I frowned at the idea of anyone poisoning her to any of us. Sam didn’t know enough about her parents’ marriage to judge her father, but Barrett had never told her the entire story to keep from hurting her.
“I can’t tell you what to do about Samantha. I don’t think waiting much longer is a good idea, though. We don’t want to hide our relationship with you, Sugar. That means things are going to start coming out. As for Barrett’s marriage, that’s his business to tell you, but I’ve known him for more than half my life and I’ve never questioned his morals for a moment.”
“So, he didn’t cheat?” Her voice was small as she said it, hopeful despite fearing the worst.
I pulled her into my lap and wrapped my arms around her waist. “You’ll have to talk to Barrett about that.”
Her shoulders deflated and she looked past me, out the windows behind me. Her eyes were greener in the bright light. “Okay.”
Annoyance at Sam was unfair, but I felt it. Blowing out a harsh breath, I gripped Sugar’s ponytail in my fist and held her gaze with a stern one of my own. “It’s a strange predicament. You want to side with your best friend and trash the people she feels hurt by, I’m sure, just like you’ve done your whole life. You know better about Barrett, though. It’s making you feel worse than you already did about Samantha, because now you feel like you’re not supporting her. Am I close?”
She pouted. “We don’t always trash people…”
I smiled warmly at her and pulled her closer. “You just need to talk with her. It’ll take some time, probably, but things will work out. You love each other.”
“You’ve known Barrett for a long time, huh? What if he slept with your mom behind your back?”
I grimaced and leaned back to frown at her. “I’d be concerned for him because my mother was a ballbuster. But, yes, we have known each other for a long time. We met on a hiking trip when we were all around nineteen.”
“Tell me?”
I checked my watch and kissed her forehead. “Only if you promise to talk to Barr before you jump to any conclusions.”
“Of course. I care about him, Dominic. Just like I care about you and Holden.” She looked up at me through her lashes. “Promise me y’all won’t ever peek at my journal? I never thought twice about leaving it around any of you, but I’m just becoming aware of how embarrassing parts of it could be. The sappy parts.”
I rolled my eyes. “I don’t sneak around, pet. I just demand you tell me.”
“Anyway. Moving on to the story, please.”
“Like I said, we all ended up on this prodigal son hiking trip. It was a bullshit alternative for jail for some of us and the only way others could afford any kind of resume-building camp experience.”
“Which one were you?”
“The former. Same as Holden. I’d gotten into a series of fights that were getting worse. I topped that shit cake by driving my father’s BMW through the front door of his mistress’s house. I knew they weren’t there, but I also knew it was Dad’s only vehicle that wasn’t being taken by the bank. He’d ruined a family business that had lasted generations before him. I was pissed about it.
“The judge saw the silver spoon sticking out of my ass and took pity on me. Which, I understand is ridiculous. I guess he felt bad for the first-time poor kid. Holden got busted for stealing. He’d been on his own for years, after his grandma died, and he survived by taking food from the kitchens he cooked in. The head chef was a dick and had him arrested for it.
“And Barrett was a kid from the trailer park who’d had decent grades, but without any of the extra shit, he wasn’t getting into the school he wanted to go to. The school Sam’s mom went to.”
I gripped her thighs and squeezed. “We hated each other at first. We were all so different and the counselors kept shoving us together for whatever reason. They had to split us up more than once. Holden busted my nose and I split his lip before one of us gave Barr a black eye.”
She gasped. “No! You’re kidding!”
“No. We were instant enemies. This hiking trip was supposed to just last a week, but somehow the weather turned unexpectedly. The three of us had been separated from the group to try to force us into being friends, and when the storm hit we just happened to be in a flood zone.”
I smiled as Sugar began stroking my chest, comforting old wounds. “We didn’t have a chance. We’d been in a three-man tent and all three of us damn near died in the first few minutes because the tent collapsed on us and we couldn’t get out of it, while we were being dragged into this rush of water.”
“Oh, Dom.”
“We ended up saving each other. We got stuck on the side of a cliff, trapped for three days while the counselors tried to find us. We were all beat up. The scar on my back came from a log cutting me open while I held on to Holden to keep him from drowning. Barrett has them on him, too. Holden’s burn scars from working in the kitchen as a kid make his impossible to see.”
I held her closer as she sniffed and pressed her face to my chest. “We all made it. We bonded, so the counselors got what they wanted, I guess.”
She let out a watery laugh and slapped my chest. “Nothing funny here.”
“We only survived that time stuck on the cliff because we had each other. When one of us grew weak, the other two would fight to keep that person awake. We should’ve died, but we agreed not to.”
I stroked her hair and smiled as I thought back to the wild kids we’d been. “The force of our stubbornness and willpower when put together kept us alive. After that, how could we not stick together?”