Page 37

“Oh,” I say.

His smile goes from gentle to teasing in a split second. “I’d never try to steal you away from Ares. Ares is my best friend. But… I am pretty good at sharing.”

My face heats and my heart skips a beat at the implication there. A pulse of want moves from my chest down to my core, and I find myself turned on and wondering if we have time to do something about it before everyone wakes up, despite how weird things are.

Tate’s eyes catch mine, and I know he can tell the direction of my thoughts. He’s probably mirroring them if the way his eyes drop from mine down to my lips and then even farther down to where the curves of my breasts are very visible through the thin material of my sleep shirt.

A muffled thump from the shared bathroom shakes us out of the moment, and we look away from each other and start getting ready for the day.

There’s another thump from the bathroom and Tate calls out, “Do we need to be concerned about property damage?”

“Fuck off,” Callan grumbles through the door. He sounds even more put out than he usually is and that doesn’t bode well.

“I’d be glad to, but I have to piss,” Tate replies.

The bathroom door opens a moment later, releasing a rush of steam and the smell of masculine body wash. Callan’s eyes lock with mine for all of a second, and then he wrenches his gaze away, looking pissed off.

I have no idea what I’ve done to get even more on his bad side, so I just duck my head and go back to sorting through my clothes, pulling out an outfit for the day and refolding everything else.

Tate goes to pee and then comes back and tells me the bathroom’s all mine.

I’m very aware of the other three as I hurry through a shower and brush my teeth. I would usually take a lot more time with my routine than this. It’s usually a comfort to me to be able to break each step down and complete it, crossing it off my mental check list. But now I’m too aware of the others and the fact that they know what I’m doing in the bathroom.

I just get it all done as quickly as I can and then come out.

Callan and Ares are in our room when I do, lounging around. Neither of them make eye contact with me. Ares keeps scrolling his phone, and Callan has his sketchbook out in his lap.

As I walk past, I can see him drawing little designs. It seems like a similar thing to how I hum new songs when I need an outlet, and I wonder if all creative people have something like that.

I can definitely relate to Callan needing something to take the edge off things, but I can’t really tell him that. I’m probably one of the things he wants to stop thinking about right now, considering how he doesn’t like me at all.

“What’s the plan?” Tate asks once we’re all dressed and ready.

“We try to rent a car,” Ares says. “The weather still isn’t great, but once we get out of the sticks, the roads should be clearer. The sooner we get to Hope Falls the better.”

“Sounds good to me. Maybe whoever’s downstairs will be good enough to tell us where to go.”

No one has any objections to that, so we head downstairs with our stuff. Tate talks to the clerk behind the desk while I head for the breakfast buffet that’s been laid out. I grab a bagel and some fruit eating it quickly while Tate and Ares handle checking us out and figuring out where we need to go.

Luckily, the car rental place is just down the block, and it’s not snowing anymore.

The sidewalk is still full of snow and slush, but we pick our way across it to the car rental place and head in.

Our luck holds, and we’re able to rent a car easily enough.

“You’ll want to be careful until you hit the interstate,” the lady behind the desk warns. “It’s still pretty nasty out there.”

“Will do,” Tate says. “Thank you so much.”

He follows another worker out to where our car is parked and then brings it around to the front doors so that we can load up our stuff and climb in.

Something lightens in all of us once we’re buckled in and on our way. Like finally this trip from hell might be coming to an end and we can actually make some real progress at getting to Hope Falls.

“Seatbelts,” Tate says, adjusting his mirrors.

“Yeah, okay, Mom,” Ares mutters.

Tate just gives him a look and starts us heading north.