Page 4 of Our Darkest Summer
I couldn’t help but shift in my seat as I glanced in Thomas’ direction, my eyes narrowing. A flicker of something I couldn’tplace crossed his face, but it was gone in a blink, like it had never been there. What had Kevin wanted to say?
“Kevin.” Connor was the one who broke the tense silence, capturing all of our attention. He spoke with a strange, raspy voice that was unfamiliar to me, and from the corner of my eye, I saw Thomas raise a brow as well.
“Connor?” Kevin leaned backward, like he couldn’t quite believe to his eyes. “I haven’t seen you since you were like five.” His smile reappeared, and something flashed in his gaze. Something I needed a moment to recognize. Not desire, not exactly, but interest.
I studied Kevin, biting the inside of my cheek. He looked like those guys you see in underwear commercials: dark skin, arms covered in tattoos, an athletic build, and a charming smile.
“I was eight, but yes,” Connor answered, the back of his neck turning red.Was he nervous?“Do you still have that pet parrot?” he asked, clearly trying to change the subject just as Kevin shifted on the other side of the window, his eyes landing on me.
Great.So much for being invisible.
“Marley? Yes, she’s a happy bird,” he answered Connor’s question, then tipped his head. “I see Little Rhodes got himself a girlfriend.” A disingenuous grin pulled on his lips.
“Kinsley is…” Connor hesitated.
“Close family friend,” I answered instead.
I didn’t want him diving into our parent’s foul play by accident.
“Kinsley Green.” I held out my hand.
“Kevin Miller.” He smiled, shaking it. “You seem like a good sport.”
My brows knit. “Thanks?”
His grin widened as he pulled his hand back. “I gotta go, but see you later?” He looked between the boys, and Connor nodded.
Thomas restarted the engine, and stepped on the gas without waiting for Kevin to leave. Less than five minutes later we drove past thegoodbyesign. The car turned onto a bumpy side road, leading us deeper into the pine woods that surrounded this whole area. I rolled down the window and poked my head out, letting the wind whip through my hair. I took a deep breath, filling my lungs with the fresh scent of the woods until they screamed for me to stop.
“Kinsley.” I heard Thomas’ warning tone, but I ignored him, focusing on the scenery instead.
Tall evergreens, thick trunks covered in moss. My father loved nature. He called it our true home. When I was little, he took me hiking every other week. Sometimes, I could still taste the hot cocoa, he used to brew on crips mornings. I closed my eyes, trying to remember how he was before his new family. How he thought me about trees and birds?—
“Kinsley,” Thomas called again, and this time a hand locked around my ankle. I startled around, almost bumping my head into the window frame. His touch was familiar, like a faint memory you shouldn’t remember. “I told you not to do that.”
I yanked my leg out of his grasp, my skin burning where he touched me. He might’ve told me but I certainly didn’t listen.
Connor sighed.
“Careful,” I replied in a poisonous voice. “It’ll look like you care.” I turned my eyes back to the landscape and Thomas snorted, but there wasn’t any humor in the sound.
“It would take a lot of my energy to explain a death caused by a fucking tree while you were sitting in the back of my car,” he said, and I gritted my teeth. “You can call it whatever you want, though.”
I was about to argue when Connor cut in. “We’re almost there. Can’t you two play nice?” he groaned, bumping the side of his head against the window with pretend agony.
I blew out an annoyed breath and eased back into the seat. The thoughtI shouldn’t be heresettled over my chest, just as Thomas took a left turn, and a huge, rustic house came into view.
Chapter Three
Kinsley
The moment the car stopped,I scrambled out to take in the scenery. The lake sprawled out to my right, a long wooden pier reaching into the water with the pine trees reflecting off the blue surface. The hairs on the back of my neck prickled. For all its beauty, there was something uncanny about the stillness of it all that had my stomach clenching. I turned back toward the house to find the front door already open. The guys had disappeared inside alongside our bags. I took the moment alone to orient myself to the new place. Combining stone and wood with large windows, the house managed to appear cozy even with its size. It was the type of place where I’d imagined myself when I was younger, curled up beside a fireplace with a book in my hands. I shouldn’t have expected anything less from Joshua Rhodes, yet I was fully prepared to stay in a log cabin and not in a mansion in the middle of the woods.
“Planning to spend the night out there?” Thomas’ voice came from inside the house, and I sneered.
“Wouldn’t you love that?” I muttered, grabbing the rest of my bags from the backseat and hurrying up the long stairs to the porch.
A low humming noise made me halt, and I turned around, shielding my eyes against the blinding sun to see a red dirt bike emerge from the forest. It stopped at the base of the stairs, its rider hidden under a bright red helmet enhanced with spiderwebs. It looked like Spider-Man’s mask.
