Lottie looked between us. “Were you asking for me?”
“Yeah.”
Lottie looked at me again, and I quickly stared at the floor. Did she recognize me from the night before? It was unusual, though not entirely rare, for a non-Crowne to look us in the eye. We were instructed never to look back.
Lottie’s soft, melodic voice continued. “If this is about last night…”
“It’s not,” Grayson said almost immediately.
“Oh shit, what went down last night?” Alaric-or-Geoff asked from his perch on the wall. He pretended to jerked off into the air toward Lottie, and Aundi shoved him.
“Shut up, Alaric,” Aundi said.
Alaric. The blond one is Alaric. I made a mental note as he fell backward into Mrs. Crowne’s favorite lilacs, laughing.
Grayson shifted the box he was holding, decorated in a sparkling white bow and feathers. Inside sat four lemon cakes with the cursive letter L.
Lottie rolled her softly glossed lips together, as if not wanting to ask her next question. “Who did I see you with last night?”
I stared at the grass like it would grow holes.
“Some random. Meant nothing.”
I wished I could scarify his words on the part of my heart that wouldn’t won’t stop fluttering. The part of my soul that kept trying to sneak peeks into his.
This is the girl he’s going to be with. This is his future wife.
I’m just a thief.
None of this is for me.
Grayson thrust the box out without emotion. “Here, this was lying around, and I heard you liked them.”
Lying around?
I wanted to shout out, strangle him. Tell her how much trouble you went to to get that damn box. How much you care. Stop lying.
“They’re lemon—” Grayson started, only to be broken off by Lottie’s scream.
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I looked up just in time to see her drop the box. In the distance, pop pop pop. The fireworks going off early. At the same moment, screams sounded. I followed them to smoke rising above the trimmed green hedges of Tansy Crowne’s beloved garden maze.
“What the fuck, Gray?” Aundi snapped. “Are you trying to kill her?”
Just like that, fire forgotten.
“She’s allergic to lemon. Just smelling it can put her into anaphylaxis.”
“He didn’t know,” Lottie said, sounding scared. “He couldn’t.”
“He’s Grayson fucking Crowne. He knows everything,” Aundi said.
Alaric started laughing.
“Not funny,” Pipa said. “Are you okay?”
“Right,” Alaric laughed. “It was fucking hilarious.”