Page 28 of Ruthless Edge

"Emma." Her voice goes up. "That's not a compliment. That is so not a compliment. Her little sister. Like you're twelve. Like you're dressed for middle school."

I'd known that, but I told myself it was possible I misunderstood, because fully landing on what it actually meant would have meant feeling it, and I didn't have the space to feel it right there with Knox across from me while he tried to ask me about the venue.

I keep going. Laura's stories. Every conversation Knox tried to start about the auction was interrupted by a memory she shared with him, away games and parties and things they'd done together, all of it delivered cheerfully to remind me of the exact shape of their history. The drink I didn't touch. And then the food.

"She pushed the whole appetizer plate across the table to me," I say. "And she said—" I stop.

"What did she say?"

"She said eat up. I must be hungry after all that dancing."

Paige is silent.

Then responds, "That bitch."

It comes out completely flat. Just a statement of fact. And something about hearing it said out loud, plain and direct, makes everything I've been holding at a slight remove come back into my body all at once. Small and specific and located somewhere in the center of my chest where I've been ignoring it for the last twenty minutes.

"I mean," I start.

"No, Em. Listen to me." Paige's hands have tightened on the wheel slightly. "That's a complete set. The drink, the clothes, the food. That's not one person having a bad night. That's one person running a very specific routine." She glances at me. "She knew exactly what she was doing."

I know. I've known since roughly the second comment, at least some part of me did. I just didn't let myself accept it because it meant sitting at that table knowing what was happening and doing nothing, and that is not who I am. Except apparently tonight it is.

"What did Knox do?" Paige asks. The question is careful. She's not asking it casually.

I look out the window.

"Nothing."

Paige waits.

"He didn't make comments about my weight. He wasn't flirting with her in front of me. He kept trying to talk to me about the auction." I make myself say it plainly. "But every time Laura said something, he either didn't notice or didn't react. Every time she was draped on him, he let her. He smiled at her stories. He never made me feel like he was on my side."

"Is it possible he didn't see what she was doing?" Paige asks.

"No."

"Em—"

"Paige. Knox Carter reads rooms. He's been doing it his whole life, it's part of what makes him Knox Carter. If Laura was running that entire routine right in front of him and he sat through it, that's a choice." I keep my voice level. "The only reason you let someone behave that way is if their behavior is within a range you're okay with."

Paige doesn't argue with this.

"They're probably together," I say. "Not officially. But something. Laura didn't spend the whole night establishing that she belonged there with Knox because she was worried. She did it because she knew she could. Because Knox would let her. Because—" I stop. "Because I wasn't a threat. I've never been a threat. She was just making sure I knew that."

Paige pulls onto my street. She doesn't say anything right away, and I appreciate that too. Paige always knows when to let something sit before she responds to it.

"I was having fun tonight," I say. It comes out quieter than I meant it to. "Before all of that. I was actually having fun." I look at my hands in my lap. "I didn't want to believe he was actually having fun with me and maybe even saw me as something… someone worth being around. I just did anyway."

"I know," Paige says.

"And I'm angry at myself for that. Not at him, not at Laura. At myself."

"Em." She says it softly. "You're allowed to have fun. You're allowed to believe someone when they say something kind to you. That's not stupidity, that's just being a person."

"It’s stupidity when it's Knox Carter."

Paige puts the car in park in my driveway. She turns to look at me directly, which is a Paige thing, she does everything directly, it's one of the things I like best about her. "You've been putting so much into hating him," she says. "And I get why. I've always gotten why. But what if some of that energy went toward someone who wanted to shout to the world that they wanted to be with you? Someone who didn't come with all of this already attached?"