Page 112 of The Love Haters

“Get off me,” I said, sidestepping away.

We were far enough away that they couldn’t hear us over the music, but Cole dropped his voice anyway. “What are you doing? I told you to trust me!”

“Yeah—that’s not happening,” I said, still moving toward my cottage.

Cole tugged at my shirt. “Just talk to me. Just let me explain.”

So I stopped and turned. “Okay,” I said. “Explain.”

But then, instead of explaining, Cole looked back toward the party. “Do you think he can read lips?”

I turned to look.Hewas clearly Hutch. Cole was staring at him, and Hutch was staring at Cole right back.

Next to Hutch, by the way, was Sullivan. Chatting with him the way you might heckle a stony-faced guard in front of a palace.

“Cole!” I said, likeFocus!“What’s going on?”

“Fine,” Cole said, turning back. “The other day on the phone, I told Hutch we were dating.”

“What?!”

“I had to.”

“You told him we were—Why?!”

“It worked, didn’t it?”

I was so lost. “What worked?” I asked.

“It got him to do the ‘Day in the Life’ with you.”

“But I’d already told you that wasn’t happening. I texted you!”

“He said no to you,” Cole said, “but I knew I could get him to say yes to me.”

“But it was already settled!”

“He owes me,” Cole said. “He knows that.”

“He knows thatyou think that,” I corrected.

Cole shrugged. “I had a nuclear option, and I took it. You should be thanking me.”

“You mean—because of what happened at your wedding?”

“He told you about that?”

“So you thought if you told Hutch I was special to you, he’d do anything for me because he’ll do anything for you?”

Cole shrugged. “Pretty much. And I was right.”

“But…” Now it all started clicking into place. Hutch’s change of heart about the video—and about me. How he went from kissing me like mad one night to barely tolerating me the next day. How strangely standoffish he became. His kicking me out of bed. “But—youlied to him. That’s a big lie, Cole!”

“Look, you told him about Sullivan, and he still said no. Weneededa big lie.”

“I never told him about Sullivan.”

“You never told him about Sullivan?”

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