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“Come on, we should go,” I said, reaching for Celeste, but she shrugged me off, stepping toward Zane.
“What did you say to her?”
He inclined his head, glaring at her with icy intent. But Celeste didn’t flinch. Not even a little bit.
“Harleigh has been through a lot, she doesn’t need you.” She jabbed her finger at his chest. “Upsetting her.”
“I suggest you get your finger out of my face, little girl.” His voice was low, deadly, and I stepped up to Celeste, gently tugging her arm.
“Or what?” she seethed, the air crackling.
“Ladies, what are we— Celeste?” Miles drew to a stop, gawking at the scene before him. “You’re Zane Washington,” he said.
“If you know what’s good for you, you’ll take Harleigh and Celina home.”
“It’s Celeste, asshole.”
A smug smirk tugged at Zane’s mouth as he pinned me with a final warning look and took off, melting back into the crowd.
“Okay is someone going to tell me what the fuck I just walked into?” Miles looked between us, confusion clouding his eyes.
“Nothing,” I whispered, wrapping an arm around myself.
“Do you want to go?” Celeste asked, and I loved her even more for it.
And maybe I should have heeded Zane’s words, maybe I should have told Celeste yes.
But I didn’t.
Because hearing Zane talk to me like that, it steeled something inside of me.
“No, let’s go check out the stalls,” I said. “Didn’t you say something about Miles winning us a stuffed toy each?”
A slow, knowing smile tugged at her mouth. “Why yes, yes I did.” Celeste moved beside me, lacing her arm through mine. “Feeling up to the challenge, Mulligan?”
He returned her smile and I saw a flicker of desire there. “I was born ready.”
Their laughter enveloped me like a warm blanket as we took off toward the stalls. But I couldn’t stop myself from glancing over my shoulder.
There was no sign of Zane among the crowd, as if he’d been a mirage, a ghost. But his words lingered, coiling around my heart like barbed wire. The way he’d warned me to stay away from Nix, as if I was the danger. As if I was the one who had held the power in our friendship.
It was laughable really, when I’d spent years, years under his thrall. Years begging for any scraps of his attention I could get.
I’d never held the power where Nix was concerned. So for Zane to stand there and suggest otherwise was, quite frankly, insulting.
Shaking the whole conversation out of my head, I focused on Celeste and Miles.
Screw Zane Washington.
But most of all, screw Phoenix Wilder.
I felt good. Maybe it was the couple of beers Miles managed to score us from the cute girl at the concession stand, or maybe it was the fact he’d won me a giant stuffed toy. But I felt so freaking good.
Not the kind of good that lasted, but the temporary kind. A fleeting high that buzzed in my veins and made my skin tingle. It hovered around me like a warm breeze, and I basked in it.
“What?” I asked Celeste as she watched me grinning at Miles as he tried his luck on the strong man game.
“Are you okay? You look… I don’t know…”
