Page 4 of Into the Woods

I wasn’t going to point out that Maddie had hardly needed protecting this morning. If anything, Gretchen was lucky Maddie had let her leave without needing to see a plastic surgeon.

Maddie had changed a lot in the months we’d known her. She’d gone from unsure and drowning in our bullshit to thriving and confident. But nothing brought out her protective-mama-bear side quite like Corinne.

“I got it,” I agreed, my voice rough and weary. Damn, I was tired of feeling like this. I was just shy of twenty-two, and I felt like an old man.

Ryan stared at me. “Court, you saw what I went through with Mads. You had a front-row seat to all my fuckups and what it took to get her back.”

Yeah, I had. But that wasn’t the same—there was no evil twin in my past to blame shit on.

My spine stiffened. “Your point?”

“If I can fix what I broke with Maddie, you can fix shit with—”

“Don’t.” I cut him off and spun away, not wanting to hear it.

Silence lingered for another moment, so long that I thought he’d left.

“She’s staying in Paris,” Ryan finally admitted.

It was like being donkey-kicked in the balls as a vise squeezed my chest. All the air whooshed out of my lungs.

“After her mom’s heart attack and filing for divorce from Malcolm, her grandparents convinced her to defer her final semester, since she already has the credits to graduate. Maddie hates that she won’t have her best friend here for the next five months, but Bex is still planning on coming back to Pacific Cross for college.”

My eyes drifted shut. It didn’t matter. This was my last semester at PCU before I started law school. I’d already been accepted to Stanford. Odds were I wouldn’t see her when she came back.

Which was for the best.

“I’m not going to tell you what to do,” Ryan started, “but you need to accept that she’s part of our lives now, and that isn’t changing. This isn’t like when we were kids, and you wrote her off because of what your dad did.”

I snorted at the way he’d dumbed down one of the most pivotal, life-changing moments of my existence.

“She’s Maddie’s best friend, and Maddie’s one of us now. You can’t avoid her forever.”

I swallowed and stared blankly ahead. “Are we done?”

He let out a snort. “Yeah. We’re done. Get yourself together, because I don’t care how hungover your ass is—you promised Cori you’d take her fishing. Either honor that promise, or tonight, you’ll sleep with them. Got it?”

Nodding, I went into the bathroom and slammed the door closed behind me before stripping out of my boxers. I stumbled into the shower and twisted a few knobs. The water rushed out, slapping me across the face, chest, and ass from several angles. Usually I loved taking my time in the shower, but I had a feeling Ryan would drag my ass out of here if I took too long.

Bracing a hand on the shower wall, I squeezed my eyes shut as the water rushed over my head. With a groan, I popped my eyes open and looked down. A red smear snagged my attention.

What. The. Fuck?

Christ, was that blood on my dick?

I grabbed my cock with my free hand, sweeping a thumb across the red and wondering if I’d somehow broken the only part of me that still seemed capable of functioning. It took a second, but the red wiped off.

So, not blood. Lipstick.

I counted that as a win. Probably the only one I’d have today.

CHAPTER 2

COURT

I took the fastest shower possible before brushing my teeth. With a towel wrapped around my hips, I stepped into my bedroom. I was so preoccupied with wallowing in my bad decisions that I missed the asshole sitting on my bed.

And I was too slow to dodge the bone-crunching punch that landed on my ribs. Something shifted and popped as I wheezed out a breath. A second fist landed in my gut, doubling me over.

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