Book Five Teaser #3
Cassandra takes pictures. Of course she fucking does.
Tobias makes a disgusted noise. “Ryan.” Ryan ignores him. “Ryan.” Nothing. “My Ryan!”
That finally does it. Ryan pulls back just enough to look down. “What?”
“My Ally.”
“We’ve discussed this. She’s my girlfriend.”
“No.”
Ally laughs into Ryan’s chest then reaches up and whispers something into his ear. Ryan chokes. Actually fucking chokes. His face goes red.
I lean closer. “What’d she say?”
“Fuck off.”
Ally smiles at me. I point at her. “I like her.”
“Iz.”
“What? She’s funny.”
Ryan moves his hand protectively over her stomach. “Get your own.”
And then I see Bella. Not because she comes out last. She doesn’t.
She’s been walking beside Ally the entire time, one hand hovering near Ally’s elbow as they navigate the steps, and somehow my brain has been doing me the enormous favor of refusing to look directly at her.
That ends now. Pink. Of course she’s wearing fucking pink.
The dress is fitted, covered in beadwork that catches the afternoon light every time she moves—pink and gold, little flashes of blue, thin straps over her shoulders and a slit running high along one leg.
Her blonde hair falls around her shoulders, her makeup makes her blue-gray eyes look even lighter, and there is absolutely nothing surprising about the fact that Isabella Whelan looks beautiful.
I’m not blind. I’ve known Bella is beautiful forever.
I knew it when we were little and she still had gaps in her teeth.
I knew it when she decided glitter lip gloss constituted a personality.
I knew it when she learned exactly what being Isabella Whelan meant in this town and started wielding it like a weapon.
I knew it when she broke my nose. I knew it at Homecoming.
Especially at Homecoming. I’ve known it every single day since. Tonight she’s just being particularly fucking aggressive about it.
Katie’s fingers tighten around my arm. Bella’s eyes find us. Immediately. They land on Katie first, then on the hand resting against my chest. Her gaze lifts to mine and stays there for half a second too long.
There. Gone. Most people wouldn’t notice. I do. I always fucking do.
Beside me, Katie smiles.
Ah. So that’s what we’re doing.
“Bella, honey, wait.” Verlina steps forward with her phone in one hand. “Your hair.”
Bella sighs. “My hair is fine.”
“One piece is caught.”
“It’s supposed to be there.”
“It absolutely is not.”
Bella rolls her eyes, but she stands still while Verlina fixes it. Calvin watches them with the expression he always gets when Bella is being especially Bella.
“You look beautiful, Bells,” he says.
Bella glances at him. “Thanks, daddy.”
Then Nolan Pierce walks toward her.
Right. Pierce. My teammate. My friend, technically.
Good midfielder. Fast. Smug enough to be entertaining most of the time. I’ve known him long enough to know exactly how many beers it takes before he starts insisting he could beat Ryan in a footrace and exactly how badly he cheats at poker.
I have never had a compelling reason to want to break any of his fingers. Apparently, tonight we’re making new memories.
Nolan stops in front of Bella and looks her over with absolutely no shame. “Jesus, Whelan.”
Bella lifts one eyebrow. “That’s your opening?”
“I had a better one.”
“What happened?”
“You came outside.”
She considers him for a moment. “Acceptable.”
Nolan grins. Smug asshole. Usually, I like that about him. Today I hope he develops a limp. Nothing permanent. I’m not unreasonable. Nolan puts his hand on Bella’s waist. My eyes drop to it.
It is, objectively, a normal place for a guy to put his hand on the girl he’s taking to prom.
Nolan hasn’t violated any laws. He hasn’t even violated basic social etiquette.
I’ve known Pierce most of my life, played beside him for years, eaten dinner with him after games, bled beside him on the field, and once helped him push his car half a mile when the piece of shit died after practice.
None of that explains why I suddenly hate his hand.
Bella looks at me. Then down at Nolan’s hand. Then back at me. Her mouth curves.
Poisonous fucking debutante.
Nolan notices. His eyes move from Bella to me, then very deliberately down to his own hand. When he looks back up, he’s smiling.
Don’t.
His smile gets wider.
Pierce has always been smarter than this. Apparently prom has affected his judgment.
Katie follows my line of sight and presses herself more firmly against me. Her palm slides over my chest as she looks directly at Bella.
Bella’s gaze drops. Once. Back up.
Katie smiles. “Cute dress, Bella.”
Bella looks at Katie, then lets her gaze travel slowly down the length of Katie’s purple dress before returning to her face. “Thanks.”
Nothing else. I bite the inside of my cheek. Katie waits. Bella smiles.
Katie’s eyes narrow. “You don’t like mine?”
Bella tilts her head. “I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t say anything.”
“I thought we were complimenting my dress.”
I laugh. I can’t help it.
Bella’s eyes snap to mine. “What?”
“Nothing.”
“Then shut the fuck up.”
“Always so pleasant, Whelan.”
“And yet you keep talking to me.”
“Occupational hazard.”
“What’s your occupation?”
“Currently?” I look at Nolan’s hand again before meeting her eyes. “Surviving you.”
Her smile sharpens. “No one’s forcing you.”
Katie laughs and curls her fingers into my lapel. Bella notices. Nolan’s thumb moves once against Bella’s waist. I notice.
This is excellent. Healthy. Extremely fucking normal.
“Careful,” I murmur to Katie.
She looks up at me. “Of what?”
I glance toward Bella.
Katie follows my eyes and gives a quiet laugh. “She doesn’t scare me.”
Bella hears her. Her smile turns sweet enough to give me diabetes.
I look back at Katie. “You should work on that.”
Bella flips me off. There she fucking is. I grin.
“Isaac,” Mom calls from behind me.
“What?”
“Stop antagonizing Bella.”
Bella answers before I can. “He exists.”
Mom considers that. “Fair.”
“Mom.”
Bella laughs. Not the little social laugh she gives adults when they say something she doesn’t actually find funny. Not the prettier one she uses when she wants someone to like her.
Hers.
I know the difference. I fucking hate that I know the difference.
Nolan leans down and says something near her ear. Bella turns toward him, but her eyes stay on mine. Then, because she is a vindictive little nightmare and she knows exactly what she’s doing, she shifts closer to him.
Fine. I slide my hand around Katie’s waist. Katie lights up. Bella doesn’t react. Not really. Her smile stays exactly where it was. Her posture doesn’t change. She doesn’t look at my hand. But her jaw tightens. Barely. Her fingers curl once against the beading of her dress. Then release.
Got you.
Bella’s eyes narrow.
Got me too.
“Pictures!” Cassandra calls before either of us can escalate whatever the hell this is. “Before somebody ruins a dress.”
Thomas snorts. “Too late.”
Everyone looks toward the gazebo. Cat has Kaid backed against the side of it, one hand tangled in his hair while her mouth is on his neck. Kaid’s hand has disappeared through the slit of her dress.
Thomas points at them. “See?”
Callum looks delighted. Saoirse looks completely unsurprised.
Fiona covers her mouth, laughing. “Catherine.”
Cat pulls back just enough to look over. “What?”
“I asked for thirty seconds.”
“You got at least twenty.”
“Cat.”
Kaid grins against her neck.
Thomas points at him. “Don’t.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You were going to.”
“That’s profiling.”
Dad calls from behind us, “He’s got a case.”
Thomas looks at him. “Arthur.”
“What? Legally—”
Mom grabs Dad’s arm. “No.”
“I was helping.”
“You never help.”
“I help professionally.”
“Not now.”
Cassandra claps her hands sharply enough to cut through all of us. “Couples first. Then girls, boys, families, everybody together, and whatever other combination you people decide you desperately need.”
Chaos breaks out immediately. X pulls Penny against him before Alice can reposition them.
Danny and Becca start arguing over which one of them ruined Becca’s hair.
Ryan’s hand returns to Ally’s stomach while Tobias tries to wedge himself into their picture because apparently Ryan has exceeded his allotted Ally privileges.
Kaid reaches for Cat’s ass again and gets caught by Thomas before his hand makes it halfway there.
Katie slides her hand into mine. Across the garden, Nolan does the same with Bella. And for one stupid second, that is the thing I notice most.
Not the parents shouting instructions. Not Cassandra trying to organize twenty-nine people.
Not Delilah deliberately making Danny’s life harder.
Not Tobias insisting he needs to be in every picture with Ally.
Not the four assholes I’ve known most of my life being completely incapable of keeping their hands off the girls they love.
It’s Bella’s hand inside Nolan Pierce’s.
Everyone else is exactly where they’re supposed to be.
Kaid with Cat. X with Penny. Danny with Becca.
Ryan with Ally. Their hands move without thought because they’ve earned the right not to think about it.
They can kiss and touch and fight and laugh in front of every person who matters to them without pretending any of it means less than it does.
Katie squeezes my hand. Bella smiles at something Nolan says. So I smile too. Because Katie is my date. Nolan is Bella’s. Because I don’t give a fuck.
And because I’ve been lying to myself about Isabella Whelan for long enough that I’m getting really fucking good at it.
BELLA
Nolan Pierce is fine.
More than fine, objectively. Nolan is six feet of expensive tuxedo, varsity lacrosse shoulders, dark hair that somehow still looks good after three hours of dancing, and the kind of confidence only Edgewood can manufacture correctly.
He knows he’s hot. He knows his family has money.
He knows most girls at this school would happily leave prom with him.