Page 48 of Chaos at Westbrook High

Thank God. I was getting bored.

A loud laugh slips out of me, and I fall back into my seat, still grinning like an idiot.

Chapter 19

HAILEY

I hide in the kitchen with my phone in my hands and wait for Kai to say something else. He doesn’t, and now I feel stupid. Not for texting him back, but for being disappointed that it’s over.

What is wrong with me?

“Hailey, you coming?” Wyatt calls, and I startle, hiding my phone in the front pocket of my apron as if I’m doing something wrong.

“Yeah,” I call back, grabbing more ice from the freezer like I was supposed to be doing before I head back to the counter.

He eyes me skeptically, and I slap a smile on my face, making polite small talk with the next few customers while I make their drinks. We’ve been getting a lot more high school and college aged people coming in here over the last few weeks, thanks to Kai, no doubt.

A couple of sophomore girls from my new school come in and ask for strawberry ice cream shakes, and since I make them look cute topped with whipped cream and pink and white sprinkles, Wyatt takes the opportunity to snap a picture of them for my Instagram. He says advertising on social media is good for business. I don’t know a thing about social media, so I let him handle all that. As long as he doesn’t post my name or my face, he can do what he wants.

Wyatt passes their shakes over, and the blonde girl on the left thanks him with a smile, clearly checking him out. He winks at her, his eyes giving her the same treatment.

“She’s a sophomore in high school, Wy,” I inform him when she walks away.

“What? I didn’t touch her.” He wiggles his brows. “You jealous, babe?”

I frown at the side of his face, but I don’t get the chance to ask why he’s calling me that before the atmosphere in here changes suddenly.

Kai’s here.

A few heads turn toward the door, and I’m stunned to find the few customers in line clearing a path for him to get to me. They just move right out of his way. Almost everyone in here knows who he is, and I guess word travels fast about who I am to him too. This is why he’s been on my ass at school everyday and implying that he’s fucking me. This is the way he wanted it to be for as long as he wanted to play. He wanted everyone to look at me and think, Kai’s. Has that changed now that he knows I’m his cousin’s little sister?

Leaning on the counter between us, Kai scans my face, checking for something, then slides his eyes to Wyatt. All five of the Kingstons are looking at Wyatt, glaring at him as he stands beside me. At first he doesn’t move, but then he does, hesitantly taking a full step away from me. Only then does Kai look at me properly. “Does he bother you?” he asks quietly.

“What?”

“I saw that. The way you were looking at him when I walked in. What did he say to you?”

I blink, then shake my head. “Nothing.”

He narrows his eyes. “Liar.”

I think about him saying that to me in my dream this morning. And last night, after I told him I didn’t care enough to hate him. My body heats.

“Tell me,” he demands.

Working my jaw, I step closer and lean on the counter to level with him. “Fine,” I whisper so only he can hear me. “He called me babe, but?—”

When he moves, I grab his throat and pull his face back to mine, enjoying the way his blue eyes widen in shock before they flare with heat.

“I have that security guard now,” I remind him, tilting my head at the SUV outside. “If you make a scene, I’ll have you thrown out of here on your ass.”

He laughs a little at that, his gaze never leaving mine. “Jamie’s my godfather.”

Of course he is.

When I realize I’m the one making a scene, I remove my hand from his neck and put some distance between us. He grins and straightens up to his full height, tipping his head to beckon me to him. “You gonna come out here all by yourself or do you wanna fight me in front of all these people?”

Sneering at him, I side-eye the other four Kingstons at his sides, Damon and Callie on his right, and Wren and Levi on his left.

---