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“Rhett.”
“I know what I’m doing, Stone. Trust me.”
Pane comes up. “You’re not going to make a scene, are you?”
I roll my eyes. “I just want to talk to the man. I’ve got a few things to say.”
Stone and Pane exchange a look. Being twins, no doubt they’re thinking the same thing: We’d better be ready to pull our cousin off Jace.
And you know what? They might be right. “Who needs another beer?” They glance at their full bottles. One side of my mouth ticks up into a wry smile. “Both of you? Be right back.”
Stone takes my pool cue and I head to the bar. Jace stands on one side, and I mosey through the crowd, which parts easily for me, like I’m pushing out the kind of energy that says, Back off.
I step up and Isaac asks, “What’re you having?”
“Three beers, thanks.”
“Any in particular?”
“Whatever you want to give us, we’ll take.”
Jace is talking to his buddy, but when he hears my voice he glances over. “Hey, man. Sorry about the competition, that y’all had to drop out.”
Sure, you are. “Congrats on winning the last challenge.”
“Thanks.”
Isaac hands me the beers, and Jace turns back to his buddy like the conversation is over.
I’m just getting started. “You know”—he turns to me, his lips quirking like he’s annoyed—“Cristina said you mentioned something about the competition being rigged.”
He rubs the back of his neck, like he’s been caught in a lie. “Yeah, I mean, that’s what I thought before, you know, when y’all were winning so much.”
“Right, because us winning had nothing to do with the fact that we were actually compatible.”
His eyes narrow. “How is Cristina, by the way?”
“She’s good.”
“I heard y’all broke up.”
“We did.”
He scoffs. “Sorry about that, but you know that’s how relationships go. I get it, man. I do. You may not know this, but we dated awhile.”
“You don’t say.”
“Yeah, and between you and me”—he leans in—“she was a bit much. But you found that out, right? I mean, her having that attack when our families were there, without a full inhaler on her. Sounds like something Cristina would do.”
I clench my hands into fists and do my best to ignore the rage that’s skating down to my heart, wrapping around it, and taking over.
I force a smile. “Now, how’s that? You’re not trying to say Cristina wanted that to happen, are you?”
He shrugs. “Believe what you want. But trust me, I’ve known Cristina longer than you. As the old saying goes, If it quacks like a duck, it’s a duck.”
I tell myself to walk away. I really do. But accusing her like that really pisses me off.
As Jace turns around, I grab him by the arm and lock it behind his back—controlled. It’s enough to stop him, not enough to break him. He howls as I press him down and force his head onto the sticky bar top.
