Make My Move (Hannaford Prep #5) - J. Bree Page 0,76

food to stay busy. Lips thanks me, but I can't open my mouth right now without saying something, so I just give her a curt nod. Avery glares at me, then Ash, before finally settling her ire on her Harley, who is still staring at Lips with a mix of fury and writhing jealousy.

We eat in complete silence.

It's awkward as fuck and I kind of want to die. My fingers itch for a blunt and the beer Avery is letting me drink barely touches the sides... it's not enough. Fuck, whiskey straight from the bottle wouldn't be enough right now.

Harley waits until every last one of us is done before he strikes. “I didn’t peg you for a liar.”

Ash laughs and throws a napkin at him. “Of course she’s a liar. If you chose to believe anything she’s said that’s your own fucking insanity.”

Jesus Christ.

I take a second to finish off my beer and then I grab Harley's unopened bottle. If I have to sit here through this then I'm going to have a buzz, goddammit.

Lips pulls herself up into a fighting pose if I ever did see one and, I'm not going to lie, I start to fucking sweat for Harley. “What is up your ass now, Arbour?”

He doesn't see it at all, too fucking butt-hurt about this entire situation. “You. You lied about being in danger, you lied about hating the other Mounty, and now you’ve gone and fucked him. I hope the money was worth it.”

The girls share a look across the table and then Ash catches my eye.

That look tells me more than it should, but I still don't know what the fuck is going on. Is Avery cool with her fucking the Mounty? Was she in on the planning? Jesus fucking Christ.

“Uh no, I didn’t. He threw himself at me and I said no,” Lips says, her voice still just a little too calm.

Harley snorts at her, pushes out of his chair, and stalks over to the fridge to grab another beer. Avery stands to start cleaning up our dishes, another red flag, and snaps, “What does it matter to you if she did fuck him?”

He shrugs casually but the sneer stays fixed to his face. “You said you didn’t want to fuck any guy at Hannaford but you made an exception for him.”

Ash is watching Avery with narrowed eyes. There's very fucking clearly something going on and if Harley wasn’t so pissed, he’d notice the cleaning, too.

“I didn’t fuck him. I kind of thought you’d believed me over the gossiping bitches but clearly I was wrong,” Lips says through clenched teeth.

Harley slams the beer bottle on the bench and moves to stand over her. Even though she's fucking tiny, she doesn't back down an inch, her shoulders rolling back and her jaw tight; it's fucking hot to watch but I can't enjoy it because of how fucking... jumpy she is.

“He handed in proof. He’s been declared the winner and he gets the sweep. All two million dollars of it.”

All of the color drains from her face.

All of the air gets sucked out of the room. All I can see on her face is pure panic and not the kind you get when you're caught in a lie, nope, this is the life-or-death kind.

Ash goes into high alert instantly, shifting to his feet with his fists clenched like he's going to punch his way out of whatever the fuck is going on.

I put the second beer down because, apparently, now isn't the time for a buzz.

“Right. This is bad.” Avery’s voice is thready and high-pitched, her own panic coming through. Harley looks like he's going to put his fucking foot even further in his fucking mouth, so I do the right fucking thing and throw myself under the bus for him.

I'm a fucking saint today.

“So some asshole Mounty guy ends up with the money, what does it matter? With the bet over with Lips won’t be followed around anymore. We should have a word with him about the money. He should really split it with you.”

Apparently, even that is the wrong thing to say.

“She didn’t fuck him! Get your heads out of your fucking asses and believe us both. We’re fucked because of that asshole’s lie!” Avery screeches at me and then Lips fucking collapses to the ground without a word.

I scramble to my feet to check she's breathing because, fuck, maybe someone poisoned her and I’m going to fucking lose her before I ever