The Arrangement

She looked as she always did; pretty and perfect. One bare leg crossed over the other. Leaning against the door jamb the same way I’d seen her dozens of other times, leaning against her surfboard.

“I told him I loved you,” I said simply.

Time ground to a halt. For once, the kitchen was utterly and completely silent.

“Actually, I told him we all did.”

Forty-Five

KAYLEEN

They were staring at me, the three of them, almost like they were seeing me for the

first time. Not as a person. Not as their personal chef, their roommate, or even their shared lover.

No, they were looking at me on a much deeper level.

They were looking at me with admission in their eyes.

“I—Is that true?” I somehow managed to ask.

My mouth was dry. My heart was pounding! To top it all off, I was having a conversation — probably one of the most important conversations of my life — before I’d even had a single drop of coffee.

But still…

“Yes,” said Chase, without hesitation. I smiled warmly. It was very moving to me, how quickly his expression had gone from anger to love.

The two of them turned toward Burke, who shrugged in the way only he could.

“Well if we’re all coming clean,” he said, slowly unfolding his arms. “Yes.” He threw me a secret, sideways smile. “Totally.”

I was overcome with emotion. Thrilled to bursting! But we couldn’t celebrate now. Not while everything was still so screwed up.

“I love you too,” I said, sweeping into the kitchen. “All of you. So fucking much.” I smiled. “But I’d—”

“Love a cup of coffee even more?”

Chase was already pouring me one, into my favorite mug no less. I laughed.

“I was going to say ‘also’, not ‘more’. But I like that you’re one step ahead.”

I sank into an empty chair, inhaling my first sip every bit as much as I drank it. Then I turned to Nathan. Of the three of them, I was most concerned about him.

“Are you alright?”

He nodded glumly. “Other than the jackhammer in my skull,” he said. “And not having a book deal. And my father thinking we beat his best friend up over some trampy girl who was ‘throwing herself’ at him…” He let out a little laugh. “My morning’s going just fine.”

My stomach growled audibly. I realized that in all the chaos, I hadn’t even had dinner last night.

“Alright, so we’re out a publisher,” Chase said, trying to polish a bright side into this whole tarnished situation. “So what?”

“We’re out a lot more than that,” Nathan said.

The others’ expressions went immediately grave. Something in Nathan’s tone told us his next words weren’t going to make us very happy.

“My father wants us out.”

Burke whistled. Chase put one hand to his head.