constantly. It was getting old.
The tension I may or may not have imagined cleared once the boys left the room, and Violet grabbed Candy and me by the arm. “Come on, girls. I’m making daiquiris in the blender, except the blender kind of scares me so I need one of you to hit the button.”
Candy shook her head. “Step aside, Vi. I got this.”
Violet beamed and turned to me. “What are you drinking tonight, Kelsey?”
“Soda. I just got my car back from the squirrel incident.”
“You’re no fun!” Violet pouted. “Didn’t Ryan drive?”
“Yes, but if I know Ryan, I’ll be driving home.”
Truth be told, it felt good to have an excuse not to drink. Cocktails with a thousand parts alcohol and two parts strawberry-flavored ice only served one purpose. I already felt like so many things were slipping out of my control. I didn’t need my presence of mind to be one of them.
Candy glanced over her shoulder as she poured way too much rum into the blender. “I think Sober Sally should be made to schlep ice with your boy toy, Vi.”
As if on cue, the door opened and David stuck his head inside. “Hey, Violet? Want to hand me another couple of bags?”
“I’ll get it, Vi,” I said. I felt like I needed to ask David something. I wasn’t sure what. But I knew I didn’t want an audience.
David took the ice from me when I got to the door, but I followed him outside anyway. As he set the bags on top of the ones he’d brought before, I found myself blurting another question at him. “So why did you get rid of your car?”
He didn’t look at me as he broke one of the bags open, but he made that sound again, the half sigh, half snort, that he’d made when I’d asked about his father. “Things change,” he said.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I mean, look at you, Kelse.” He straightened and stared at me in disbelief, scratching his head. “Take a look at yourself if you want to know what I mean. You never used to wear dresses, or all that shit on your face. You hated parties and girls who walked around with fancy designer purses. And didn’t you tell me once that Tiffany jewelry was an experiment to see how many morons would overpay for a bracelet? ’Cause if I’m not mistaken . . .” He reached out and held up my wrist, his cold hand sending a jolt through me.
I yanked my arm back and wrapped my other hand around the silver toggle bracelet. “Ryan gave it to me,” I said defensively.
“I’m sure he did.” He ripped open a bag of ice almost violently and sent it clattering into the cooler. “I mean, I’d ask if you want to go throw some balls around, but I wouldn’t want you to break a nail or anything.”
My fingers tightened until I felt the links of my bracelet imprinting on my skin. “What. Is. Your. Problem.” My voice came out in a low growl, but it didn’t seem to faze David at all. He closed the lid to the cooler and sat on it, arms taut at his sides. His eyes were challenging, but something else flickered behind those long lashes, something that scared me even more. Like he’d looked inside me, and hated what he saw.
“Heard you got drunk and wrecked your car. Very responsible of you, Kelse.”
Heat flashed through my skin and I swallowed hard. “That’s not what happened!” I said before I could stop myself.
His expression didn’t change. “Then what did?”
I looked away, twisting furiously at my bracelet. He’d heard the lie I’d sold my friends. And worse, he believed it.
“What does any of this have to do with what I asked you?”
David’s eyes roved over me. Assessing. Judging. Then he held up his hands. “A year’s gone by. A lot of things are different. That’s all I was trying to say.”
I stepped toward him, my jaw clenched and my hand still clutching my wrist. I was sure I’d breathe fire if I picked up enough momentum. “What the hell are you even doing here?”
To my surprise, the condescension on his face disappeared. His eyes darkened and his lips turned down until he looked heartbreakingly sad.
“I don’t know.”
A noise from the ground below made my head snap to the left. Ryan and Matt had emerged from the sliding glass doors that led from the basement into the backyard, lugging cases of beer and