“Do you want to hang out today?” I blurt out, because I don’t want to argue with her but I’m not ready to come clean, either.
Although if Cole knows the truth, there’s no saying he won’t tell her and everyone else my secret.
“You could come over? Ace has work so we could chill in the pool house.”
“Sure,” I say. Maybe I'll see Cole, and maybe I’ll be able to confront him about what he did or didn’t find in my drawer.
“Awesome.” Remi lets out a small shriek of excitement. “I’ll ask Ellen to make us pizza or something. And cookies, definitely cookies. She makes the best double chocolate chip cookies. I swear, they’re like little bites of heaven.”
I chuckle. “Sounds good. I’ll walk, so it’ll take me a while.”
“Just a second.” The line goes silent. “You don’t need to walk,” Remi says when she comes back.
“I don’t?”
“Conner can give you a ride.”
“Wait, I’m not sure that’s—”
“He’ll be there in twenty minutes. Wait out front.”
“Fine,” I grumble, wondering what I’ve gotten myself into.
At least it’s Conner and not Cole, because although I need to find out what he knows, I’m not sure I’m ready
to face him yet.
“Hadley, baby, fancy finding you here.” Conner pushes from the car he shares with Cole and moves toward me. “Remi said you needed a ride.”
“I could have walked.”
“I was out. Besides, it’s no hardship, giving a ride to a pretty girl.” Conner makes a show of pulling the door open and bowing.
“You are such a dork,” I mumble as I slide inside.
“But the ladies love it.” He winks before slamming it shut. I can’t help but roll my eyes.
Sometimes it’s hard to believe he and Cole are twins. Cole is so brooding and dark, constantly surrounded by shadows. Yet Conner is the sun, warm and radiant. You can’t help but be infected with his light.
“How is that brother of mine?” he asks the second he climbs inside.
“How should I know?”
Conner smirks. “Still playing that game?”
“Game? There is no game.” The lie sours on my tongue, because everything about Cole is a game.
A game where your morals are the strategy, your body is the weapon, and your heart is the battlefield.
Most girls would have surrendered by now.
So why haven’t I?
“Keep telling yourself that.” He backs out of the parking lot and follows the coastal road toward the Jagger house.
“You know, I might not be on the team, but I still hear things.”
“What things?”