Wright Rival (Wright)

I laughed. “Sounds right. Y’all sleep all right?”

“The beds were amazing,” Blaire said from under her baseball cap. “Piper has a massive hangover. We had to get her to take her sunglasses off indoors.”

“Annie will bite you before talking to you without coffee,” Jennifer added.

“Fascinating. I’m shockingly not hungover. After how much we drank last night, Piper, I’m surprised I’m not in the same mood as you.”

Piper lifted her expression to mine, and none of the good girl I’d called her last night was visible in her expression. She was stubborn, angry Piper once more. A wall divided us.

“We’re in very different moods,” she said.

“Yeah?”

“Yes,” she quipped.

And if she wanted to be like this, well, I could be the asshole she always thought I was.

“Sore?”

Her eyes rounded and then flattened. Her hand clenched into a fist.

“What?” Jennifer asked. “Did something happen?”

“Piper fell on her ass last night.”

Piper shot me a death glare. If she could have had lasers shooting out of her eyes, she would have.

“Is that why you’ve been weird all morning?”

“I have a huge bruise,” Piper said. She looked like she wanted to hit me. “Forgot about it until I showered.”

Julian and Jordan appeared just as Nora brought her plate of food over.

“Eat up. It’s almost time to go,” Jordan said.

I tipped my head at Piper and walked away. I didn’t know why I was so mad. Of course she hadn’t told her friends that we’d slept together. Why would she? She had been adamantly against it up until the moment it’d happened last night. I shouldn’t even fucking care. I did shit like that all the time. It wasn’t even the first time it had happened to me. It just had felt…different.

Piper was different.

And I had no idea how to reconcile that.

“Could you be more obvious?” she demanded as she reached for a banana at the buffet.

“I didn’t know we were hiding it.”

“I fell on my ass? Jesus, Hollin.”

I arched an eyebrow. “What did you want me to say?”

“Like normal, I’d prefer you said nothing,” she snapped.

“So, this never happened.”

“Sure, it happened. It was a one-night stand. I’ve come to my senses now that I’m not pumped full of alcohol.”

“That wasn’t the only thing you were pumped full of.”

She made a disgusted look. “And this is why this never should have happened.”

“And what about after? What about the ride home and the kiss at your door?”

“What do you want me to say?” She met my eyes with a dark gaze. “I was drunk.”

“Fine,” I said with the hedonistic smirk that she despised. “If you say so. How is your ass anyway? Still have my handprints on it, babe?”

“Fuck you, Hollin.”

Then, she strode away.

And I cursed myself for being a perpetual dick as I watched her walk away.

15

Piper

Hollin and I had gone from zero to a hundred. It had been a fucking master class in whiplash.

But what we’d done was a mistake. An incredible, soul-shattering mistake. I never, ever should have had sex with him, and he shouldn’t have asked about it in front of all of our friends the next morning.

What had happened on the tour bus should have stayed on the tour bus.

So, I’d done the very mature thing—antagonized him and then avoided him entirely.

I had no idea what I was doing. I wanted more of what he’d offered. I wanted to feel the way I’d felt at the show, but I didn’t even know how I’d gotten to that point. How I’d let my guard down enough to get there.

Hollin Abbey was the last person on the planet I wanted to be with. After what had happened with Quinn and Khloe, I’d written him off as the scum of the universe. We’d had mind-blowing sex, and I was just going to what? Forgive him? Forget about who he was? Not likely.

Not that he’d reached out. No texts. No calls. No stopping by. He wasn’t exactly the pining type. After all, he was the guy who loved the chase and got over it once he got what he wanted. This wasn’t any different.

“Mija, did you want to get lunch?” my dad asked, breaking me out of my thoughts.

I glanced at the time. “I’m supposed to meet Peyton. She wants to talk wedding arrangements.”

Dad chuckled. “Does she know that you don’t care?”

“She’s Peyton. She knows.” I pecked him on the cheek. “But also, I care that her wedding day is perfect.”

“You’re a good sister.”

“I try. It’s good to have Peyton back in town.”

“We all feel like that. Go. Have fun.”

“I will, Papa.”

“Remember to pencil us in for Easter.”

I squeezed his hand as I passed. “Always.”

Easter was a big deal in my family. It always had been. Abuelita always talked about what it had been like in Mexico. Carnival before Lent and then all the amazing traditions leading up to Easter Sunday. I’d always wanted to go to her home in Mexico and experience it, but we’d never had the funds to make it happen. One day, I’d do it.