Page 24 of Not Fooling Anyone

“Who?”

“Savannah.” There’s pure loathing in her voice, catching me off guard.

Whoa. There’s history there.

From behind me comes a bubblegum-sweet, “Oh my God, sexy Lexie, is that you?”

The color returns in Lexie’s face, twin splotches of red on her cheeks.

There’s a touch on my arm, and then Savannah is there, giving me a coy look. “That’s what everyone called her in high school.”

I glance between the two of them, Lexie’s jaw set incredibly tight, Savannah with a smug smile on her face.

“I almost didn’t recognize you at first,” Savannah says to Lexie. “Your hair definitely wasn’t that color before.” It’s clear from her tone she thinks the dye job leaves something to be desired, but Lexie’s hair looks great.

“Could you give us a minute?” I ask Savannah, steering Lexie further away.

Her body is rigid, muscles tense under my hand as we move toward the stairwell. I wait for her to explain, but she’s silent, still looking over my shoulder at the study group.

“You going to give me anything?” I know she’s not one to broadcast details, the car ride over being an exception, but I need something to work with here.

“We went to high school together.”

“Yeah, I got that. I’m guessing you weren’t friends?”

“She was…” She stares down at her shoes, my normally confident girl missing in action right now. “She was one of those… people.”

The ones who were mean to her?

“All right, we’re out of here, then.” I move past her, opening the stairwell door. “I’ll text Christian later and tell him an emergency came up.”

“No.” She spins toward me, pressing the heels of her palms against her eyes. “If I leave, she’ll know exactly why. That she ran me off.”

What the hell did this girl do? Well, there’s no way I’m asking why she called her sexy Lexie. That’s sure to be met with a non-answer.

“We don’t have to do anything you’re uncomfortable with. I’m fine with quitting the study group.”

“No, that’s what she wants.” She moves her hands away from her face, those hazel eyes flashing with fire. “And I’m not giving her that.”

All right, there’s the Lexie I’m used to.

“Okay, uh…” I scratch at the back of my neck, not sure how to bring this up, but it needs to be said. “Just letting you know, she kind of hit on me before you got here.”

The devilish grin that spreads over her lips is unexpected. “Perfect.”

It is?

“Please play along,” she whispers as she grabs my hand, her fingers chilly as she intertwines them with mine.

She leads us back toward the group, an unnaturally cheerful smile on her face. “Hey, Amber. Thanks so much for inviting us.”

Oh, so shecanbe sociable. She just chooses not to.

“Glad you could make it.” Amber smiles at us. “Pizza should be here in about half an hour.”

Savannah glances at our joined hands, then back at Lexie, her gaze narrowing slightly. “Sorry, there’s no room for you, Lexie.” She points to the single chair left. “There’s already six of us, and you were the last one here, so…”

Lexie’s fingers tighten against mine. “No problem. Ethan and I will share.”

---