Harper wasn’t sure whether she wanted to apologize yet again, or to accuse Miranda of having spread the gossip flyer and force an admission that now the two of them were even. So instead, she stalled for time. “Just to talk,” she said slowly. “Just to see what’s up with you.”
“Same old, same old.” Miranda’s voice wasn’t overly friendly, but it lacked that icy sheen she usually adopted when forced to talk to Harper. Maybe there was hope after all.
Carpe diem, right?
“Look, Miranda, I’m sorry,” Harper said quickly, trying to spit out as many words as she could before Miranda cut her off. “I’m so sorry, you have to understand that I would never want to hurt you, or our friendship, and you know how important Adam is-was-but he wasn’t more important than you-”
“Whatever,” Miranda muttered.
Harper’s fingers tightened around the phone. “No, really-I know you think I screwed you, but I didn’t. I swear, if I had thought there was a chance in hell that something would happen between you and Kane-”
“Stop.”
“But you need to know that-”
“Just stop.” And it was back, that flat, affectless tone that belied the years of friendship between them. Whatever opening had briefly existed, it had just slammed shut. “I don’t need to hear any more about how I’m not good enough for him. I already know what you think.”
“Of course it’s not what I think,” Harper protested. “It’s Kane, it’s-”
“No, it’s you. Maybe if you’d actually, oh, I don’t know, helped me, rather than stabbed me in the back…”
Her voice trailed off, and for a moment there was nothing but the sound of loud breathing on both ends of the line. “Is that why you did it?” Harper asked softly. “It’s really all about Kane?”
“Did what?”
“I know it was you,” Harper said, trying to keep a lid on her emotions. If Miranda wanted to handle this like they were strangers, Harper would find the strength to do so.
“Is this some kind of riddle?”
“Beth couldn’t have done it on her own,” Harper continued. “There were things on there that no one else knew.”
“So?”
“So it was you. God, Rand, teaming up with her? Do you really hate me that much?”
There was a long pause. “Maybe.”
“Just because I didn’t help you get Kane?” Harper asked incredulously.
Miranda sighed. “It’s not Kane… not just Kane.” She no longer sounded angry, or bitter, just tired. “It’s you. I kept making excuses for you. Whenever anyone called you a heartless bitch, or a slut-”
As always, Harper jerked at the sound of the word. She hated the way it sounded-especially on Miranda’s lips.
“I’d always say, ‘Oh no, you don’t know what you’re talking about. You don’t know her like I know her.’ So congratulations,” she said sarcastically, “you fooled me. But now I’m done. I’m out.”
“Just like that?” Harper asked, the taste of bile rising in the back of her throat. “I’m a bitch, you’re a saint, and now Saint Miranda’s ‘Out’?”
“That’s not-well, yes.”
“That’s bullshit, Rand, and you know it.” Harper collapsed onto her bed, staring up at the ceiling. Her voice was cold enough that Miranda would never suspect there were tears streaming down her face, or that she’d tugged a blanket over her head as if to shut out the world. “You can act like you’re better than me, but we both know the truth: You’re jealous.”
Miranda rolled her eyes. “Of you? Right.”
“Yes. Right.” Harper hated herself for saying it, but Miranda wasn’t the only one who could be cruel. “You hate that I get all the attention and you just have to tag along after me. You’re just using this as an excuse to get away because you think that without me around, you might actually be someone.”
“So what?”
“So think again.” Harper knew she should stop-even if apologies wouldn’t work, time might, if she just shut up. But it didn’t matter what she wanted; her hand was glued to the phone. “At least with me, people knew who you were. You had friends. You had a life. Without me? You’ve got nothing.” It’s almost too late, she warned herself, but she couldn’t stop. “You are nothing.”
Harper’s voice broke on the last word, but when Miranda finally spoke, she sounded perfectly composed.
“Maybe you’re right,” she said slowly, just before hanging up. “But I’d rather be nothing than be your friend.”
Kaia almost ignored the doorbell-but that would mean she had let him win, right? Whoever he was out there who wanted to terrify her would have accomplished his goal. And Kaia refused to play that game.
“I hoped you’d be here,” Reed said when she opened the door.
Hoped, or knew?
“What are you doing here?” Reed almost never showed up at her house. It wasn’t his style. Instead, she would call him and they’d meet on some neutral territory. Was it possible he’d come tonight to check up on his handiwork, and see whether she’d fallen apart?
It couldn’t be him, she told herself. Not Reed, the one person out here she’d grown to trust. Except-
How much do you really know about him?
Nothing.
Enough.
“Got tired of admiring you from afar,” Reed said, smiling. “Figured it was time you met your secret admirer.”
Alarmed, Kaia took a step back.
“Hey, it was just a joke,” he said softly, taking her hands in his. “I just wanted to see you, that’s all. Missed you. What’s going on?”
Kaia was glad she’d turned the floodlights off before going inside, so there was no way he could have seen her vandalized car in the darkness. For a second, she considered flicking them back on and telling him everything, but she didn’t want him to look at her as a victim. Or maybe she was afraid he wouldn’t be surprised.
“Nothing,” she said, insisting to herself that it was true. “I’m glad you came.”
She forced herself to forget her ridiculous suspicions and forget the fact that the maids were out for the night and her father wasn’t due back until tomorrow. And after they shared a long, deep kiss, she was almost able to do it.
Kaia led him out back to the hot tub, tossing him a pair of her father’s trunks. Then she ducked into the changing room and slipped into her new bikini, determined not to let some perverted loser ruin her night.
As they let themselves sink into the churning water, Kaia knew she’d made the right decision. This was just what she needed to relax, and remind herself that Reed wasn’t a threat.
“Glad I came over?”
Kaia launched herself across the hot tub and floated into Reed’s arms. The nearly unbearable heat was even worse with his wet, sticky body pressed up against hers, but Kaia didn’t mind. The heat was refreshing-cleansing. “Definitely.”
He wrapped himself around her and then sank down farther into the seat, so they were both nearly submerged in the roiling water, with only their faces peeking out into the sharp winter breeze. He tipped his head back. “Look at that,” he said reverently.
Kaia followed his gaze. The stars seemed unnaturally bright. One of them, twinkling by the horizon, had a dark, reddish glow. “I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else right now,” she marveled. Contentment was a new thing for her.
“Good, because you’re staying right where you are,” he said, turning her around to face him. Her hair floated in a halo around her, and she remembered that when she was a little girl, she had pretended to be a mermaid. She’d always thought she looked most beautiful in the water.
She inhaled deeply, burrowing her face into his neck. The water had washed away the ever-present stench of pot, the lingering grease from his tow truck and his shift at Guido’s-he was fresh and clean. Just like new. “I like the way you smell.”