“Why don’t you call Mason or Logan?” She sounded so small.

I shrugged. “I don’t know. It wouldn’t be fun with them.” And they had things to do after school, like their first basketball practice.

“Oh.”

“So will you come?” I kept my eyes closed and waited.

“It’s the new house close to the Kades, right?”

Why wasn’t I surprised she had known that? I gripped the phone tighter and grinned into it. “Yes, that one. My car’s in the driveway. It has the red gate.”

“I know! I’ll be there quick.” She hung up, sounding in a breathless excitement like I’d known her to be so many other times.

I shook my head as I let loose a deep breath. The girl was going to kill me. She’d become a friend when no one else wanted anything to do with me, but she found out three months ago that her fairytale hero had been using her to get to me and Becky ceased to exist from my life. The rumors hit not long after that about Mason and me and nothing seemed like normal anymore. I had people trying to be friends when they’d been the ones gossiping behind my back and others who decided they wanted to kill me when they had gotten along with me previously.

It didn’t take that long before my doorbell rang. I had taken my bags to my room, ordered a pizza, and worried if I’d given the right address before I opened the door to Becky. She looked up and gave me a small smile. Her red hair was pulled back in two pigtails that were low on her head, and she had her hands clasped together.

“Hi.”

I grinned. I was just glad she’d shown up. “Hey.” And I opened the door wider. “Come in. Please. I need company.”

She grinned but stepped in and started to swivel her head around. “This place is gorgeous, Sam. I can’t believe it.”

“Well,” I felt so awkward. “My bio dad is a senior partner in his law firm so I guess…” I spread my arms wide. “That means he can own something like this.”

She went from one room to the next. She started in the main living room with leather couches and a chandelier from the ceiling and moved through to the next living room with red couches. She walked past a piano placed in an open area by a small fountain and looked in the dining room and patio room. Both were extensions from the kitchen.

She arched an eyebrow. “Is this place bigger than the Kade mansion?”

“No.”

“Really?” Her awestruck tone had come back.

“I mean, that place is so formal and all.”

“Is it bigger or not?” She pinned me down with her eyes.

I squirmed under her gaze and then relinquished, “No, it’s not, but it’s more modern. James’ place is just huge.”

She glanced under her eyelids at me before she looked away. “I wouldn’t know. You never invited me over.”

This was where I held my tongue. I only knew one other person that’d been invited inside, and I wasn’t going to start any drama by inviting Becky over. It was something that I knew had hurt her, but I gave her a small smile instead of telling her that she hadn’t made the short list to be allowed inside. That conversation wouldn’t end well.

“So you said you had a theatre here?”

“I did!” I perked up as I led her downstairs to the room with a screen that covered an entire wall. A few rows of lounging chairs made up the rest of the room. Each chair could be reclined and had a resting place for drinks and anything else someone might’ve brought.

“Oh my god!” Becky gasped as she walked inside. “This is amazing, Sam. Your bio dad thought about this all on his own?”

I shrugged again. “He’s one of a kind, trust me.” When she lifted up a barrier between two of the seats, I started laughing. “Yeah, I liked the ideas of couches more, but then Mason showed me that. I like this room a lot more now.”

Her smile faded quickly and I paused in confusion, but then I realized. We’d never talked about him before, and I took a deep breath. “You can ask anything you want, you know.”

She let the barrier fall. The gravity in her eyes set me back, but I clenched my jaw and waited. She had a right to know, didn’t she? She’d been my friend when I hadn’t any so I owed her. Right? Pain seared me when I remembered two other friends that I would’ve thought the same about, until both of them stabbed me in the back.

“How?”

She threw me with that one. “What do you mean?”

“How did it happen? Do you love him?”

I smiled weakly. “Maybe we could have some wine before we have this talk?”

She blocked me when I started for the door. “I mean it, Sam. I want to know. Are you really with him?” Then she blushed and looked down. “Of course, you are. I was there. I saw how he touched you. But…” She looked back up. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I…” had no idea what to say to her. How could I explain things I didn’t know myself? So I settled with, “It just happened, I guess. I don’t really know—there wasn’t an exact time when it happened.”

“When we were at the cabin party, you were gone that first whole day. Was it then?”

Oxygen left me in a rush. “Okay, maybe that’s when it started.” A flash of lust spread through me as I remembered that day. His arms had held me in place as he nuzzled under my neck, my cheeks, and under my ear. Adam had been there and he’d been a witness to the power Mason held over me. Heat flared through me as I recalled that time. It wasn’t one that I was proud of, but it pushed Adam back. I knew now that Mason had paraded our relationship in front of him for a reason.