Page 31 of Spark

“I told her it wouldn’t be a bother. That it might even be fun. But she’s being too polite about supposedly inconveniencing me.”

Savage and Laila look at each other, and it feels like they’re having a lengthy, nonverbal conversation about me.

“What?” I finally ask.

“Are you sureherconvenience is the only reason you want Ruby to stay with you?” Laila asks slowly, her perfect eyebrow arched.

“Well, I mean, I also think we’d have a good time. I rarely get to hang out with Ruby, just her and me, these days. We used to do that all the time when she was at Northwestern, right after I dropped out of school. I’d come visit her on weekends and sleep on the floor of her dorm room. But these days, it’s a rarity.”

Again, my best friend and his wife have an entire conversation without speaking.

“What?” I ask again, this time with a bit more oomph. “Whatever those looks mean, I’d appreciate you looping me in on it.”

“Why do you think you’re jonesing to spend more one-on-one time with Ruby?” Laila asks coyly.

“Because we’re almost always in big groups on tour, and when we get home, we don’t tend to hang out as much. Not sure why.”

“No?” Laila asks innocently.

“He’s not sure why,” Savage deadpans to Laila, making her chuckle.

“I’m gathering you both thinkyouknow why?”

“We definitely have a theory,” Laila concedes.

“Well, don’t leave me in suspense.”

When Laila motions to Savage to explain, he says, “Speaking for myself, I think it’s because Ruby usually starts dating someone when we get back, and you?—”

“Yeah, both of us get super busy, whenever we’re home,” I supply. But I say it at the same time Savage finishes his sentence with, “—can’t stand seeing Ruby with someone else.”

My jaw drops. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Tell me this, Kendrick,” Laila says. “How did it make you feel to find out Ruby’s never been ‘desperately in love’ with Kai, like you’ve been thinking for so long? Was that a neutral fact for you to learn, or did it cause you to have some kind of emotional reaction?”

“Of course it wasn’t neutral. I was pissed at my brother for telling me lies. That wasn’t cool.”

“But was it also a relief for you to find that out? Did it make you feel like a weight had been lifted off you?”

“Yeah. Sure. Because now I don’t have to walk on eggshells, worrying I’m rubbing salt in Ruby’s teenage wounds every time Kai’s name comes up.”

Laila looks at her husband and snickers.

I roll my eyes. “What are you not saying?”

Laila smiles. “You want to know what I said to Savage when he first told me what you’d told him about Ruby supposedly being secretly in love with Kai?”

“You’re such a fucking blabbermouth, Adrian Savage.”

“She’s mywife.”

Laila’s smile broadens. “I said, ‘Wow, I would have bet any amount of money on that exact same story being true about Ruby and Kendrick,not Ruby and Kai.”

My heart stops. “W-what made you think that?”

Laila stares at me for a long moment, like she’s expecting me to answer my own question. But since I don’t know what the fuck she’s expecting me to say, I simply wait for her to speak again with bated breath.

“Just a feeling, I guess,” Laila finally says, with a shake of her long, blonde hair.

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