Page 86 of Darling Beasts

“Um, not sure I’d agree. Aside from PBS on occasion...”

“Oh my God!” I tossed up my hands. “Be for real! Everything gets swept under the rug around here. My PBS. Uncle Doug. Ozzie and the Troubled Teen Industrial Complex. Heck, even Mom’s mental state, if you want a deep cut.” I was seconds from mentioning the eating disorder Talia did or didn’t have—seriously, what was up with the fork dip in salad dressing routine?—but couldn’t bring myself to say it out loud.

“Mom’s mental state?” Talia repeated, looking at me like my hair was on fire.

“Her depression. Whatever.” No one ever told me her official diagnosis, and what little information I’d gleaned over the years was strictly from Grandma Yvonne’s snide remarks about Mom’snervous temperament, plus a few crumbs left by Diane here and there.

“Mom had incurablecancer,” Talia said.

“Yeah. Okay,” I said with a quick roll of the eyes. Sighing, I glanced back at the car. Dos Santos was now inside, wrestlingwith the stink badgers. This did not seem to be going well, and I briefly wondered whether I should step in.

“You said you believed me.” Her cheeks flamed.

“Yeah, I did.” She was right. I’d said I believed her, but maybe that wasn’t true. “So, while we’re on the topic of long-festering problems,” I said, eager to move on. “What will we be doing about the tuxedoed visitor? A botched engagement. Awkward!”

Talia paused. A look of horror passed over her face, the reality of what happened hitting her at once. Stink badgers weren’t even the top issue around here. “Oh, God. Oh my God! What did I do?” she wailed. “Spencer will never forgive me. I fucked things up, didn’t I?”

“Probably,” I said. “But do you even want to be with Spencer? It sort of seems...”

“Spencer is great,” she said, with force, like Tony the Tiger talking about Frosted Flakes. “The absolute best.”

“Hmmm. To each her own, I guess.”

“But I’m so confused.” Talia’s shoulders dropped, and her gaze followed. She stared at the ground, eyes glistening in the zoo van’s headlights. “Sometimes when I look at him, I think this is not it. Then the next minute it’s like, who am I to dump this man?”

I blinked, pondering where to begin, when a metal door slammed. Seven stink badgers had been successfully moved into the trailer. The other two would have to figure out life on their own.

“My feelings are complicated,” Talia continued, and I watched as Mindy offered dos Santos use of a shower. Sometimes she wasn’t the worst. Who knew. “Spencer is a catch. And he loves me. I forgot, being so far away.”

I shook my head. This was half her problem. Unless something was right in front of her face, Talia had a hard time buying into it.

“Him lovingyouisn’t a reason to stay together,” I said, despite being wildly unqualified to offer romantic advice. “I mean, it’s a start. It’s necessary. But shouldn’t it go both ways?”

“You don’t like him. I get it.”

“It doesn’t matter whether I like him. The real question is, do you?”

Chapter Fifty-Eight

Talia

Raj sat on the edge of the Jacuzzi, his legs dangling in the water, the lights reflecting in his glasses. The faint scent of skunk—sorry,stink badger—lingered in the air.

“Sooooo...” Talia said, sitting beside him. She pulled up her sweats and dipped her feet into the spa. “How’s your night going? Pretty uneventful, huh?”

“I told you ‘going for a swim’ was a bad idea.”

Talia winced, recalling how she’d begged him to leave the party.Don’t be a stick in the mud! Let’s take a dip!He’d refused because it wasn’t swimming weather, and anyway he hadn’t brought a swimsuit to the Ranch. Talia laughed and said no swimsuits required. Oh, calm down! Wear your boxers!No one would be around the main house tonight. They were all at the party, and guests had been instructed to park by HQ.

Come on, Raj. Do you want to make the most of the night or not?Talia was trying to sound sexy and fun but suspected she came across as impossibly awkward. But Raj ultimately relented, and now this. The most humiliating night of their lives.

“I’m sorry. For everything. There’s no need for you to be embarrassed,” Talia said, speaking so quickly she might’ve skipped a few words. “This is on me. And you probably don’t care one way or another, but my relationship is officially over.”

The breakup was easy, as far as breakups went. Spencer wasthe wronged party, and Talia needed to grovel to win him back but couldn’t bring herself to do it. Gabby’s question hit hard—didshe like him? Talia’s inability to readily access the answer told the story. Spencer booked a flight out for tomorrow.

“Anyway. Chapter closed!” Talia’s voice was thin, her brain scrambled. “Soooo... feel free to chime in.”

“I’m still trying to... work out what happened,” Raj said haltingly. “It was a...”

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