Kate must have heard me because she looks over her shoulder. “What?”
“Nothing.”
Her brows raise in a silent challenge, but thankfully she doesn’t ask further, instead concentrating on her sister.
I look around, noticing that the crowd has dissipated a bit since we left, but there are still a dozen or so people mingling around. Becky is on the dock while Miguel is playing ball with a few of our classmates, Rose and a few of her friends cheering them on.
Rose turns around and sees me, a smile curling her lips. “Emmett!” she yells, getting to her feet. She wobbles a bit, but then seems to regain her balance before striding toward me.
Shit.
I’m not sure who invited her, but once she was here, it’s not like I could have asked her to leave. So, instead, I tried my best to avoid her all afternoon, not wanting to cause any trouble, but it seems my luck is running out.
“We missed you!” She gives me a big smile as she takes a hold of my arm. I try not to look down since she’s still only wearing her bikini that reveals way too much, and I don’t want to give her the wrong idea.
“Did you?” I look up; two of her friends who are still sitting on their towels try to pretend not to watch while at the same time giving us inconspicuous side glances and whispering between themselves. “You girls seem like you’ve been having fun.”
Rose giggles loudly. “The beer John snatched from his father’s stash sure did come in handy.” Suddenly she turns serious, her mouth twisting into a pout. “Where did you disappear to?” She points her finger at my face, poking me in the cheek in the process. “The host shouldn’t leave his guests unattended, it’s not nice.”
“Rose, how much of that beer did you have to drink?” I ask carefully. While she occasionally has a flair for the dramatics, she’s never acted like this.
“Not nearly enough.”
AKA way too much. I don’t think I have ever seen her drinking before today.
Fuck. Just what I needed.
“You’re drunk,” I say, trying to gently remove her hand from mine so I can send her to her friends, who are hopefully sober enough to take her home. “You should go home.”
“Don’t wanna! I want to stay here with you. You should drink more. We had fun last time when we were at the pond.” She moves closer, her teeth grazing over her lip as she presses her body against mine. She bats her eyelashes, her voice dropping in what should sound seductive, but just has the hairs rising at the nape of my neck. “Maybe we could have it again.”
Definitely, not.
Before I can try to push her away once again, a throat clears behind me. My whole body freezes for a moment. Then, slowly, I turn around and come face to face with scowling Kate.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
Just when things were starting to get better…
“Kate…” I start, but she interrupts me before I can even think of what to say. How to explain.
“I was just coming to say goodbye since we’re leaving. Thanks for taking Penny to the stables. She loved it.” Her tone is even, almost emotionless, and the whole time she’s speaking, she looks somewhere over my shoulder, pointedly ignoring me. “I guess I’ll see you at school.”
“Kate,” I try again, but nails dig into my flesh, holding me back.
Kate’s eyes fall down to where Rose is holding me. Then, with a shake of her head, she turns on the balls of her feet, and I stay there watching her walk away.
Chapter Seventeen
KATHERINE
My forehead is pressed against the window, the cool glass feeling nice on my skin. I watch as nature slowly turns into concrete as we move farther away from Emmett’s ranch and closer to town.
“I seriously can’t stand that girl.”
“Huh?” My head snaps up, and I turn to look at Becky. She was unusually quiet as we gathered our things and left Emmett’s place.
“Rose.” Her fingers grip the steering wheel tighter. “I can’t stand her.”
A weak, oh, is my only answer. I’m not sure what to say to that. Did I like seeing her hang all over Emmett? Well, no, but who was I to say anything to that really? Apart from that one interaction I had with her the first week of school—which honestly didn’t give me the best impression of her, but still—I don’t even know the girl, so who am I to judge?
“I can’t believe I was actually friends with her once.” Becky shakes her head.
My brows shoot up. “Rose?”
“Yeah, we were friends when we were younger.”
Well, I didn’t see that one coming. It actually makes me realize how little I know about Becky in general. Some general stuff that most people with good cognitive abilities would be able to patch together, but who’s Becky beneath all the surface stuff? If I were a better friend, I’d know by now. At least some.
“What happened?”
I glance quickly at the rearview mirror, only to find Penny and Henry dozing off in the backseat.
“I’m not sure really. One day we were friends, but the next…” Becky shrugs, her words lingering in the air. She stops at the red light and turns to look at me. “We were confiding secrets and running after boys, playing Barbies, but suddenly she changed. It didn’t help that around the same time my dad died, so I just didn’t have it in me to put much effort into getting out of bed, much less trying to figure out why she wasn’t interested in hanging out with me any longer.”
Now I feel like even more of a dick. Her dad died? And who leaves their supposedly best friend at a time like that?
“I’m so sorry, Becky.”
She shrugs once again, a sad smile playing on her lips. “It was a long time ago,” she says and starts to drive once the light turns green. “But sometimes it still feels like it was only yesterday.”
“Was he sick?”
“Nope, car accident. He kissed me on the forehead that morning when he was leaving, and then he was gone.”
There is sadness in her voice that makes my heart squeeze.
“I’m so sorry.”
My answer sounds lame even to my own ears. What do you say to a person who lost their loved one? Nothing seems like enough.
At least she had a dad—a dad who loved her. I can’t say I know the sentiment since I’ve never met mine.
“Thank you, but enough about the sad stuff.” Her face twists in a scowl. “Or about the harpy. She’s just jealous because she wants what she can’t have.”
I remember Rose clinging to Emmett like there is something going on between them. The way she leaned in, her hand possessively wrapped around his. It wasn’t even the first time. Did something happen between them to make her feel like she can do it? Or is Becky right, and Rose just wishes it to be true?
“Like how desperate do you have to be to come to a guy’s house, get drunk, and then hang all over him when he already told you he isn’t interested?” Becky shakes her head. “Get a grip, girl.”
So much for stop—
“He what?” I ask as Becky pulls into our driveway, her words finally registering in my head.
Becky, completely oblivious to my turmoil, takes her sweet time parking the car, her tongue peeking from the corner of her mouth as she does so. Only when she’s happy with the result does she turn off the engine and look at me.