You Never Can Tell
Delores
The walk back from the building where my law class is held goes slower tonight, and it’s not just the ache in my thighs or the bruised rib from the last round of Games practice.
I’m so low on energy that every step feels like it requires a full-body commitment.
Fitzy walks beside me, matching my pace exactly, and every time I think he’s about to say something snarky about my limp, he just grunts and keeps his eyes straight ahead.
It’s weird, and I’m too tired to poke at it.
I know he’s stewing on something, but I have the emotional bandwidth of a spent battery, so I let the silence ride.
I’ve figured out that sometimes men require brooding time before we discuss their issues, especially mine.
At the annex door, he digs around in his hoodie pocket for an eternity, then in his backpack, then checks his pants as if he needs to find something.
I don’t point out that he just needs to wave his arm because it would require effort and also because I can see in his face that he’s running the world’s longest process in the back of his head.
Eventually, he figures it out on his own, unlocks the door, and holds it open for me.
He’s still stuck in whatever is consuming his brain, and it’s affecting how he relates to the world externally.
“I struck out,” he announces glumly. “I spent the whole practice trying to get a read on Z, but I got nothing. I even haunted her office floor while you were in your class afterward, but she just sat in her office, alone, doing paperwork. Like she’s…
normal, or something.” He frowns so hard that for a second I think he’s going to pull a muscle.
I shoulder through the entryway, shucking my gym bag off and dropping it by the shoe rack.
“I’m sure the disappointment will make your bedtime stories extra spicy tonight,” I say, trying to make light so he quits frowning so hard.
“But, you know, maybe she doesn’t owe you every single plot twist in her life, even if you and your twin think it’s your business. ”
Bet he didn’t know I noticed them harassing her this week, hmm?
Fitz closes the door with a little more force than necessary.
“It’s not about being nosy, Baby Girl. It’s about the fact that anything Society-adjacent always, always, always drags us in, whether we want it or not.
You know this, and we just want to know what shit her family is flinging so we can duck.
” He slouches against the wall as he watches me pull off my shoes.
“If there’s even a one percent chance something is happening with them that could eventually involve the Council, we want to know ahead of time to keep you from getting caught in the crossfire. ”
“Okay,” I say, shoving my shoes into the cubby with my foot. “But if it actually was Society, Z would tell us. She doesn’t want me or any of us hurt; that’s why she spent her summer in Paris snooping, remember?”
My tiger makes the face of a man deeply unconvinced, but who can’t find a counterargument at the moment. He mutters something under his breath about ‘asshole lionesses and their dramatic fucking everything’, and then gestures for me to lead the way to the living room.
It’s weirdly full, considering we’re a wee bit early.
LaPorte definitely doesn’t enjoy that late class time and has let us out a bit early for the second time in a week.
I anticipate that will be the norm, and maybe, if I’m lucky, she’ll even cancel the damn thing sometimes throughout the semester.
I could certainly use the break, and since she’s not making trouble for me yet, I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt.
However, I’m glad Aubrey is in his dragon-sized reading chair already with a volume cracked open and a mug steaming on the armrest. Seeing Rennie perched, catlike and deeply disrespectful, on the edge of the couch as he scrolls on a tablet warms my heart.
Chessie hovering by the kitchen pass-through with a dish towel slung over his shoulder is charming.
But what really draws my eye is the person occupying the center cushion of the couch, cross-legged and grinning at me so wide it nearly splits her face… Cori.
She’s wearing a puffy vest over a neon pink hoodie, and her hair is freshly cut, styled in a way that would look absurd on anyone else but somehow makes her head look like the world’s most huggable snowball.
Jinx, who has abandoned her usual sentry position in my room, is curled next to her with her head in Cori’s lap, eyes half-closed and tail thumping.
I freeze in the doorway. “What are you doing here? I haven’t heard from you for almost a week!”
Cori puts both hands up and wiggles them in a jazz position excitedly.
“Surprise! I heard from Raina and the crew that you were worried about us, so I came over. Rufus had a rehearsal for a project, so he couldn’t make it, but he sent you his eternal love and also two memes, which I forgot to print out but will show you later. ”
For a split second, I’m so stunned that my brain cannot generate speech. Then the backlog of everything I wanted to say to my BFFs jams the system so hard that all I manage is, “You’re really here!”
Yes, I know it’s only been a couple of days, but that was after an entire summer of silence, and it feels like a damn ice age’s worth of time.
The bear launches off the couch so hard Jinx has to scramble for purchase, and then she’s hugging me, arms around my back in a full tackle with her face pressed into my shoulder.
Cori smells like eucalyptus hand sanitizer and something oddly familiar, but the warmth in her grip is enough to crush my entire body.
I hug her back, hard, and just for a second I get a flash of something—like she’s not just visiting, but has a specific reason for coming in person versus texting.
Over her shoulder, I catch the exchange of looks between my mates.
Aubrey’s eyebrow quirks, Renard gives him a very French shrug, and Chess barely hides a smile.
I file that away for later and focus on the friend in front of me.
I step back and look Cori over. The under-eye circles are way worse than usual, and the knuckles on her left hand are red and scuffed.
But there’s a light in her eyes that I haven’t seen in…
well, ever. It’s like she’s exhausted, yes, but also alive in a way that’s new.
“Holy shit, Coco, you look like you just swam here from the Arctic,” I say as we pull apart. “It’s not that cold out yet.”
She grins wider, her eyes dancing with mischief.
“I was going to bring you a treat from the big freezer in the cafeteria, but I couldn’t find anything that sounded good after the first five minutes.
” She nudges me playfully, but her smile dims a hair.
“I missed you this summer, Dollykins. Like, a lot, and it’s been a bitch not being able to catch up because of school since we all got back. ”
Now it’s Chess’s turn to cut in. “If you two would like proper food, I can bring dinner and drinks to my angel’s room so you can have privacy. That is unless you want to debrief the entire council of large, nosy men and a hyperactive tiger as well.”
Fitz, who has been uncharacteristically silent for the last ninety seconds, starts whining immediately.
“I’m hungry, too, Chessie. And I’ve waited hours to spend time with my Baby Girl.
” He crosses his arms and looks at us with an exaggerated pout.
“You’re abandoning me for girl time. I could die from neglect, and you’d never know while you giggle and paint your toes. ”
Aubrey doesn’t look up from his book. “You’ll survive, Fitzgerald. She needs this, and you’re being ridiculous. Felix would scold you, so since he is not present as yet, I will do it for him.”
“If you want, I can handcuff you to the radiator so you don’t listen at the door,” Rennie adds lazily. “While I believe you’d enjoy the bondage, Chester would never allow you to damage the heating, so you’d be stuck in one spot.”
Chess laughs, shaking his head. “If you’re going to be childish, I’ll bring you a juice box with your dinner, Fitzy. You can sulk with your phone like a proper kid while you have some vitamins and minerals, hmm?”
Cori laughs so hard she almost steps on Jinx, who huffs in indignation and slinks off toward my room. “I fucking love how your men torture one another, D. It’s hashtag goals, honestly.”
My tiger mate makes a big show of flopping on the couch, dramatic sigh and all, as if he’s dying from the loss. “I’ll just… be here. Alone. While my entire family leaves me to rot.”
I grab my bestie’s wrist and drag her toward the hall.
“I will keep the noise down so you don’t get even more jealous,” I retort, grinning playfully.
The wave of protest from Fitz is so loud it makes us both giggle as we walk to my room.
Jinx is already through my door, waiting with her butt parked on the threshold like a little kitty bouncer.
Once inside, I drop my book bag near the wardrobe and pull my hair out of the updo.
Cori kicks off her boots, cracks her neck, and then flops face-first onto my bed with a sigh so deep it could have come from the bottom of her soul.
I follow, bouncing twice before rolling onto my back and staring at the ceiling.
For a second, neither of us says anything.
Jinx circles twice and flops down between us, her nose pressed to Cori’s thigh.
“Are we just going to lie here and not talk for a while?” I ask curiously.
“Please. Let’s not talk about anything serious for at least two minutes,” Coco says, her voice muffled by the mattress. “I don’t want to think about campus, or parents, or anything that starts with the letter S and ends with ‘ociety,’ okay?”
“Deal,” I say, letting my eyelids drift closed with a smile.