clothes, and even D had come in wearing lounge pants below his short coat.

I wasn’t sure where my friends had headed after I’d been sent to my room, but I got an indicator when Dorian asked why Thatcher and Wells were still here. Apparently, they’d all gone home to pack, and Thatcher shrugged.

“We came back for some answers. The kid let us in,” he said, then tossed his huge ass on my bed. The fucker launched himself, shoes and all, and I growled.

“Please. Make yourself at home,” I cut, and Thatcher tipped his chin.

“Don’t worry, my guy. We will.” Thatch threw his hands back behind his head while Wells joined Dorian and Sloane on the window seat. There was plenty of room since Dorian had gathered Sloane on his lap. She was wearing another one of his hoodies and sleep shorts, and though she’d come in on fire, she wasn’t talking. She had her little arms folded, mean mugging me.

My eyes lifted to the ceiling. “Why are you guys all here?”

It was a fucking town hall going on in this bitch, and all of Legacy was here, aside from Thatcher’s sister, Bow. I was sure I’d be seeing her soon since the families were spending Christmas together. She was in high school, and unlike the rest of the people in this room, she wouldn’t give me a hard time. That was just Bow, the nice one.

That wasn’t my buddies, and I knew exactly why they were here, them and Sloane and the kid. Everyone was pissed at me, but I didn’t think I’d have to deal with that tonight.

Wells smirked. “Why aren’t we here? The fuck was all that earlier tonight—”

“And by that, you mean the whole goddamn semester.” Thatcher sat up. He tugged down his hood, and his metal earring hit the light in my room. “You really thought we’d want you to fucking lie to us? You and—”

“Fawn.” The kid was coming out to play with his anger now, and I’d seen it well.

I was still trying to wrap my head around it.

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