Secrets We Keep (Thistle Cove 1)

We sit across from one another in silence, me hating myself for not having the nerve to get up and comfort her. I didn’t do it then and I’m still scared to do it now.

“I don’t blame you for never speaking to either of them again.”

“Yeah, some days I agree. Other days I miss her so much that it hurts just like it did back then.” She swallows and whispers, “What if she’s really gone?”

I start to move—standing to sit next to her on the couch. I may not have comforted her then, but it’s time to man up and do it now.

Except I never get the chance.

Because right when I stand the cottage door opens, the hinges whining from disuse. My heart jumps in my chest, startled, and Kenley’s jaw drops.

I don’t know who either of us would have expected out in that little cottage in the woods, but it certainly wasn’t who peeked their heads through the door.

10

Ezra

I blink twice trying to reconcile what I’m seeing. Never in a million years would I have thought Kenley and Ozzy would be in the cottage. From the flash of guilt that flickers across Oz’s face, I wonder if we interrupted something. Were they about to hook up? Had they already hooked up? I notice Kenley’s red eyes and nose. Nah, she’s too freaked out about Rose.

Join the club.

“What are you doing here?” Ozzy asks, he shoots an accusing look at Holloway. Kenley doesn’t even look at him.

“Things are getting tense back at school,” I reply. “We thought we’d lay low for a while until things calmed down.”

I step into the cottage. It’s such a weird place, but I’ve used it consistently through the years. First, because Rose and I would use it to meet up; later, as a place to hide out when I needed a break.

Finn hesitates in the doorway, well aware of the hostility coming his way. I sit in one of the armchairs and nod for Finn to come inside. With a set, tense jaw, he does.

Soon we’re sitting across from one another, room quiet. One thing runs through my mind and something tells me it’s on their minds as well. The last time we were all together like this, alone, was in this very cottage, smoking the weed I found in my brother’s room. The only difference is that Rose isn’t here, and none of us are really friends anymore.

Finn shifts next to me, the leather on his letterman’s jacket creaking as he shifts uncomfortably. I reach into my pocket and pull out a baggie. There’s already a rolled joint inside.

“You’re kidding,” Kenley says. “You think now is the right time to get high?”

“KK, now is the perfect time to get high.” I pull out my lighter. “I don’t know about you, but I’m a little bit on edge.”

“Did you just call me KK?” she asks.

I shrug. The old nickname slipped right off my tongue. I thumb the lighter, igniting the flame, then hold it to the end of the joint while I take a long, needy drag. The burn feels good. I hold it out to Finn.

To my surprise, he takes it.

Across from me, Kenley watches Finn take a drag. Her expression is less accusatory than what she’d given me, but that makes sense. She’s been in love with Holloway since we were kids, which sucks for the rest of us, because Kenley Keene is a catch. Pretty, sexy, and smart.

Finn holds out the joint, and to my surprise Ozzy takes it without the slightest bit of hesitation. I can’t help but smirk. Oz is a fucking enigma. He wears that stupid cap all the time and always has his nose in a damn book. Rose would be pissed he was here, which makes it even funnier.

He finishes and skips over Kenley, whose big blue eyes are about to bug out of her head. Oz holds the joint, now half the size, back out to me. I’m about to take it when small, slim fingers snatch it out of the air. She doesn’t look at any of us, just down at the joint, but the three of us, me, Finn and Oz, we share a glance. Over the last few years, while Rose and Juliette drifted into partying and flirting with bad behavior, Kenley stuck to the straight and narrow.

Today, things are different.

Today everything changes, and you can feel it settle over the room like the haze from the burning weed. It’s obvious when the good girl across from me wraps her pink lips around the end of the joint and takes a long drag.

I swear something in my belly twitches, seeing her like that.

Until she coughs so hard I’m shocked her guts didn’t dislodge.

She grins sheepishly and hands the joint back to me, our fingers grazing and a flicker of comradery passing through us, passing through all of us.