“Are you and Ryder fighting, Knox?”
Dead silence fell over the living room, Brooks jerking his head around to look at me accusingly. I offered him an apologetic look before straightening his head. His shoulders stiffened beneath me.
“No,” Knox answered tersely. “What makes you say that?”
“I don’t know. You keep giving each other weird looks every time you see each other.”
Another quiet overcame the room.
“With all due respect, Simone, you don’t really know how we interact normally,” Knox said rigidly, confirming my suspicions.
“You’re right,” I agreed quickly. “But having grown up around tension, I can typically smell it a mile away. My therapist calls it hypervigilance.”
Knox snorted, and Brooks turned his head again.
“Okay, you need to stop doing that, or you’re going to end up lopsided,” I warned Brooks.
Grimacing, he faced forward.
“Then you should also know that families are complicated, Simone,” Knox said stiffly. “We don’t always see eye to eye on everything.”
I put the comb down and stared at Knox directly. “Are you fighting about me?” I asked pointedly.
He paled, his gaze darting away, but he didn’t deny it.
“Why?” I insisted. “What are you at odds about?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Knox muttered.
Brooks spun around in the chair, ignoring my earlier warning.
“Knox!” he growled. “What’s going on?”
I glanced at Brooks. “I told you,” I muttered.
“It doesn’t matter. It’s stupid what he wants,” Knox growled, his voice low as his eyes moved toward the threshold. He was clearly concerned that Ryder might amble by.
“What does he want?” Brooks insisted.
“He was talking about taking Simone to Loganville via snowmobile a couple of weeks ago, but there’s no safe way to do that.”
Brooks sputtered, and I blinked.
“That was an option?” I asked, dismayed.
“NO!” both the cousins answered in unison, staring at me.
Knox looked as if he had been punched in the face by my question.
“No way, Simone,” Brooks went on. “It would be way too risky. The weather can turn at any time, and there are too many drops and drifts. If it were an option, we would have exercised it the day after you got here. I don’t know why he would even suggest it.”
“Because he doesn’t want her here,” Knox mumbled, but his eyes were on me.
The revelation shouldn’t have been as devastating as it was, but it struck my gut. Ryder had made it clear from the start that I was unwelcome. But was I so unwelcome that he was literally willing to risk lives to get rid of me?
“Wow,” I breathed, leaning onto the chair for support as the air knocked out of my lungs.
“Would you go?” Knox asked me.