That felt like a dumb question, and I instantly regretted it.
Bow’s attention stayed on the potatoes. She shrugged. “Every day is different. Some days it feels like yeah. Others, no. She’s my dad’s mom.”
She moved the potatoes over to the kitchen island, putting them next to the salad.
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
Bow acknowledged what I said, her head bobbing once. “You said Bru’s sick?”
I eased over to her. I grabbed my arm. “We honestly don’t know what’s up. It’s kept him out of school.”
“I know,” she said, and my eyes flashed. Her head tilted. “We haven’t seen him around, and Ares mentioned something.”
Which meant my brother’s friends, i.e., all the guys, knew my brother was sick but were still ignoring him. They were doing that because of me and a lie, which was fucked up.
“He also mentioned you guys were doing some kind of project together…”
“I didn’t say anything, Bow.”
Her eyes flashed this time, big, wide. She blinked. “I want to believe you.”
Then why wouldn’t she? Why would she let them get to her?
Her head lowered, hands on the counter. “I even told them that I didn’t believe you would, and if you did, it was probably an accident.” She lifted a hand. “You said something to someone, and it got to the wrong people…”
So she stood up for me. At least, tried.
Her jaw shifted. “I want to be on your side.”
“Then be on it. Don’t group with them.”
She bunched fingers into her hair. “I want to. I do, but there are things I don’t get.”
“What things?”
Her expression fell. “They said I can’t trust you, and if I can’t, I don’t know if I can trust what you say.”
I started to say something, and she hugged her arms.
“It’s hard, Sloane, because I trust them,” she said. “I trust them with everything. They’re my family, and you’ve…” She started, sighing. “You’ve lied to me before.”
I had lied to her.
And apparently, that had damned me.
The room was silent when her mom bounced into it.
“I found the wine on the way back.” Mrs. Reed waved two bottles. She set them down on the counter. “Though obviously not for you kiddos.”
The woman booty-bumped her daughter, but it didn’t elicit much of a reaction out of her. Mrs. Reed placed an arm around her. “Everything okay?”
Bow, of course, nodded and even stapled on her cuter-than-heck grin. She was terribly good at that, but I always knew when she was putting it on. When she didn’t mean it, her smile didn’t reach her eyes.
Coming over was a bad idea, huge, but I was already here.
If Mrs. Reed knew her daughter was off, she didn’t make a thing of it. She let go of her daughter, then proceeded to get some wineglasses. She’d just placed them down when a large man sauntered into the room and surprised her from the back. Crazy big, he pulled her clear off her feet, and I’d never heard a grown woman squeal so loud.
“Knight Reed,” she gritted, shocked but laughing at the same time. She slapped at his hands. “One day, you’re going to catch me with something hot in my hands.”