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So why did I still feel so very uncertain? Sawyer's words niggled at the back of my mind. If Paige and Daniel were innocent, then where had they gone off to that night? "Why had they disappeared? But if Marquis had done it, I guess it didn't matter where they'd gone. They must have been off doing something else. It was all just a coincidence.
"Gee, you think?" Paige blurted. "I can't believe you think you can just come over here and--"
"Paige," Mr. Ryan said vehemently. In two seconds he'd gone from white with sorrow to red with rage. Paige sank in on herself slightly as she looked up at her father. She cleared her throat and took another sip of water before looking at me again.
"Apology accepted," she said in a clipped tone. "Right, girls?"
Sienna snorted and Poppy's eyes clouded with ire. "Yeah," she said tersely. "Absolutely."
"Thanks," I replied, playing my part in the little charade.
"Come on," Upton said. He took my hand and held it between both of his. "Let's go order."
I nodded mutely and let him and Noelle lead me back to the table. Relief flooded my body with each step, and I felt light as air. It was over. Really and truly over. I could stay on St. Barths after all. I could work things out with Upton and enjoy the rest of break. Finally,finally everything was going to be okay.
44
SO JUVENILE
"We need to talk."
I dropped down on the colorful, striped beach blanket next to Upton's. He laid aside his iPhone and gave me a killer smile. "Well. That sounds ominous," he said.
All around us, our friends were going about usual beach business, chatting, dozing, or racing along the water's edge. After lunch, we had all adjourned to the beach in front of the Simon Hotel, Poppy's parents' establishment. Even the evil triad, as I was now calling them in my mind--although they had apparently not tried to kill me--was in attendance. Though they, along with Daniel and Weston Bright, had set up camp a few conspi
cuous yards up the beach away from the rest of us. I glanced back at them and caught the triad watching me as they whispered to one another, their heads close together. My heart skipped a nervous beat. I knew they were seriously pissed off that I had publicly accused them of attempted murder, and I wondered
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what they were talking about now--or planning. I hoped that I would not be spending another afternoon locked up in a shower stall... or something much worse.
"Everything okay?" Upton asked.
I took a deep breath and turned to face him. I had to try to focus on the task at hand. "Not really."
There was a tiny stick between us in the sand. I picked it up and used it to doodle my name in the soft powder. I knew that if I was going to be staying on in St. Barths, I had to deal with what had happened on the Ryans' boat. So why was there a ball of dread sitting in the center of my stomach?
"It's about casino night," I said, watching the stick as I started a series of curlicues. "You know when Poppy and Mrs. Ryan found us ..."
"Ah." Upton crossed his legs in front of him. "Let's have it, then."
Did he really not know what he'd done? The thought was so frustrating it immediately crowded out my trepidation.
"You went after Poppy," I said under my breath, glancing back at her to make sure she wasn't in hearing range. Girl was still conspiring with the rest of the evil triad. "Do you have any idea how that felt? I was mortified and you left me there alone and went after your ex."
Upton looked legitimately confused. His brow furrowed and he, too, looked back at Poppy and the others. "You mean after she and Mrs. Ryan came--" Suddenly his face filled with realization and he laughed. "Oh, Reed, I didn't go after Poppy. I went after Paige's mum."
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I blinked. "What?"
"It's all a proper misunderstanding," he said, lifting my hand and holding it with both of his. "Listen, Mrs. Ryan is good friends with my mum and dad and I just wanted to make sure she wasn't going to go tattling on me. My parents, they're ... they can be quite old-fashioned sometimes, so if they were to find out what we were doing. .."
"You were worried about getting in trouble with your parents?" I asked, flabbergasted.
"When you put it that way, it sounds silly, but it was more about you," he said, reaching over to tuck a stray hair behind my ear. "I didn't want them thinkingyou were, you know, that kind of girl."