I changed into a pair of running shorts and a sweatshirt before dropping onto the floor and rooting through my backpack for my phone to text Leo. But, when my hand found my sketch pad, I knew there was something else I had to do.
After sending Leo a simple text telling him I wouldn’t be able to make lunch and would explain later, I opened to a fresh sheet of paper and got to work.
An indeterminate amount of time passed, but when I was done, I’d drawn a man who looked more like a statue than a man. He stood tall, his shoulders back and his chin lifted. His clenched fists were the only sign of emotion. Every inch of him was the color of polished silver, making his outsides appear as cold and unyielding as his insides.
He was hard.
He was merciless.
He was Tristin.
Chapter Twelve
Thea
My procrastination had reached a whole new level of ridiculous.
Instead of having Petra drive me home after binging the entire first season of Stranger Things, I slept on her couch and only stopped off at the mansion this morning to shower and change clothes. I knew I needed to tell Leo what happened with Vincent and Tristin, but I really didn’t want to. Especially when he was already dealing with the fallout of his three-game suspension. Not that I knew what that fallout was, since I’d blown him off all day yesterday.
Ugh. We were only a few days into this whole dating thing, and I was already fucking it up. In my defense, though, most new relationships didn’t have the added pressures of calculating fathers and asshole half-brothers. Not to mention the whole living together thing.
It was a lot.
I didn’t do well with overwhelming. I had a tendency to shut down and run—or ride my bike—away. And procrastinate the things I didn’t want to deal with. Right now, that included telling Leo that I might be sent packing before our relationship even had a chance to get off the ground.
My classes and shift at The Grind passed without incident, and I arrived back at the mansion feeling apprehensive. I already knew Leo wouldn’t be home until late, but I had no idea what Vincent’s schedule was for the day.
So, instead of staying inside and risk bumping into him, I took my homework out to the gazebo after dinner. Despite my desire to add studying for French to the list of things I was putting off, I forced myself to start there.
And it was just as painful as I’d expected. Why hadn’t I chosen Spanish for my foreign language credits, like every other sane college student? I was nowhere close to fluent, but at least I knew more than the alphabet and how to count. Because that was the extent of my current knowledge of the French language.
“I would tell you not to work so hard, but that would be a bit hypocritical of me.”
I lifted my head to find none other than Hayle Sharpe climbing the steps of the gazebo. “Wow,” I said dryly. “Does this mean you’re talking to me again?”
He sat on the sofa across from mine and stretched his arms across the back. “Did I ever stop?”
“Oh, please. You’ve been avoiding me for almost two weeks, and we both know it.”
“Maybe you’re right.” He graced me with the smallest of grins. “But it’s only because I was in a mood, and I didn’t want to subject you to it.”
“A mood” might have been a bit of an understatement, considering it was on my list of things to fix. But the fact that Hayle was here with me now was a good sign. Maybe I’d get to check him off sooner than expected.
“What are you working on?” he asked.
“French.” A sudden thought occurred to me. “Please tell me you’re an expert on the subject, because I could really use a tutor.”
“Sorry. I’m taking Mandarin.”
“Mandarin? Is that even offered at Harbor U?”
“Technically, no.” He shot me a cocky grin. “But I got special permission to take online courses from a foreign language institute.”
“Of course, you did.” Such an overachiever. “Well, if you know anyone who excels at French, send them my way. I suck at this class.”
“Have you tried Extra Credit?”
“I don’t think the professor offers it, but I guess I can ask.”
He laughed. “No, Extra Credit is the name of an app. You don’t know about it?”
“No...”
His expression brightened with excitement. “It’s genius. It allows struggling students to connect with other students who already took and aced a particular course. There are free and paid tutoring options, and you can either meet in person or use the private messaging feature to communicate.
“You can also connect with experts in different fields worldwide. For instance, I was writing a paper on the phenomenon of women being accused of being witches in the seventeenth century for a history class last year and reached out to a historian who specializes in the Salem witch trials. She was able to hook me up with all kinds of sources I never would have found on my own. Pretty cool, huh?”
I gaped at him. I didn’t know if I’d ever heard him string so many words together at one time. “You wrote a paper on witches?”
“Yeah. It’s a fascinating subject. The accusations rose from preconceived notions of the role of women in the community combined with rising tensions from a number of sources. I really enjoyed reading about it.”
Who was this animated guy, and what did he do with his typically apathetic attitude?
“Well, thanks. I’ll have to check out the app.”
“I can’t believe you haven’t heard of it. Cole Reid made a huge splash a couple of years ago when he launched it.”
“Who?”
His mouth dropped open. “You haven’t heard of Cole Reid either? The developer of the Strike dating app?”
“I mean, I’ve heard of Strike, but that’s about it.”
“He’s developed some of the most innovative apps of the last decade and is a true self-made millionaire, if not billionaire by now. Download the Queen of Hearts app too. It’s the best avatar creation app out there, and rumor is, it was inspired by his wife, Emma.”
“If I’m not mistaken, you have a man crush on this guy.”
Hayle laughed. “Yeah, because he’s freaking smart. I bet if you look up his picture online, you’ll have a real crush on him.”
I couldn’t resist grinning back at him. “I might have to take you up on that. Were you visiting Lily?” I asked. He wasn’t generally an outdoorsy guy. Which meant, if he’d been taking the trail that went past the gazebo, it was most likely because he’d gone to visit his mother.
I still found it hard to believe that Vincent had built his ex-wife a house on the property. He’d made sure he’d been granted full custody of all three of his sons. So, what had inspired him to keep the mother of only one of them close?
It was a puzzle, but undoubtedly the least important of the ones to be solved.
“Yeah.” Hayle lifted a hand to push that perpetually unruly lock of hair off his forehead. “She keeps insisting on having Tristin and Leo over for dinner, and I don’t know how to break it to her that it’ll never happen.”
I wanted to argue that it was possible, but after last night, I had to agree with him. Tristin wasn’t setting foot on Sharpe land unless flying monkeys kidnapped him and dumped him here. Or, maybe, if there was a wizard involved. But I didn’t see either happening.