“Regrets. All of them,” I groaned as I grabbed the condom and wrapper and looked for somewhere to dispose of them. But there wasn’t a trash in the room.
I left them wrapped in a Kleenex, then found my bag stuffed into a corner of the room and searched for underwear and comfy shorts to put on before stumbling into the hall.
My eyes about bugged out of my head when I saw Hunter lying face down on the hallway floor. Completely. Naked. Holding a small trash can out in front of him.
“Oh my—” I tried to hurry toward him, but, you know, I was dying a thousand deaths that guaranteed I would never drink again. “Hunt—” My gasp filled the narrow hallway when I got close enough to see the side of his face that was turned up.
“Oh my gosh, that’s Beau Dixon’s ass,” I whispered in horror as I averted my eyes and sidestepped around him.
I walked as fast as my pounding head allowed down the stairs and into the main area of the cabin. My shoulders sagging when I saw Hunter standing in the kitchen, bent over the island and holding his head.
“Hunter.”
He slowly rolled his head my way and then pushed up to offer me an aching grin. “Morning, beautiful.”
“Your brother is upstairs. Naked.”
He reared back and then flinched. One half of his face scrunching up tight like he was in as much pain as I was. “He what?”
“Beau. Hallway. Naked.”
“The hell,” he mumbled as he started that way. Stopping to pass his lips across my shoulder before climbing the stairs.
Less than a minute later, there was a loud smack followed by Beau’s outraged, “The fuck?”
Hunter looked all kinds of proud of himself when he started back down the stairs, even as he carefully rubbed at his head. “He’s awake.” When he reached where I was waiting for him, he pulled me into his arms. A rumble of a laugh sounding in his chest when I buried my face there. “You hurtin’?”
“Mmhm. I also don’t wanna see your brother walk down those stairs without clothes on.”
“You won’t. He moved his bag yesterday.”
A questioning hum sounded in my throat.
“To his and Savannah’s room?”
“Right, downstairs,” I said slowly as I realized Savannah’s bag had also been in the room I’d just left. As I tried to figure out why and who else’s had been in there. “We took the room upstairs.”
He rubbed at my back before moving away from me and heading toward the fridge. “Other way around.”
“I’m gonna fucking kill you.”
I glanced up at the weak threat in time to see Beau pulling a shirt over his head as he came down the stairs.
Hunter waved toward me. “My girl had to see your ugly ass. You deserved it.”
“Wait,” I said slowly as Hunter’s earlier surprise finally registered, my gaze locking on him. “Didn’t you see him when you left the room?”
He lifted his chin, gesturing to where a few of our friends were passed out between the kitchen table and back door. “I woke up on the table.”
“No, you came to bed,” I said, my voice unsure even though there was a hazy memory trying to surface that said he had. There had been a condom proving he had.
Hunter’s head slowly shook as he pulled orange juice from the fridge. “I don’t think so.”
“You did,” I said more firmly.
His tone was placating when he said, “Okay. But the last thing I remember was being outside with everyone. You said you needed to change clothes because pandas make you wanna cry. Then I woke up on the table.”
“Pandas are cute,” I mumbled, my gaze following Beau as he grabbed the orange juice from Hunter and went to sit on top of the kitchen table.
Looking as wrecked as Hunter and about as bad as I felt. Repeatedly dragging a hand through his hair before taking a long drink straight from the juice container.
My attention shifted back to Hunter, lips parting as those hazy memories surfaced, bringing more and more with them.
Hunter stumbling into the pitch-black room and onto the bed.
His dark, rumbling laugh as he fumbled to get the condom on.
“Forget it,” I’d whispered as I clumsily reached for him.
The dark room coming in and out of focus. Spinning and spinning and spinning as he’d started moving inside me. His body heavy as he’d tried to hold himself up before his arms had given out.
Our laughs mixing before mine had cut off. “I’m gon’be sick.”
His muffled curse as he’d scrambled away. “Shi’kaygotit.”
“You really don’t remember coming to the room?” I asked, earning a helpless look from Hunter. “Okay, okay.”
“And what the hell were you doing?” he asked Beau. “What was with the trash can?”
“The fuck if I know.” Beau rubbed at his eyes, his head shifting a little to the side like he was trying so hard to remember. “Oh shit, Savannah got sick.”
My stomach dropped.
Just fell straight to the floor as acid bubbled up inside me.
Choking me.
No. No, no, no. It’s a coincidence. It has to be. We were all so trashed, of course she’d gotten sick too.
A breath of a laugh left Hunter. “Yeah, don’t think you made it back to her, man.”
“Shit,” Beau hissed again as he got off the table and headed for the stairs. But he hadn’t made it up more than a couple steps when Savannah came staggering in . . . from the downstairs hall.
A harder laugh left Hunter. “You sure as hell didn’t make it back to her.”
“Voices,” Savannah murmured. “Volume. So loud.” She waved her hands at us and offered a brief grin. “Didn’t make it back to who?”
Hunter nodded to where Beau was staring at Savannah like he was struggling to put it all together.
And I didn’t want him to because that made it real and it couldn’t be real.
This isn’t happening. This is a nightmare. A horrible, sickening nightmare.
“Beau was passed out in the upstairs hall with your trash can,” Hunter explained.
Savannah looked at Beau, face scrunching before she let her head fall into her hands. “What trash can?”
“When did you go downstairs?” Beau asked instead of answering.
She pointed behind her as she shuffled toward him. “As soon as we came in. Bunch of us passed out in Adrianna’s room.” She slowly climbed the steps until she could fall against his chest. “Drinking is the worst. I vote no.”
Hunter grunted in agreement as he went back to raiding the fridge. But Beau just stood there holding Savannah to him. His stare shifting to me as his expression slowly filled with horror and denial and every terrible thing I was feeling.
Oh God, oh God, no. No!
Bile rose in my throat and guilt became a living thing inside me.
“You okay?” Hunter asked as he slipped an arm around my waist.
“I feel—” A shuddered breath left me. “I have to brush my teeth,” I said abruptly and pulled away from him.
“Where are you going?”
When I looked at him, at the confusion on his face, I wanted to fall to the floor and cry.
Give him my heart and say I didn’t deserve his.