Page 35 of The Facade

“I know,” he said. “You really don’t have to.” He waved the thought away. “I was mostly joking.”

Mostlyjoking.

Which meant part of him was serious.

I remembered the look in his eyes this afternoon when he told me about his parents and the specialists thinking his mom only had a short time left.

He really did seem to sleep better when he was in my room for some reason.

I couldn’t deny him a good night’s rest after the news he’d gotten today, could I?

It wasn’t like he was going to do anything other than sleep.

So I sighed and said, “If you think it’ll help you actually sleep tonight, I can pull out the trundle bed again.”

“Really?” he asked, seeming surprised I was actually offering. “But what about your brothers?”

“We’ll just have to be quiet,” I said. “Which means no more teasing me, okay?”

He sat up straighter and saluted me with his bandaged arm. “Yes, ma’am.”

“Okay.” I sighed again, hoping I wasn’t making a huge mistake. “Just give me a few minutes to get ready and I’ll text you when you can come over.”

10

Mack

After Cambrielle left my room,I took a quick shower. I changed into gym shorts because I usually got hot in the night, and joggers would only make me sweat more. I typically slept without a shirt too, but since I would actually be conscious when I walked into Cambrielle’s room tonight, I grabbed a white V-neck. I didn’t want to make Cambrielle uncomfortable with the sight of my shirtless body like earlier this morning.

I was re-bandaging my wrist when the text from Cambrielle came through my phone.

Cambrielle:You can come over now. Just lock your bedroom door so no one can go in and find you’re missing.

I brushed my teeth, and then after grabbing my phone charger from Ian’s nightstand, I locked the bedroom door and snuck out the balcony to go into Cambrielle’s room.

She was just opening the French doors when I made it across and I quickly slipped inside.

I locked the door behind me. When I turned around, I took in Cambrielle’s room. The main lights were turned off—only the string lights she had strung across the ceiling were lit, giving a slightly magical ambiance to the room. She’d already pulled out the trundle bed that was usually stored underneath her queen-sized bed.

“Thanks for doing this again,” I said as she climbed onto her mattress, slipping her legs under the covers.

“No problem,” she said, leaning into the pillows propped up against her white headboard. Her long, brown hair was braided down the side of her head and resting over her shoulder, her makeup from earlier washed away.

I knew some girls were self-conscious of how they looked without makeup on, but Cambrielle was beautiful. I liked the smattering of freckles on her nose and cheeks. Liked that even though we were growing older, she still resembled the girl I’d known ever since my family built our house next door.

I walked around the beds and set my phone to charge on the nightstand opposite from where Cambrielle slept. It was already after ten, so I knew I should probably just go to sleep. But I wanted to put it off for a minute. So I sat on the side of Cambrielle’s bed, turned toward her and said, “You never told me if you were able to talk to Ben after bandaging me up.”

“Oh,” she said in surprise. She cleared her throat. “I talked to him a little.”

“And?” I arched an eyebrow when she didn’t offer any more information.

“And he invited me to go to the haunted house with him on Friday.”

When I saw the excitement in her expression, the slightest twinge of jealousy pricked at me. But I pushed it away because since when was I jealous of Cambrielle hanging out with another guy?

I mean, I’d known all about her obsession with the actor from thatBridgertonshow she watched and had never once been jealous of him.

“So, is it like a date?” I asked, wondering how it had come about and if Ben had agreed to come over because he’d already been interested in her.

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