Tommy offered Frankie no greeting in return. He stood in the center of the room, arms crossed, his hard expression far from welcoming.
“About time,” she said, leaning back in the chair. “I’ve been waiting hours.”
“I’d have made it days if I’d known you were here.”
She arched a brow. “Your avoidance is somehow gratifying.”
He didn’t react.
The most enigmatic of the three brothers, Tommy was naturally quiet, keen-eyed, and still. Like a thought that woke her in the night and slipped away before she could catch it, leaving her unsettled, grasping warily, unsure whether it had been good or bad. He was a shadow and she had no idea what cast him.
“What are you doing here?” he asked.
“Kris spoke to me last night and despite your glowing suggestion, it doesn’t seem like he’s going to send me on my way.”
His eyes narrowed as he processed that information, so she asked, “I want to know if it weren’t for him, would you fire me? Reassign me? I lied to you as much as I lied to him. It’s not only his call. I can leave now, and he can think it was my decision.”
Tommy considered her. “You’d leave and pretend it was what you wanted?”
“If it’s what you want.” She wasn’t stupid. Kris valued his brother’s opinion as highly as his own. If Tommy resented her, Kris would never be settled with her in the palace.
“A friend should never do what you’ve done.”
She inclined her head in acknowledgement.
“Lie for years about something so significant.” His words were bitter, an accusation aimed at her poor excuse at friendship. Then, as she caught the hooded look in his blue eyes, it hit her in a moment of clarity that Tommy was a target for his own bitterness.
“Oh, Tommy.” She ran a hand over her eyes. Damn it. This conversation was not going to end the way she’d planned.
He said nothing. Just stood watching her coldly.
“This is about Jonah.”
He flinched at his best friend’s name, raising one arm to half-cover his chest. A second later, he hurled it back to his side. “What is about him?”
“You’re angry at me for hurting Kris—just like you’re angry at yourself for lying to Jonah. You don’t think you deserve to be forgiven, so you don’t intend to forgive me either.”
His fingers started tapping a fast beat against his leg. “He’s got nothing to do with this.”
“Haven’t you been friends for like, twenty years?”
His jaw slid. His fingers kept tapping.
When she’d first moved to Sage Haven, she’d met Tommy with Jonah by his side. Kris had later explained that Jonah had moved next door as a boy and gravitated to Tommy immediately out of the three brothers. Strange, since Jonah was literally the sweetest person in existence—and Tommy had always been on the cold side of reserved. Despite their differences, the friendship went both ways.
At least, it had until recently.
“Have you contacted him?” she asked, despite knowing that he hadn’t. “He’ll be worried sick.”
Tommy made a sound of derisive disbelief.
“He would’ve been worried sick within an hour of you leaving the Haven,” she snapped. “Unlike me, he didn’t secretly know the truth this whole time. Discovering his oldest friend is a prince won’t have been easy to get his head around—but you’ve left him to process it on his own without even calling?”
“He doesn’t want to hear from me. He told me to fuck off.” Tommy’s expression was haunted. “He’s never said that to anyone—despite far too many people who’ve deserved it.”
“He was hurt and confused. That’s what people say. Here’s some news. In order to apologize, you have to actually talk to him.”
His lip curled. “Says you.”
“I actively didn’t want Kris to know I was here. I still behaved like an asshole, but I did it on purpose.”
“You think you know what’s best for me?” His tone was scathing.
“No,” she answered. “But I have some thoughts on what isn’t—and from recent experience, I can tell you that blocking out a friend is never for the best.”
“I’m sure he’s fine.”
“That’s funny.” Absently, she adjusted her phone on the table beside her. Slid it a little closer in Tommy’s direction. “Because I know he’s not.”
A trap, those words, that bound his interest completely. Eyes flickering, he moved closer. “You’ve spoken to him.”
“It’s Jonah.” She pulled a face. “He’s an angel in a cowboy’s body. When he rings, I answer.”
“How often does he ring?” Tommy’s voice caught.
She pretended not to notice. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”