“Because I—I may have met someone else, and I don’t know, I think that he would hate that some other male would be a big part of her life, ya know?”
“I need a holiday.” I rubbed my temples with my fingertips. “Ok, here’s what we are going to do.” I pushed off the counter and made my way back to my seat. “We are going to all sit the fuck down when all of this is over, and have a flat-out chat about what we are going to do with little princess. Tillie.” I brought my eyes to hers, drilling them into her. “I do not, under any circumstances, think you should run from Nate. He will find you, and the erratic way his behavior has been since finding out he is a dad, I wouldn’t trust his intentions with you once he does find you, so I honestly think you should take my route, and ju—”
“—Ok!” she snapped at me with a smile on her lips. “You’re still persistent.”
“That shit will never change,” Tate muttered, standing and going to the sink to rinse her plate.
“Now,” I grinned. “Who is this man you’ve met?”
Her face fell.
“What?”
She shook her head. “Honestly, it would never work out. We had a moment, and I don’t know… I just, I don’t think it’s a good idea.”
“Well, who is it? Do I know him? Please don’t tell me it’s one of those weird guards at Perdita.”
She shook her head. “No. I’m wasting my time because it could never happen. He’s too involved with Katsia to look at me again, and we had a moment or two, but then he went cold and I honestly think it’s a waste of time me even mentioning it. It just made me realize that if something ever did happen between me and someone, Nate wouldn’t allow it.”
“I do have a plan, though,” I said.
“Oh goodie!” Tate bit into an apple. “Let me guess, you want to gatecrash this war?”
I smirked.
“And how are we supposed to get past the wicked witch of the west?” Tatum asked, crunching on her apple loudly.
I skipped toward her. “Well, the wicked witch isn’t as wicked as she seems.”
We finished up breakfast and washed the dishes. The house we were staying in was a two-story loft air BNB. There were two bedrooms upstairs and one downstairs. Tillie and the baby stayed downstairs while Tate and I crashed in here. Flopping onto the bed, I bring my phone up to my face and send Bishop a text.
Weird conversation with Carter.
What did he want
I flipped onto my tummy. I don’t know. He said he wanted to talk with me when I got home.
I waited for the three little circles to pop up, but they didn’t. Two minutes pass before I decided to send him another. The thirst was real. How are your plans going?
Fast. We have a good lot of people coming in today and tonight. We will be all flying out tomorrow night. You? How’s Mom?
Okay, so they were going to be leaving Friday night, not morning, which put a slight dent in my plans. I was hoping that they would leave in the morning so we could get there later that day.
Mom is awesome. I want a swap. Mine for yours.
I realized my bad joke as soon as I hit send and cringed. My face was scrunched and my cheeks were on fire when Tillie walked in.
“Hey! Do you—” she stopped when she saw my face. “Are you ok?”
“No. I just sent a really stupid text to Bishop. Anyway! What’s up?”
She walked in farther, stopping near the end of the bed. “Did you ever hear from Ridge?”
I leaned up on my elbows. “I did. I sort of bumped into him at a bank a few months ago before Tate and I ran away to New Zealand, why?”
She paused, her face falling blank. “Okay, I need to know one hundred percent what happened while you were there, but it’s just that, I don’t know, I thought maybe he would have looked harder for me?”
“He probably did, like I did, but always came out with dead ends. It makes sense now that I know now, though. Katsia hiding you and all that…”
Her finger came to her lip. “Can I ask you something?”
“Of course?” I scooted up the bed, tucking my legs underneath me.
“What was Nate like after I left?” Out of all the things I was expecting her to ask me, that was not one of them.
“Honestly, he was off.”
“Off?”
I nodded and pulled my bottom lip into my mouth. “There were a few times when he would say something about you, and, okay, I’m not good at this. He had feelings for you, Tillie, real feelings. I hadn’t seen him with any other girl like he was with you, and I witnessed my fair share amount of Nate-hos in the months you were absent.”
A sad smile came to her mouth. “Thank you. When I was away, I became obsessive with the memories I had of him, of us. I’d replay every little thing in my head.”
“I know.” I leaned forward and patted her hand. “We do that, replay the memories we have of someone because it makes us feel closer to them. We try to grasp onto every piece we have of them because were afraid that they’ll disappear.”
She sighed heavily, getting to her feet. “Is it weird that the fact that Tate and he have history doesn’t affect me?”
“Yes…” I teased. “Because I know you’re lying. You may not feel it right now, but if you saw them together it would hurt, Tils. And that’s not because you’re a girl, that’s because you’re a fucking human.”
“I don’t deserve you.” She wiped away a stray tear.
“Say that again and I’ll use your ass as target practice.”
She laughed, and walked out of my room, just as my phone started ringing on my bed. I blindly reached for it, swiping it unlocked and bringing it to my ear.
“Hello?”
“Hi, sweetie! So I finished early today, are you girls home?” Scarlet asked. I could hear the echo in my ear, signaling she was in a car.
“Yes! We’re home, and perfect! There’s actually something I want to talk to you about.”
“I’m almost there!” Then she hung up, and I slipped off the bed and jogged downstairs.
“Scarlet is almost here. We need a plan!”
The door swung open. “I have an idea!” Scarlet closed the door behind herself, removing her glasses. She stepped toward me. “I don’t feel right about Bishop going into this alone, and like I told you last night—Hector and I have…”
I smirked. “You want to gatecrash their war?”
Her eyes shot to mine. “How’d you know?”
I snorted. “I was about to pitch you the same idea.” Would Khales be there? I hope so. Maybe I could accidentally push her in front of a stray bullet. I hate how this is going to go with Scarlet.
“See, this is why the Hayes men are dangerous because look at the women they choose?” Tate mocked, gesturing to both Scarlet and I.
“She’s not wrong,” I muttered under my breath.
“Ok, so here’s the deal. You,” Scarlet pointed to Tillie. “Obviously will be staying behind with the princess, but us three will be flying there around four hours after everyone has left.”
“How?” I asked, my legs tingling in adrenalin at this sneaky plan.
Bishop was going to kill me.
“I have a friend,” Scarlet announced, sitting on the edge of the chaise. “He owns an airline and has a private jet we could use.”
“Oh,” I chimed. “Of course you do.”
She gave me a dismissive smile, and then looked to Tate. “You don’t have to come if you’re not willing.”
“Are you crazy? Someone has to make sure Batman over here doesn’t upset the Joker…” She hiked her thumb toward me.
I chortled. “This is actually true. So, when do we leave?”
“That was probably the longest flight ever!” I exclaimed, sliding out of the back of the limo. It wasn’t good to be home, because this place hardly felt like home anymore.
“That’s because you couldn’t stop jiggling with excitement.” Tate got out of the car and helped Tillie. “Seriously, your love for danger has me second guessing our entire friendship.”