Page 56 of Holiday Friend Zones
“What?”Kyra sasses back, without a care in the world.
That’s my girl…
“What?What?”Mikayla throws her arms out wide.
I look past her, scanning to see who else has arrived.So far, it’s just her and Lindee, who is standing a few feet behind her, watching intensely.Like she’s ready to intervene at any moment.
“Do you want to go to jail?”Mikayla continues.“That’s what!”
“What are you talking about?”Kyra asks.
Shit.Shit, shit, shit…
I swallow hard, trying to will Mikayla to stop talking.To not be her normal, uptight, controlling self.To simply let this all play out how Kyra and I want it to.
But she doesn’t.
“It’s tax fraud, Kyra!Or did Davis leave that part out?”
“What?How…” Kyra sputters.
“Sorry,” Lindee chimes in from the other side of their older sister.“She cornered me when she got the text, and I told her.”
“Yeah, and it’s a good thing she did.Because this guy”—Mikayla yanks her thumb in my direction, her Murray-hazel eyes turning even angrier—“is using you for your money.He’s setting you up to go to jail for a long, long time.Plus, he’s putting Tennessee Trouble in a lot of financial trouble.”
“That is not what’s going on,” I defend.
“Stop, Davis,” Mikayla cuts me off.
The courthouse doors open, cool air whipping in and Kyra’s parents rushing inside, her brother, Rylan, right behind them.They stop short, eyes going wide when they see the group of us.
“Davis,” Kyra says, worry in her voice.“Is she right?Is this tax fraud?”
“Yes,” Mikayla answers for me.
“I didn’t ask you, Mikayla,” Kyra spits.Turning back to me, she drops my hand, coolness surrounding it instantly, making the loss feel that much bigger.“Tell me the truth.”
“Technically, yes.But?—”
“No buts,” she cuts me off.
“Then, technically, yes.”
My stomach knots up and I want to puke.Kyra’s face falls, shattering my heart in a million pieces.I did that.I hurt her.That knowledge right there is worse than jail time.
“This is what you get for being so impetuous.If you had just stopped to think?—”
“Mikayla, I don’t want to hear it!”Kyra shouts.“Because despite what you think, you did just succeed in ruining my wedding day.”
Without another word, Kyra storms off, pushing past both her sisters.I call after her, but she doesn’t even turn around, continuing across the lobby, not even looking at her parents before she’s out the door.
Clenching my fists, I count to ten, hoping that will somehow tamp down the rage that is rising in me.It doesn’t.Instead, it acts as a flimsy lid rattling on top of a boiling pot, making that much more of a racket inside my chest.
“I feel like we missed something?”Bonnie, Kyra’s mother, comments, looking between the door and us.
“Certainly not a wedding,” Rick, her husband, replies.
“Are you happy now?”I growl between gritted teeth, my gaze trained on Mikayla.
