Page 126 of Pretty Little Lies

“Pittsburgh. He’s from there originally.”

“Roethlisberger’s gettin’ old.”

“Don’t tell him that, he’ll shoot you on the spot.”

Reeve places his dessert back into his mouth and begins moving more sand. “I’ll remember that when I ask him for his permission to marry you.”

I’m beginning to lose count of how many times he’s said that and how serious he sounds when he does. At first, I thought it was him just trying to flirt with me. Filling my head with dreams that aren’t so important to me right now.

But this dude, he doesn’t flinch or stutter over them. It’s like he’s telling me what he did yesterday.

“Don’t give my dad another heart attack, Stanton,” I reply. “He even sees that I’m with someone from the Forsaken Crew, he’s going to flip his shit.”

“Doesn’t he already know?” Reeve presses. “We were at his house the other day and he was sitting pretty on the South Shore Titan seat.”

Fuckkkk.

Dad had a stroke, you stupid ass. Not a memory loss.

Reeve pats my head then like a child and chuckles deep in his chest. “Calm down, McQueen. We were nice.”

“Yeah, but why?” I blurt out without thinking about it. “He’s gonna?—”

“Because we like you, Geezus.” Reeve pushes my hand so that my ice cream is forced to go in between my lips. “You South Shore folks are fuckin’ crazy and paranoid as all shit.”

“Wouldn’t you be?” I counter as the cold substance hits my mouth.

“I’ve never been paranoid with you,” Reeve states matter-of-factly. “If you’re gonna fuck us over, then do it. The only thing the boys have against you is that you’re South Shore and have a bitch of a dad, big deal. Join the club.”

“You think this is real?”

Reeve sends me a glare that shocks me right to my core. “Isn’t it?”

“I…” He heaves a brow, and I hate that my first response is that I’m terrified.

“You have a lot to lose and two assholes who’ll make your life a living hell if you betray them.”

My stomach drops at his backup plan. “Yeah.”

“You want to get close to Emilio for other reasons?”

I meet Reeve’s curious hazel eyes and notice that he’s back to his normal, easy expression. “I don’t want to get close to him at all.”

“But you keep showin’ up.”

“Because I’m using him to see if he’s going to use me against South Shore.”

Reeve’s tongue darts out as he licks a melting drip of his Raphael turtle ice cream. “Would’ve been different, your life, but not for the best. He treated Torin like shit and Ramsey like a god.”

Torin never mentioned that the other day. “Because he’s deaf in one ear?”

Reeve stares at me for a second. “He told you.”

“Yeah.”

He’s silent for another moment before saying, “That’s pretty important information. Something many people don’t need to know.”

“I’m not going to say anything.”

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