Page 75 of Spark
Then Annabeth deployed her killer weapon. “Did he ever tell you that your Christmas pony was actually his idea, and that he hounded Mitya and your mother until they agreed to purchase Coconut for you?”
Sophie’s jaw dropped. She’d never even touched a horse before she came to Bearpaw Ridge. Receiving a pony for her first Christmas here at the ranch had been the most wonderful, earthshaking present she had ever received.
She’d been crazy about horses at the time, but more importantly, the gift had made her feel like she belonged here.
“I—he never said a word,” she stammered.
“That’s all well and good, Annabeth,” someone said in a brisk tone from the living room’s large cased doorway. “But what aboutChris’sheart? He was your assistant baker for quite a while, so you know what a good soul and a hard worker he is. And he’s known Sophie almost as long as your boy has. Why shouldn’t she pickhim?”
It was Margaret Swanson, and though she normally looked sweet and grandmotherly, right now, she appeared almost as stern and dangerous as Dane had been earlier. Maybe it was a shifter thing.
“Because Chris isn’t my son. Matt is,” Annabeth said simply. She didn’t look the least bit intimidated by the older woman.
Feeling trapped, Sophie looked from one woman to the other. Clearly, she was going to be blamed for breaking someone's heart, no matter whether she chose Matt or Chris in the end.
I thought dating them was going to be fun. How did this all go so horribly wrong?
“Excuse me,” she said to them. “I—I don’t feel well. I need to go home.”
She fled Elle Swanson’s house, with its poisonous atmosphere of guilt and tension.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Back in her room, with the house mercifully empty because everyone else was still over at Elle’s place, Sophie could finally let her feelings out.
She buried her face in her pillow and sobbed until her cheeks were hot and her eyes burned. It didn’t help.
What am I supposed to do? I can’t choose one over the other! And even if I could, no matter which one of them I picked, it would still cause a lot of trouble.
Meanwhile, her phone was blowing up with texts from Matt, from Chris, from Maggie, and even from Athena. It was overwhelming.
Athena’s was the only message she read. It was decorated with a string of heart emojis and short.
It was wrong of me to say that. I’m really sorry, sis.
Since Mom’s demand for a written apology meant an actual note written with a pen on paper, Sophie knew that her sister’s apology text was genuine because it didn’t count towards her punishment.
Feeling drained and exhausted, Sophie went to wash her face with cold water. She removed her contacts from her eyes, and put on her glasses.
She looked at herself in the mirror. She looked like a wreck. A pathetic ugly loser. Her nose and eyes were both red, her cheeks were blotchy, and locks of limp wet hair straggled over her forehead and clung to her temples.
So much for sexy Sophie,huh?she thought bitterly.
She suddenly wanted to be standing in Matt’s protective embrace, or lying in bed with Chris’s long, lean form curled around her, comforting her.
But both of the guys were still at Elle’s house, probably still sniping at each other. They probably didn’t even realize she’d left, because they were still caught up in their dick-measuring contest.
Sophie changed into her pajamas and crawled into bed. She noticed that more texts had arrived while she was in the bathroom, and turned off her phone.
Tomorrow, she’d have to face the aftermath of what had happened tonight, but for right now, she just wanted to hide and not deal with anything else.
A short time later, she heard a knock on her bedroom window.
“Go away,” she said, knowing that he could hear her, whichever one of them was standing outside.
“Sophie, please,” Chris said.
“We need to talk to you. Please, let us in,” added Matt.
