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The bed where I’m currently sandwiched between Tate and Callan. At least I’m under the blankets, so I’m not just naked, but Catherine locks eyes with me, glances at Callan and Tate, and then her eyes fly open wide.
“Oh. Oh, I’m so sorry. I should—I’ll just—” She jerks her thumb in the direction of the door and hurries out.
I don’t even move until the sound of the front door slamming closed echoes through the cabin.
“Fuck,” I groan, sitting up and putting my head in my hands. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.”
“Do you think she… knows what’s happening here?” Tate asks.
“How could she not?” I shoot back. “There’s not a lot of innocent reasons for me to be in bed with two guys.”
Ares comes out of the bathroom, frowning. “Was that Catherine?”
“Yes,” I groan. “She said something about fixing the hot water heater?”
“Shit. Fuck, I’m so sorry. I messaged her yesterday about the issue with the hot water and she said she’d stop by sometime this morning to look at it. I completely forgot after last night. Fuck. What did she see?”
“Brynn in bed with us,” Callan replies softly.
“And now the whole town is going to know that I was in bed with two guys.” Actually three, but since she didn’t see Ares, maybe she won’t connect those dots. That would be literally the smallest mercy possible right now.
“That seems like an exaggeration,” Tate says. “You think the whole town is going to know just because one lady saw us?”
I lift my head to look at him at the same time as Ares grimaces. “That was Catherine Peters,” Ares says. “She is not one to keep her mouth shut when there’s gossip to spread. And unfortunately… this counts as juicy information for her.”
“Brynn’s a grown woman,” Callan says. “She can do what she wants.”
Ares nods. “She can. But people will have an opinion. That’s just how small towns work.”
“Fuck,” I say with feeling.
This was just supposed to be something secret and fun. A little fling to make being here more bearable, especially after the slog of getting here in the first place. But someone knowing now has really put a damper on it. All I can think about is more people finding out and having opinions and my parents sticking their noses in it.
“What should we do then?” Tate asks.
He and Callan are both looking at Ares, who looks frustrated. He scrubs his hands through his hair and sighs.
“I don’t fucking know. Reaching out to Catherine to ask her not to say anything will just make this seem even juicier to her. There’s no way she won’t want to spill it then. I don’t know how we get ahead of this.”
“We can’t,” I say. “There’s no way.”
No one seems to have any idea how to handle it. Tate and Callan aren’t from here, but I am. Even if Ares wasn’t spotted with me, the fact remains that people are going to know they’re his friends and that I was with them. Two men and me in bed together isn’t going to be the kind of story that anyone ignores.
Callan puts a hand on my shoulder and I flinch a little. “It’s going to be okay,” he says. “It’s not like any of these people really know you. And you don’t live here anymore.”
He’s right, but that doesn’t matter. My parents are going to be horrified, and even if I left and went back to Atlanta tonight, the damage would already be done. I groan, putting my face back in my hands, trying to think past the spiral of dread in my gut.
Nothing any of them say is going to make this better, and hiding out here definitely isn’t going to help. When Callan moves his hand away, I take a deep breath and push my way out of the bed.
“I need to go,” I tell them. “I should get back to my parents’ house before this gets worse.”
“Brynn…” Ares says softly. I look at him, and he looks like he wants to say something or stop me from leaving. Tate and Callan look the same, like they don’t want me to go, but staying is what caused this mess in the first place.
When none of them say anything, I just grab my clothes and get dressed so I can go.
40
BRYNN
