Page 53 of Secret Pucking Unicorn

When we reach a clearing in the woods outfitted with a fire pit and chairs, Coach slows and shifts back, and we all follow suit. We take seats on either side of the cooler and Coach opens it up to see what’s inside.

“Beer?” he asks, holding up a bottle of the IPA he favors.

“Yeah, thanks.” I reach out to take it. I tip my head back to take a long sip. It’s not going to make me even tipsy, but it’s nice to have something to calm the racing thoughts in my mind. I stretch out my legs and kick them up the edge of the unlit fire ring. I hear rustling behind me and turn around to see Stone make his way into the clearing. He shifts and takes a chair on the other side of Coach, accepting the offered beer.

“So, this is quite the mess you find yourself in,” Stone says as he lifts the bottle to his lips.

“Aye,” I say with a sigh. “I’m hoping she wakes up and recognizes it was all a misunderstanding. I wasn’t keeping secrets from her. I would never keep something like that from her.”

We sit in silence for a few minutes. I can hear Sophie and Carter running back toward us. Carter stops when he enters the clearing and Sophie leaps on him, ready to tussle. She sees us sitting there and suddenly gets off him, sitting on her haunches primly and wrapping her tail over her feet. If she had a crown, she would have lifted a paw to make sure it was on straight.

“Good run?” I ask. She nods and looks at Carter. He shifts and walks to the cooler.

With a huff, she shifts as well and takes the chair across the fire pit from me.

“Beer, soda, or water, Princess?” Carter asks her.

Princess? Does he have no sense of self-preservation?

“Water is fine. Peasant.”

Coach chokes on his beer and I sigh.

He hands her the water bottle and takes the seat next to her. He crosses his leg, resting his ankle on his knee and jiggling his foot. Sophie side-eyes his foot. When he starts whistling tunelessly, I mentally start counting, curious if I’ll reach ten before she explodes. Carter somehow knows every button to push with my sister. This will be fun. I know she’s my sister and I should be concerned, maybe, but Sophie can handle herself and it will be fun to watch Carter’s tail be tweaked.

Stone is the brave one to speak first.

“So, you and Miranda?” he asks, tipping the lip of his beer bottle toward me.

“Yeah.”

“Good. You two are right for each other,” he says.

Sophie huffs.

“What?” I ask, knowing she’s going to say something to piss me off. It’s been that kind of day.

“Nothing,” she says. I look at the rest of the guys. We all have sisters. We know the answer is never nothing.

I take another sip of my beer. I know her. She won’t be able to keep her mouth shut. I can wait her out.

She rises and starts pacing between our chairs. “I know you think she’s the one for you and you’ll have your happily ever after. I want that for you, Declan. I really do. But it’s not with Miranda. She likes to move around too much. She’s not going to want to settle down.”

She reaches up, undoes her ponytail, finger combs her long blonde hair and puts it back up. This is what she always does when she’s agitated.

“Look at all the schools she went to. The second she finished university, she was gone. Then she shows up here. Who knows how long this will last before she’s off to someplace new and leaves you behind like she’s left everyone else behind?”

“What are you talking about? Who has she left behind?” Carter asks.

“Me!” Sophie cries, spinning to face him. “We talked about going to boarding school together and picked out our dream school. Then she gets the chance to go and leaves without me.”

“She didn’t choose to go away to school,” I say.

“Yes, she did. She could have stayed with us, but she was tired of the village school and wanted to go to school in England where she could ride her precious horses. Mother wouldn’t let me go and even though we had promised we’d go together or not at all, she went anyway.”

I rise from my chair now to pace.

“Sophie, she was a ten-year-old little girl. What makes you think she had any say in the matter?”

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