The Punk and the Plaything (When Rivals Play #3) - B.B. Reid Page 0,120

eagerness to get me to stay. I would have thought she’d be happier if she never saw me again. “It would be pretty hard to prove that my father intends to marry me off against my will. I’d need concrete evidence.”

Four squeezed my hands, determination filling her big brown eyes. “Then get some.”

I suddenly felt like I’d been hit with a thunderbolt and brought back to life stronger than ever. I never realized how much I’d given up by giving up. I’d alienated good people while allowing bad ones to push me around. No more.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!” Lou shouted before I could respond to Four. She’d suddenly appeared next to us, her gaze moving back and forth between us. I hadn’t realized until now that Four and I had stopped skating. We now stood off to the side, still standing close and still holding hands. “I spent two hours on the phone convincing Jamie that you two weren’t going to run off together after you kissed, and here I find you looking like you’re about to do it again!”

Shock and guilt had Four and me pulling away from each other and carefully swiveling on our skates to face Lou.

“Jamie told you?” Four questioned, looking peeved.

“About your little foursome in the science lab? Yeah, he told me. I’m his bestie, duh.” She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.

What a brat.

“It wasn’t a foursome,” I argued. “We didn’t have sex with each other.”

Lou waved me off. “Potatoes, po-tah-toes.” The look she gave us was stern. “What did I just walk in on?”

“Nothing,” Four answered sighing. “We were just talking.”

“Great,” Lou chirped. “Then fill me in.”

“We were talking about why you told Jamie about Sean,” Four snapped.

I blinked in confusion because that definitely wasn’t what we were discussing—far from it—and Lou was right… I did want to kiss Four if only to thank her for helping me see. Besides, who the hell was Sean, and what did he have to do with Jamie?

“I didn’t,” Lou denied. “Jamie already knew. I just told him that you knew, too. Oh!” She snapped her fingers. “And that Wren and Ever might be brothers.”

“Whoa!” I interrupted before Four could lay into Lou. It was a good thing too because that would be the fight of the century. “What are you guys talking about?” My gaze darted back and forth between them.

“Long story,” Four and Lou said at the same time. They immediately returned to glaring at one another. I almost laughed because one would think they were sisters the way they constantly fought.

“Well, then, I guess you better start from the beginning.”

It was dark and pretty late when we stumbled onto the beach a few hours later. The things Lou and Four divulged when we’d gone back to the hotel had me reaching for the whiskey Four had snuck out of the manor. I couldn’t stop giggling at the name she’d given the McNamara’s mansion.

Apparently, Ever wasn’t a McNamara at all.

He was a Kelly.

And he didn’t know that his biological father was still alive.

He’d also been a very bad boy joining Exiled to find his mom. I’d glimpsed the tattoo on his back once or twice but didn’t know and hadn’t cared what it meant. I thought his mom leaving was his only demon and was too wrapped up in my own to ask.

Some friend I was.

Unlike Jamie… he’d risked his life for his friends. And all the while, I’d been hating him without ever knowing how close I’d come to losing him. I wasn’t the only one with secrets, after all.

At least now I knew where the hell Wren and Lou had come from. From the outside, it seemed like they’d just popped up one day and fit themselves right into our lives. And oh, how well they fit. As often as Lou made me want to pull out my hair, I couldn’t imagine life without her challenging me every step of the way. Wren was too much like a steel vault. I couldn’t get a detailed reading, but I had the feeling he was a good guy. He had to be after caring for Lou for years while believing they could never be. If Wren and Lou could beat the insurmountable odds they once had stacked against them, then maybe Jamie and I could have too if I hadn’t planned to leave Blackwood Keep forever.

As we approached the familiar blue beach house on stilts where Vaughn held all his parties