Page 64 of The Ruse

“Them?” he asked.

“Nash, Cambrielle, and Ava.” When he looked confused, I explained, “It was Nash who called me. Not my mom like I’d thought.”

“Oh.” He went back to rinsing off the dirty skillet.

I watched him for a second as I finished the last few bites of my breakfast burrito, which had gone cold.

He seemed upset. Frustrated.

“Everything okay?” I took a sip of water. “Did I do something wrong?”

Had he somehow overheard my conversation with Nash and was mad about it?

Because even if Nash’s talk of seeing Asher and Bailee fighting the night she’d disappeared had put me on edge for a moment, I was trying not to jump to conclusions.

Just because someone had an argument with someone didn’t mean they wanted to make them disappear.

“No.” He looked over his shoulder. “I’m just…” He sighed. “I’m just feeling a bit tired.”

“Yeah?”

He turned off the water and set the skillet down on a towel to dry. “I think I’m just gonna head to bed.”

“Really?”So soon?

I glanced at the clock on the wall. It was almost eight-thirty. Which was a time that some people went to bed, I’d guess, but it seemed a little too early to me.

He washed his hands and dried them on a towel. “It’s been a long day, and I think all that walking around in the snow really tired me out.”

“Okay,” I said. “Th-that makes sense.”

He switched off the light above the sink.

“Anyway, I’ll see you in the morning.” He looked back at me, and when our gazes met, I could tell his smile was forced. “Have a good night, Elyse.”

“Thanks,” I said, still so caught off guard by the unexpected shift of his mood.

Had I done something wrong?

Was he mad that I’d left my conversation with him to take that call from Nash? I had only gone upstairs because he’d told me to, and I had thought it might be my mom.

I wasn’t trying to ignore him.

But then I remembered what he’d said about Hunter and me being the only people at school who talked to him. Had I just made him feel unseen by going upstairs for so long when he’d been about to tell me about his family?

Because I wasn’t trying to make him feel that way. I still very much wanted to know about his past.

But when he turned his muscular back to me and headed down the stairs, I knew that I must have done something wrong.

I finished my cold burrito,and because there wasn’t anything else to do, I went around and made sure all of the doors and windows were locked. The snow had picked up speed since I’d last looked out the windows and there were already several inches of white powder clinging to the tree branches.

Hopefully, Miss Crawley would find a way up the mountain tomorrow, because if things continued to be as awkward between Asher and me as they’d been just before he headed to bed, it was going to be a long day.

I closed all the blinds since the thought of someone walking up to the cabin in the middle of the night and peeking in through the windows freaked me out. Then I turned off the lights on the main floor and hurried up to the loft to get ready for bed.

I changed in the bathroom and brushed my teeth, and then climbed into the bed that I’d shared with Cambrielle last night. As I turned off the lamp on the nightstand, I got the creepy feeling that someone was watching me.

I pulled the covers up to my chin. With my heart racing faster than a jackhammer, I turned onto my side as slowly and quietly as I could and tried to see through the darkness.

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