Page 56 of The Best Shot

I stood in my bedroom in the dark for a long moment.

The dark window caught my reflection. Smudged lipstick. Hair fuzzed around my face. Eyes too bright in the streetlight.

I went back down the hall. The cheesecake was still open on the counter where I’d left it. I put the lid on and slid it back into the fridge without taking another bite.

CeeCee was in the same position, but the renovation show had become a different renovation show. A woman now, equally confident about kitchen layouts.

I sank into the armchair and sat with the phone call still in my chest. My mother’s silence when I’d asked if she knew. Shaun, who I had loved my whole life because I was supposed to and didn’t like.

And then, because I apparently couldn’t help myself even now, the car came back to me. The way Hale had said no like it was easy. The low laugh against my mouth. His hand at my neck.

CeeCee shifted in her sleep and made a small sound before settling again.

I watched her.

My mother’s voice was still in my ear. You’re choosing her over your own blood.

I thought, yes.

I thought, obviously.

And if this ruined things, maybe they needed ruining.

16

“YOU’RE DOING THIS ON PURPOSE, AREN’T YOU.”

YASMINE

It started with tacos.

He showed up at my door with a grease-spotted paper bag and said, “Migas. Still hot.”

I didn’t ask how he knew I’d be home, and he didn’t insult either of us by pretending he was just in the neighborhood.

A week later, he was back because my door stuck and he just happened to have WD-40 in his truck. A lie we had both agreed, without discussing it, to let stand.

Then he was back because CeeCee needed the bookshelf anchored to the wall. That one was mine.

Then because I made a pie and wanted him to try it.

Sometimes it was ten minutes. A quick fix, a cup of coffee, a conversation that ended at a reasonable hour and left nothing messy behind. Other times he stayed two hours, and I opened the door already knowing his shirt wasn’t making it back out the way it came in.

I opened the door anyway every time.

We didn’t talk about it.

We also didn’t stop.

Spice Cabinet : Project Hale

Ava: Emergency meeting. Ricochet’s. 7 PM. Wear something presentable.

Tabby: this about Hale again?

Annie: it’s always about Hale

Annie: [I’m sick of this grandpa meme]