Page 136 of Stealing Sunshine

“Watch it,” I warn again. “What are you talking about?”

He plants his hands on his jeaned hips and stares me down. “This whole sham! You’ve been lyin’ to us.All of us.”

“It’s not a lie—” Daisy starts.

Johnny keeps me trapped beneath a stare flickering with betrayal. “You used my sister for your own benefit. I trusted you with her, and you stabbed me in the back. We were all so happy for you, and then first thing this mornin’, I had Eliza Steele pull me aside and explain the rumours flyin’ around town about you and my damn twin sister.”

“What rumours?” I snip, letting his other words slip away for now, not giving them space in my mind. They’ll hit really fucking hard in a few minutes.

“You and Daisy! Your fake relationship that was only created to trick your parents into leaving you alone so that you didn’t have to actually stand up for yourself.”

“Johnny,” Daisy says, a threatening edge to her tone that I haven’t heard before. “You don’t know the whole story.”

He snaps his head in her direction and scrunches his brows. “I don’t want to talk to you right now, Daisy. Me and Bryce have some shit to work through.”

“Okay, macho man. That’s not going to work. You need to take a breath and really think about whether you want to continue acting like a bull in a china shop.”

“I like you, Johnny, but I’m not going to stand here and let you attack me in my own house,” I say coolly.

He laughs humourlessly. “You lied to my family and my friends. I’m sorry for not being cool-headed.”

“They’re my friends too,” I snap back.

“Then why didn’t you tell us the truth? Actually, it doesn’t matter. I don’t even trust you enough anymore to stand here and listen to whatever it is you have to say in your defense.”

“You’re being dramatic, Johnny. Just calm down and listen to what we have to say,” Daisy says.

He shakes his head hard. “What do you even have to say? That you felt it was okay to just lie to everyone you know and care about in order to help someone who should have known that it’s okay to ask for help straight up? Do you have any idea how badly this is going to hurt the moms when they find out the truth? If they haven’t already.”

Daisy winces, her face crumpling. “They weren’t supposed to learn about the fake part. Not now, considering it’s not like that anymore.”

“That’s not for you to decide. Word broke in Peakside last night when one of the ranch hands started runnin’ his drunk-ass mouth to anyone who would listen. The others mentioned it to Eliza this mornin’, but I’d put money on it being all over town by now.”

Alarm spears through me as I start to panic.My mom.

She has fingers in every social circle in Cherry Peak. I wouldn’t doubt if she was one of the first few people to find out.

“How did that guy even learn about this?” Daisy asks.

Her twin blows out a harsh breath. “His sister was up in Calgary yesterday. Apparently, she was in a goddamn sex shop and recognized Poppy when she overheard everything.”

I shove trembling fingers through my hair and keep breathing steadily. The odds of that happening are one in a million.

I’ve never given a shit what the people in this town think or say about me, but I do care what they say about Daisy. She doesn’t deserve to be spoken about and judged by people who don’t know a damn thing about her because of something she was doing for me.

And Poppy . . . She’ll never get over knowing that herinnocent words were stolen by someone and used to create a burst of harmful gossip.

I force myself to speak. “Which ranch hand was it?”

“Doesn’t matter. It’s too late to get ahead of it. The truth is out now, and it won’t pass until somethin’ else comes along. You know how it works here,” Johnny answers roughly.

It’s not what I want to hear but knew was coming.

“I have to go,” I mutter.

Johnny scoffs. “What? We’re a long way from done talking about this.”

Daisy ignores him and comes to stand in front of me. She takes my face in her hands and forces me to stare at her. My lungs feel like they’ve shrunk as I can’t seem to get enough air into my system.

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