Page 146 of In Spades

“I said nothing!” he shouted. “Okay? So just drop it.”

“Yeah, I’m not going to drop it,” I said, sitting down on the edge of his bed. “Nice try, though.”

He huffed and shut his eyes again.

“C’mon, Lo,” I said, shaking his arm. “You’re not a kid anymore. I can’t bribe you with brownies to get you to tell me what’s wrong.” Even though that would have been easier. “Did something happen at school?”

“No.”

“Did Hunter piss you off?”

“No.”

“Did Kylie?”

“No.”

“Am I supposed to keep going with the twenty questions or are you going to spare me? I’m hungry.”

He groaned and sat up, swinging his long legs off the end of the bed. “It don’t matter anymore.”

“It doesn’t matter anymore,” I corrected. “And that’s a lie. Tell me what’s wrong.”

Logan grabbed his phone from under his pillow and shoved it into his pocket. “You said they weren’t having poker night last Monday.”

I nodded.

“Chase texted me when you didn’t show. He said you hadn’t returned anyone’s calls or texts.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose. Because, of course. The meddlers couldn’t leave well enough alone. Wasn’t it enough that I lost the one person I thought I could trust with the darkest parts of me? Apparently not, because I lost all my friends, too.

Or at least I thought they were my friends.

“It’s complicated,” I said gently. “They kept some things from me that they should have told me.”

“Does it have to do with why you and Will broke up?”

It hadn’t taken the kids long to figure out what happened when I came home from the staff party early, alone, and crying. I couldn’t give them much of a reason because, truthfully, I didn’t know the reasons myself. I hadn’t talked to Will or anyone.

Not for lack of trying on their part.

Will texted me every day, first thing in the morning. He would send me another text during my lunch break. Usually, he tried to call me when I was driving home from work. Then, there would be another goodnight text.

I was certain the phone company was going to have a conniption after I blocked and unblocked Will’s number over and over again.

The poker club had been equally relentless—not that I should have expected anything less. Thankfully, dodging calls and texts was easier than hiding from Hannah Jane around the inn. Over the last two weeks of work, I had to operate like a fucking ninja to avoid her.

I didn’t know if I’d ever be ready to talk to any of them again, but I certainly wasn’t ready now.

“Yeah, Lo. It did,” I admitted.

He glanced down at his sock-covered feet. “So, like… We’re really not gonna see them again? Any of them?”

Why was this so hard? I pulled my not-so-little brother into a hug. At seventeen he already towered over me. “I love you, kid. That’s never gonna stop. You hear me?”

“Does that mean you don’t want me talkin’ to Steve or Chase?”

I gave him a sympathetic smile and squeezed his arm. “That’s up to you. You’re nearly grown and can decide on your own who you let into your life.”

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