Page 78 of Forking the Billionaire

“Like what?” Juno asked.

“Yeah, Jasper,like what?”Her voice was so sweet it covered the poison hiding beneath.

I swallowed whatever story I was about to try to come up with.

“Once Esme decided to force Jasper into a marshmallow-eating competition,” Gabriel said. “He only ate three then declared her the winner, but she wouldn’t accept that he hadn’t really tried.”

“So I stuck two mini marshmallows in his nose the next time he stayed the night. And one in each ear,” she said, her voice still sickeningly sweet.

This wasn’t what I’d wanted, either. I didn’t want to make her uncomfortable any more than I wanted Gabriel to be upset.

“So no childhood crushes on the cute boy next door for you, Esme?” Juno said, with a soft chuckle.

“Jasper was too old, right, Esme?” Gabriel said.

“Too old,” Esme parroted, her tone growing more dangerous. No one else seemed to notice.

Did she believe that? All evidence suggested otherwise.

“And they didn’t spend time together,” Gabriel said.

“We did,” Esme said.

It was like being at ground zero of a nuclear explosion, knowing everything was about to go to hell, but there was not a thing I could do to stop it.

“When?” Gabriel said.

“All the time at first,” Esme said. “We were best friends before you even noticed he moved in.”

“A five-year-old and a twelve-year-old were best friends?” Gabriel asked in disbelief.

“Yep,” Esme said.

They both looked to me for confirmation.

“We were all friends,” I said, flustered. My words would appease no one.

“That’s nice of you to say,” Gabriel said.

But it wasn’t really. I had spent time with Esme first. She was a cute little kid who offered me a third of her Milky Way bar when she found me sulking about having to move out of my home to make room for Dad’s new family.Chocolate makes everything better,she’d told me. That was my first memory of her, well that and her good-spirited offer to punch whoever had made me sad. Then she’d asked me if I wanted to pick berries with her, and so we did. And I’d felt better, if only for a little while.

Esme stared at me. I stared back.

“Ancient history,” she said finally, then she asked Juno about her current video.

Gabriel kissed Layana's temple.

Everyone was fine except for me. I felt bothered. I smiled and tried to listen to the conversation. But eventually I excused myself for some distance and went to the bathroom.

A moment later, I heard the door. It wasn’t a huge space—clean and nice, but not the kind of restroom meant to share. I turned to tell whoever was coming in that it was occupied.

But it was Esme.

She slipped in and clicked the lock behind her.

The air around us heated and sparked, an electrical storm in the desert.

I should apologize for not saying that the two of us were friends when I could have. I should tell her that her Milky Way saved me from the bone-deep loneliness I’d felt all those years ago.

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