Page 123 of Into the Woods

“Fine.” Maddie let out a sad breath and turned her attention back to me. “I guess I’ll just sit in this house all by myself. Go to school by myself. And if something goes wrong, I can call—oh, wait. There’s no one I can call, because you’ll all be on the other side of the planet!”

“Goddammit,” Ryan hissed.

Maddie winked at me, keeping her voice soft and wobbly. “So, if I fall down the stairs or get into a car wreck or accidentally eat a freaking peanut—”

“Fuck. Fine. Pack a bag, but you’re staying in the goddamn hotel, Maddie,” Ryan snapped.

“Of course,” she agreed instantly, but somehow, I doubted my best friend could or would be contained to a hotel room.

My heart lifted. “You’re coming to Paris?”

She nodded with a grin and seemed to wait for Ryan to move before whispering, “Seriously, bringing up the peanut incident is my golden ticket.”

“Mads, you almost died,” I reminded her. Maddie had a severe peanut allergy, and at her eighteenth birthday party, she’d eaten a peanut-contaminated cupcake.

One bite was all it had taken to have her throat close up. I still remembered the way she’d passed out. Linc stabbing her leg with the EpiPen. All of us hauling ass to get her to the hospital.

“Eh.” She shrugged like it was no big deal, and maybe to her, it wasn’t. After all, the girl had switched lives with her dead twin, been locked in an institution by her psycho dad, and then almost burned to death in a house fire set by her father-in-law.

I bit my bottom lip. “Court didn’t mention the guys were all coming. He said maybe, but—”

“They literally decided an hour ago,” Maddie told me. “Apparently Rook’s friend got some intel about several big-name douche nozzles showing up in Paris, and he asked the guys to come over.”

I nodded, relieved that Court wasn’t keeping stuff from me.

“So, you and Court?” Maddie smiled. “When did this happen?”

“Four days ago,” I admitted.

Her jaw dropped open. “Rebecca Whittier! You finally decided to get the guy of your dreams, and it’s taken you four freaking days to call me? As your bestie, I’m not sure if I should be pissed that it took you so long to tell me or jump up and down because you two finally got together.”

“Definitely the latter,” I said with a small laugh.

“I want all the details,” she demanded, sitting up straighter.

I gave her the rundown of everything that had happened. From the disastrous dinner with Eric and his friends to Court interrupting the date. I told her about moving in with Court, and the stupid fight we’d had when I’d seen the text messages.

“He’s such an idiot,” she seethed, shaking her head.

“He is,” I agreed. “But he’s my idiot now, I guess.”

“Yet another club we can both be in,” she giggled. “The I’m with an alphahole who thinks he knows best club.”

I inhaled sharply and nodded. “Definitely.”

“So things are good with you guys?” she asked.

A dreamy smile touched my lips. “Yeah. We’re really good. We talked out everything. I’m not saying there’s a magic wand to fix a decade of bad shit between us, but….”

“Just a magic dick?” she offered with a wry grin.

“No,” I replied, shaking my head. “You know that’s my least favorite thing in a book—when a girl is magically fixed by a guy’s dick. Like, really?”

“Okay, fair,” she conceded. “A magic dick can’t fix real-world problems. But… sometimes it makes them easier to handle.”

I tried to fight a smile and lost. “Valid.”

“Ryan gave me a synopsis of what’s been going on with you in Paris,” she said, “but seriously, Bex, are you okay with all of this?”

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