Page 73 of Third Wheel

Right?

“You need to tell Mom and Dad about Kincaid.”

“I need to tell Mom and Dad about Kincaid,” he agreed, sagging slightly. At least he’d gotten turned around to face her so she couldn’t keep slapping him upside his head. “I’m going to.”

“When?”

“Soon.”

Sooner than he’d meant to, thanks to Krista.

She crossed her arms and frowned, tapping her foot.

“I want a timeline. Because it’s not fair to me that I keep having to lie to Mom and Dad, and it’s definitely not fair to Kincaid.”

He knew that.

“By the end of the month.” Today was the second, so that gave him plenty of time.

Krista pressed her lips together, obviously displeased with that answer—probably too much time, in her opinion—but she nodded her agreement. The sick feeling in his stomach increased. He had till the end of the month to figure out exactly how to tell his parents that he wasn’t straight. And that he’d been living with his boyfriend for the past year and lying to them about it.

Well, if I’d told them sooner, I wouldn’t have been lying to them for a year.

Am I really afraid I’m going to break up my parents’ marriage?

Maybe.

But he felt just as afraid that it was going to change everything.

“Deal,” Krista said, uncrossing her arms and stepping forward so she could loop her arm through his. Obviously, she felt better now that the agreement was made rather than worse, like him. “Now, let’s get back to our boyfriends.”

She made it sound so much simpler than it felt.

27

Amy

“Burn, baby, burn! Burn, baby, burn!” her friends chanted as she walked toward the fire, her arms full of fluffy whiteness.

Not just the initial friends she’d invited, either. Somehow—thank you, club gossip train—word had spread about what she was doing tonight, and the group of supporters had quadrupled. They were in Morgan and Asad’s backyard because they had a fire pit, and the whole backyard was full of submissives from Stronghold and Marquis.

Amy couldn’t help but laugh at everyone’s enthusiasm.

And she had to admit, as she threw the dress onto the fire, her heart did feel lighter.

Everyone cheered as the flames flared up, hungrily consuming the fabric and turning it from white to crisp black in the blink of an eye. The smoke billowed up, and Amy stepped back, her shoulders sagging in relief.

There.

It was done.

Watching the smoke curling up into the evening sky, she imagined all her humiliation, all her pain, all her resentment,floating up with it and disappearing. Oddly, it worked. A sense of peace settled over her, the feeling of closing a door behind her on a chapter of her life she’d spent far too long in.

“So mote it be,” Freddy said, coming up beside her and slinging his arm around her shoulders. Amy laughed, leaning her head against him. “Can I just say I’m a little disappointed that your douchebag ex hasn’t called my office? I’ve been hoping I get to tear him apart a little.”

“Sadist in the streets, masochist in the sheets,” Sam teased from Amy’s other side.

“Aren’t we all?” Morgan asked.

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