“Ease up,” I say. “She didn’t do anything. Does she look conscious to you in that picture?”
“I don’t know. I tossed it aside once I realized who it was. I didn’t commit it to memory, thank you very much. If you didn’t do anything wrong, where the hell did these come from?”
“I guess we have to tell him,” I say to Rory.
“Yeah, I guess so.” She sighs. “Let’s go inside. Better yet, out on the deck. We can let the dogs run around. I don’t want there to be any chance that Mom and Dad can overhear us.”
“After you.” Jesse gestures to the door.
We herd Dusty and Zach through the house and out again into the backyard.
The sky is clear, and I can make out both the Big Dipper and Little Dipper. I stare at the stars for a moment, thinking about the beauty and the vastness of the night sky. How I wish I could just float upward, become a part of it, and not have to deal with real life for just a few minutes. Only a few.
Alas, that’s not going to happen.
“I’ll tell him, Callie. I was the adult in the room back then.”
“Being a few days older than eighteen doesn’t make you an adult,” I say.
“Except that it does. Legally.” She bites her lip.
“I don’t really care who tells me. Just start talking. How did this happen? And who do I have to fucking kill?”
“You’re not going to kill anyone, Jesse,” I say. “If Pat Lamone—”
“Pat Lamone? Who the hell is Pat Lamone?”
“Yeah, you wouldn’t know. You were long gone from high school by the time all this went down.” I suck in a breath. “What I was saying is, Pat Lamone probably has other copies of all this shit.”
“Great, just great.” Jesse shakes his head. “I’ll fucking kill him. Tell me where he is. I’ll go now.”
“Normally I’d be all over that,” I say, “but I don’t really want you getting arrested. And trust me, Lamone will have you arrested. He tried to have me arrested for spilling coffee on him.”
Jesse goes red in the face, his hands curling into fists.
“Simmer down, Jess,” Rory says. “Let me tell you the whole story.”
Jesse listens intently, growing more tense as Rory pours out the story of what happened all those years ago.
By the end, our brother is growling. Seriously growling. Like a freaking wolf.
“He’s probably at the inn right now,” Jesse says. “See you girls later.”
I stand then, and so does Rory. We block him from the door.
“Nice try, but I can move you both with one hand tied behind my back.”
“We know you can,” Rory says. “We’re asking you not to. Callie and I are trying to figure out how to deal with this. And Donny—”
“Steel knows about this?” Jesse shakes his head. “You don’t trust your own brother to help you, but you go to Donny Steel?”
“Donny is my boyfriend, and it’s about time the two of you put this stupid-ass high school rivalry behind you.”
“Fucker got MVP instead of me because the Steels own this damned town.”
I open my mouth to refute him but then close it abruptly. My latest research shows the Steels do own this damned town, so what do I have to stand on? Nothing.
“Callie and Donny are together,” Rory says. “You need to deal with it. He’s a good man.”