Paradise Lost (Private 9)

"Omigod," I said, closing my eyes and resting my glass on the bar. I had to take a deep breath. Sabine's plan had been even more intricate than I'd realized.

"Anyway, I was so curious," Dash continued. "And then when I saw you ... I don't know what happened. I mean, it's not that I wasn't attracted to you ... we both know I was . . . but I--" He stopped, frustrated by his own lack of focus. "It's just, that was so not me. I don't cheat. Ever."

I stared at him for a long moment. He didn't know. No one had told him. I had figured that Gage or someone would have relayed everything Sabine had said the night of the shooting. All of her confessions. But clearly they hadn't thought it was important enough. Guys. When it came to dissemination of gossip, they were sorely lacking.

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"Dash, I know it wasn't you," I said. "It was Sabine. She did all of it."

Dash's brow creased. "What do you mean?"

"She sent us the notes. She laced our drinks with ecstasy. She basically orchestrated the whole thing," I told him. "She confessed to all of it the night she shot Ivy."

Dash sort of froze. He looked like a cardboard cutout of himself, eternally posed in an expression of shock. Then, finally, he bent at the waist and sat down on the vacant barstool behind him.

"Oh my God. I was drugged?" he said.

I nodded. "We both were," I confirmed. "It wasn't our faults."

Then I blushed, thinking back to our almost-kiss in Martha's Vineyard last summer, all the flirtatious e-mails we'd written, the moment we shared at the Driscoll Hotel last fall. All the things that had led up to that night.

"Well, not entirely our faults," I amended, bringing a blush to Dash's cheeks as well.

"I knew it. I knew something was off that night." He turned toward the bar and brought his hand to his mouth, chewing on his thumbnail for a moment. "And Noelle knows all this?"

"She does," I said.

Dash's jaw clenched. I could practically feel him trying to contain his emotions. "Then I guess she really is done with me," he said. "If she knows all this and she's still with West."

I somehow managed to contain a laugh. He couldn't actually think she was with West in any real way. He couldn't be that clueless. But

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then, he was a guy in love. I suppose that could account for a tiny slip in the IQ. I didn't want to tell him about my firmly held belief that Noelle was only smooching West to make Dash jealous. Noelle was, after all, my friend. But I had to say something, if only to wipe that pathetic look off of his normally confident face. Besides, I was sure that Dash was the person Noelle wanted to be with. If I could facilitate their reunion and get things back to normal, all of us would be a lot happier.

Except "West. But you can't please everyone.

"I don't think they're serious," I hedged.

"No?" he asked hopefully, his shoulders straightening.

"Nah. Probably just an island fling," I said. "Don't give up yet."

Dash chuckled. "Thanks, Reed." He spun on the bar stool to face me, and then stood up. "So ... friends?"

Friends. It was what we always had been. How we should have remained all along.

"Friends," I replied with a nod.

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CHAPTER 19 MISSING

The next morning I awoke to the song of my feisty island bird. I opened my eyes and there he was, hopping around on the windowsill. I smiled, let out a yawn, and stretched.

"You're back," I said quietly.

He jumped around in a circle as he sang. Like, What? You thought I was going to desert you?