“Sorry,” Trina whispered to me. “That’s my best friend—Lindsay’s other brother. I didn’t want him to hear us talking about her, for obvious reasons.” She grabbed my arm and pulled me closer to him, pasting on a bright smile. “Hey, Adam! This is Laney Collins!”
He extended a hand to me. “Nice to meet you, Laney. I’m Adam Connery.”
“Nice to meet you, too.”
“Are you a senior like Trina?”
“Yes.”
“Nice. I’m just a baby junior, but Trina still allows me to hang out with her.” He paused to chuckle as Trina playfully slapped him on the arm. “Has she tortured you much yet?”
“Yes, I have,” Trina replied before I could say a word. “I played a horrible prank on her, and I feel terrible, so now we have to be extra nice to her for the rest of eternity.”
Adam grinned. “Got it. So where are you from, Laney?”
“Silvercreek. But my mom actually works for your parents in Royal Falls three days a week,” I said shyly.
His forehead puckered into a frown. “Who’s your mom?”
“Ava Collins. She’s on the maid staff.”
“Oh!” His face brightened again. “I love Ava! She’s the best.”
I smiled. “Yeah, she is. She really likes working at your house, too,” I said. “I’ve actually been there before, you know. I waitressed at a party there a few months ago.”
“That must be why you look so familiar to me,” Adam said with a slow nod. “I was wondering about that. Anyway, are you boarding here, or just a day student?”
“I’m boarding. I got a scholarship.”
“Wow. Impressive.”
“She is, right?” Trina cut in. “I love her already, and we have most of the same classes, so I’m basically adopting her.”
“Nice. I’m always down for new besties,” Adam said, flashing me another friendly grin. His expression faded when he spotted the Princes across the quad. “I see my brother and his goon squad are here already.”
Trina rolled her eyes. “He was so fucking rude to Laney earlier. You should’ve seen it.”
Adam’s forehead wrinkled. “Why? Just Hunter being Hunter, or something else?”
“No idea,” she replied.
“I can’t believe you two are related,” I interjected. “You don’t look anything alike.”
Adam nodded. “Yeah, it’s crazy. We always used to joke that Lindsay and I were the pizza delivery guy’s twins, because Hunter has Dad’s dark hair and blue eyes, but we came out with light hair and dark eyes.”
He swallowed audibly when he finished speaking. Even though he sounded light-hearted, I could tell it was difficult for him to bring up his sister. It was obvious in the way his jaw had tightened, in the slight tug of his lips, in the haunted expression in his eyes.
Just like Hunter.
“So why aren’t you one of the Princes?” I asked, figuring I needed to change the subject. “You’re cool and good-looking. Plus Hunter is your older brother. I would’ve thought that’d be a golden ticket to get into the group.”
“I know, right?” Trina added with a snicker. She adopted a dramatic, joking tone and held a hand over her heart. “Instead he lowers himself to the mere peasants like us.”
Adam shrugged and looked over at them. “Most of them are okay, but I don’t really fit in with them,” he said, scrubbing a hand over his chin. “I mean, they’re your typical ‘locker room talk’ guys. You know, pussy, tits, ass, blah blah blah, all the time. Constantly going on about which girl they fucked, and how and when. I don’t exactly share their tastes, so I don’t hang out with them. They just wouldn’t get me.”
I noticed he was focusing on the guy Trina had pointed out as Kairo Belmont with a slight look of what appeared to be yearning in his eyes.
“Ah. Got it,” I said, nodding slowly, realizing he was probably gay, or maybe bisexual.