Page 64 of All's Fair in Love and Blackmail
P.P.S. India we are SOOOOO proud of you for defending yourself capably but please do not hurt anyone else!!! We do not want Mr. Slater to take legal action!!
INDIA
It has been aday.
I went on an unplanned run, I ate carrot cake, and I decidedly did not kill anyone.
Also…I sobbed my eyes out in front of Felix. So.
That feels good.
I didn’t plan to. It just…happened. I was trying not to think about anything at all. I was trying not to let myself spiral, because I amnota spiraler.
But…there was this knot of tears in the back of my throat that never left after I worried I might have killed Luca Slater. And that knot just got bigger and bigger, even as I kept trying to push it away. And the bigger that knot got, the more I kept thinking about the crash, too—which is stupid, because it’s over—and I was holding it together until Felix went and did somethingsweetand gave me a carrot cake.
I think I might avoid him for the rest of my life.
And I think Luca Slater might avoid anyone named Marigold for the rest of his life, too. I feel sort of bad. But it really did look like he was reaching for a knife.
“Nah” was all Felix said when I mentioned how guilty I still felt. “You did good, Sunshine. Knocked him clean out. I’m proud of you.”
But later that night, as I lie awake in bed, staring at the ceiling, all I can think about is the way that giant man crumpled, and little rivulets of fear trickle down my spine. When I hear a sniffle from Juliet’s side of the room, I know I’m not the only one still a bit shaken up.
“Jules,” I whisper into the dark.
Her response is more of a noise than any words—a littlemeepsound, like she’s trying not to cry.
I sigh and scoot over in my bed. “Come here.”
There’s only a second’s pause before I hear her get out of bed and scurry over to mine, climbing in next to me like it’s second nature.
And it is. Leaning on each other—it’s something we’ve always done. We’ve been curling up under the covers together since we were old enough to know what a sister was. So I wrap my arm around Juliet, breathing in the familiar scent of her strawberry shampoo and Irish Spring soap. She relaxes immediately, and so do I. One of us will probably be halfway off the bed by the time morning rolls around, but for now, we fall asleep in no time.
I dream about Felix Caine and carrot cake.
One placeyou never want to be is between Aurora and the front door when she’s running late for work.
Aurora is almost never late. Ever. She was born on her due date and has been arriving on time ever since. But on the rare occasion sheisbehind…
I shuffle out of the line of fire as she bulldozes her way around the kitchen, half an untoasted bagel hanging out of her mouth, her silky blouse tucked neatly into her pencil skirt.
“Your black pumps are on the shoe rack,” I tell her, and from the table, Juliet pipes up too.
“Aren’t you going to bereallylate?”
I shoot a disapproving frown at Jules while Aurora snaps something unintelligible from behind her mouth full of bagel.
“Just go,” I say, waving her away from the kitchen counter where she’s shoving her lunch into a bag for later. “Get something on your lunch break. I’ll put this stuff away and you can take it tomorrow.”
She nods in my direction and says something else I don’t understand, which I take to be a hurriedThank you.I wave it away, and off she goes.
Five minutes later, the front door slams shut, and I collapse in the chair opposite Jules at the kitchen table.
“Freight Train Aurora has left the station,” Juliet says.
I nod tiredly. “Freight Train India needs to get ready to leave too.”
“Freight Train Juliet doesn’t have anywhere to go,” Jules says in a sad little voice.
