Page 23 of Where the Darkness Goes

Shit, is she drinking?

“Are you drinking?”

She balks. “What?No.”

Her top is low cut and gives me a perfect view of just how much she’s grown up. Jesus, I feel like a creep. MaybeI’mthe creep.

Fuck. Do those shorts even qualify as shorts?

My throat is tight.Is this what anaphylactic shock feels like?

“What are you wearing?” Will asks, and thank god it didn’t have to be me this time.

“Clothes.” She steps back. “Are you coming in or not?”

Will walks around me, nudging my shoulder with his as a way to apparently bring me back from my stupor. Inside, the house is warm and smells of something spicy, like chili or cheese dip.

Who can think of food at a time like this?

“There they are!” Britney squeals from another room before she comes bounding in, throwing her arms around Will first, then me. The hug is brief, but it comes with a cloud of flowery perfume. “Thanks for crashing the party, you two. We needed extra people anyway.” She grabs Will’s hand and nods toward me. “Tessa, can you show Garrett around really quick? Brendan’s getting the stereo hooked up, and I need Will’s help in the kitchen.”

“I don’t think he needs a tour,” Tessa says begrudgingly.

“I’d love a tour,” I argue.

Britney looks at me as if I’ve just put the star on the Christmas tree.

“He’dlovea tour,” she repeats. “Did you hear that?” Before she walks out of the room, she narrows her gaze at Tessa in a waythat makes me feel like this house is booby-trapped, à laHome Alone, and I’m about to fall for it.

“Fine.” Tessa steps forward, pointing around lightning quick. “Kitchen. Living room. Bedrooms are down the hall. Bathroom is at the end of the hall.”

I shove my hands in my pockets. She’s uncomfortable, and I hate it. It’s not supposed to be like this with us. She’s mad at me, though I don’t blame her. I don’t know why everything has changed for me lately. I don’t know why I can’t look at her legs in those shorts without feeling as if I’m thirteen years old again, getting hard when the wind blows just right.

I don’t understand what’s happening with me. It’s just Tessa. Except, there’s nojustanymore.

It’s Tessa.

I clear my throat. “Well, that wasn’t much of a tour. You can count on my one-star Yelp review.”

She snorts with laughter, then covers her mouth with her hand. She’s always hated her snort, but it’s cute. “Fine, whatever. Come on.” She leads me into the living room from the foyer, pointing to where Brendan is bent over, plugging speakers in behind the TV. “Living room.”

He lifts up to wave. If he’s mad we’re here, he doesn’t show it. “’Sup, Campbell?”

“Hey.” I barely look his way, my eyes trained on Tessa as she leads me into the kitchen, where Britney has Will stirring something in a pot on the stove while she supervises. Seeing us walk past, she gives me a mysterious smile, and suddenly I’m uneasy.

What in theParent Trapis going on here? Is she trying to set us up? Or maybe Tessa asked her to make me uncomfortable so I’d leave.

She ought to know better. I’m not going anywhere.

In the hallway, when it’s just the two of us, Tessa slows her pace enough for me to admit, “I feel like I’m about to walk into a trap.”

She looks back. “What? Why?”

“Because Britney keeps looking at me like she’s a hunter waiting for me to step on that suspicious-looking pile of leaves.”

She laughs again—there’s the snort—and shakes her head. “She’s just…it’s nothing. That’s just Britney.”

“I’ve been around the two of you plenty of times, and she hasneverlooked at me like that.”

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