Page 113 of The Love Haters

I shook my head.

“Why not?”

“Because he told me why he doesn’t want to be famous.”

Cole wasn’t expecting that. “He did?”

“Yes. And I was respecting his wishes.”

“Why doesn’t he want to be famous?”

“You don’t know?”

He clearly didn’t. “I just want to see if your answer and my answer are the same.”

I sighed. How much to tell Cole? “Well,” I finally said, “he has his reasons.”

“You’re not going to tell me?”

“Go ask him yourself.”

“I’m not asking that guyshit.”

“Look,” I said. “Hutch is…” Then I tried, “Hutch isn’t…”

“What?” Cole demanded.

“He’s not someone you can just go around lying to for no reason.”

“Oh, I had a reason.”

“What—revenge?”

“Why not?”

“He’s a person, Cole! He’s your brother—and he loves you.”

“You’ve been here three weeks. Don’t act like you know everything.”

But I was shaking my head. “I’m not doing this. You need to tell him the truth.”

“What are you talking about? You barely know this guy!” But then Cole’s face shifted. “Wait—do you have a thing for my brother? Did you come down here and fall for him?”

I mean… I did. I had.

But I wasn’t telling Cole that.

I covered with: “What kind of question is that?”

But I guess I didn’t cover very well. “Oh, my god,” Cole said, tilting his head back toward the heavens. “You did. Now he’s stolen two girls from me.”

“I am not yours to steal.”

“He doesn’t know that.”

The whole thing was just so astonishing. How had we gotten here? “This is a mess, Cole,” I said. “What on earth were you thinking?”

“I was trying to help you!”

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