“It’s a long story,” I hedged. I didn’t want to do this more than once.
“Where’s Dad?” Tristin asked.
“On his way.”
“And, Tobias?”
Even though Tristin had posed the question, Leo looked at me. “I told him that we were having a family-only get together with Hayle’s mom.” He glanced back toward the greenhouse, like Hayle and Lily might suddenly appear. “Where is—”
“Lily’s bedroom,” Tristin answered, interrupting the question. “She, uh, needed to rest.”
Leo narrowed his eyes on his brother. “You’re acting strange. Well, stranger than usual.”
“Pretty sure it’s contagious,” Tristin muttered.
Leo ignored his response and got to work disinfecting my cuts and covering them with bandages. He opened his mouth several times but closed it again before any more questions could pop out. I appreciated his restraint, though I was too dazed to tell him so.
After finishing the first aid, he helped me slip into one of his sweatshirts and a pair of gym shorts while his brother turned his head the other direction. Normally, it probably would have been a good time for an uncomfortable joke about them both having seen me naked. If there was ever a good time for that kind of joke.
Hayle appeared—alone, thankfully—a few minutes later, a deflated version of how he’d started the day. His skin was pale almost to the point of looking sallow, his deep brown eyes were bleak, and his white button-down shirt was as rumpled as his hair. It had probably only been fifteen minutes since he’d taken Lily away from the greenhouse, but it might as well have been days.
When he saw me nestled between Tristin and Leo on the couch, he sighed tiredly. “She wasn’t going to hurt you.”
My stomach churned with dread at his words. Hayle was taking his mother’s side—I knew it as surely as I knew I loved to procrastinate. No matter what I said from here on out, I was going to transform into the villain in his eyes.
All of the progress he and his brothers had made over these last few weeks would be lost. Because Leo and Tristin would stand by me. I could see it all playing out in my head. Hayle would shut himself off from all three of us, setting himself apart by choice. Just like he always had.
And I wasn’t sure if there was a damn thing I could do to stop it.
Chapter Four
Thea
“Someone better tell me what the hell is going on.” Vincent had only made it halfway through the threshold before voicing the demand. His expression was stoic, but it was impossible to miss the annoyance in his demeanor.
Tristin gestured to the only chair in the small living room. “Dad, why don’t you have a seat?”
So, he was taking control again. I was good with that.
Vincent sat before looking between each of us. “Well?”
Leo lightly gripped my thigh. “You’re up.”
I wiped my clammy hands on my borrowed shorts and searched for something to focus on other than Vincent across from me. My gaze snagged on a framed photograph of a bee perched on a bright yellow flower. That would have to do.
“It started with my mother’s silver shoes. Hayle mentioned Lily used to have a pair just like them, and then Susan told me my mother had them with her the day she died. I was curious and wanted to see if Lily knew anything about them.”
I went on to describe how I’d showed up at the cottage, and when no one answered the door, I’d wandered out to the greenhouse. How I’d been admiring the flowers when I spotted the black hoodie—my black hoodie—shoved into one of the shelves.
“Why would Lily have taken your hoodie?” Leo asked, clearly not rising to my level of natural suspicion.
“She thinks Mom sabotaged Bodie’s car,” Hayle answered coldly, and in spite of myself, I turned my head to look at him. He stood with his back against the wall, his arms crossed over his chest. And he was scowling. Not at me, exactly, but at the situation.
“How would she have even known about Bodie’s involvement in setting me up?” Tristin asked. He looked at Hayle. “Did you tell her?”
“No,” Leo replied instead, understanding seeming to dawn on him all at once. “Thea and I told her.” He glanced down at me, and I nodded for him to continue. “When we got back to the house after talking to Violet and that sorority girl who was involved, Lily was there. We told her and Hayle