The Hating Season (Seasons #2) - K.A.Linde Page 0,61

know is that I hurt him by saying it, and then he brought Poppy to hurt me back. And it worked. I don’t want to like him.” I glanced down at the ground and shrugged. “I’m still married, for fuck’s sake. This is the last thing I need.”

Lark let out of a long breath. “Okay. Okay. It’ll be all right. We can figure this out. You can hang with me and Sam. We don’t have to worry about Court or Poppy or anything.”

I shook my head. “No, I think I’m just going to go home.”

“English…”

“It’s for the better.”

Lark sighed. “I can go with you. You shouldn’t be alone. You’ve gone through a lot.”

“You can’t leave your oldest friend’s wedding reception.” I laughed softly and held my hand out. “Stay. Have a good time. I’ll be fine.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive,” I lied.

Lark dragged me in for a hug and promised to check up on me later. Then, I walked the perimeter of the room toward the exit. I took one last look over my shoulder and found Court dancing suggestively with Poppy. I cringed, hating that I felt anything at all, and then left the reception behind.

23

Court

“Come to the restroom with me,” Poppy said. Her arms dangled around my neck. Her eyes were wide, pupils blasted out until they were nearly indistinguishable from her dark irises.

“It’s barely been an hour,” I told her.

She tightened her lips, that euphoria heading straight into irritability. She was coming down from her high. “I just need a little more.”

“Poppy…”

“If you won’t go with me, then I’ll go alone,” she snapped.

“How much have you had today?”

Jesus, I was policing her. But it’d been a while since I was around someone whose drug use worried me. No wonder she’d been in and out of rehab so much.

“Who the fuck cares?” She ripped herself away from me. “I’ll be back.”

I ground my teeth in frustration. What a nightmare. Why had I listened to Camden? So much for choosing someone hot with no baggage. I was beginning to think that didn’t exist.

A hand latched on to mine—hard. I whipped around to snap at Poppy, but it wasn’t Poppy.

“Lark?” I asked in surprise.

She looked furious. Beyond furious. In fact, I didn’t think I’d ever seen her look like this before. Like she might cut off my balls and force me to eat them for breakfast.

“We need to talk,” she growled low.

“About what?”

She narrowed her eyes. “I think you know.”

English.

She wanted to talk about English. So, that meant that Anna had finally told her what had happened between us. Great. Just what I wanted to deal with.

“I don’t think so.” I tried to extract my arm from hers, but she didn’t release me.

“Oh no, this wasn’t a suggestion.”

“Lark, it’s whatever. She made her point clear. To be honest, I don’t want to rehash it with you.”

“You fucking idiot,” she snapped at me.

I jolted back. I hadn’t heard Lark talk like that in… literal years. She was so professional. There was a reason she was my mother’s deputy campaign manager. She knew how to get shit done. And now, she had her sights set on me.

“I’m not my brother,” I huffed. “Your anger doesn’t turn me into a sad puppy dog that makes me want to make it all better.”

“Maybe it should! Can’t you think about someone other than yourself for one minute?”

“When has that ever helped me before?”

She shook her head at me. “You’re just proving her right. You are a train wreck. The playboy train wreck of the Upper East Side. And that is all you’ll ever be.”

I ground my teeth together. That wasn’t even fucking true. I should just let her believe it. What the fuck did it matter to me? She was goading me. But it worked.

“Fine. You have until Poppy comes back,” I said and then strode off the dance floor.

“What exactly are you doing with English, Court?” Lark asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Currently, I am doing nothing with her. As you can see, I brought a date.”

“Yeah. On purpose, to hurt her!”

I narrowed my eyes. “You don’t know my motives. She was the one who said that this wasn’t happening. Neither of you can blame me for moving on.”

“Is that what you think you’re doing? Showing up here with Poppy Arlington and dancing like you’re going to fuck her on the dance floor?” Lark glared at me. “I’ve put up with a lot of crap from Kensington men in my life, but honestly, this takes