Dane nursed a bottle of beer and watched it all. The scene reminded him of last night—but hewasn’tgoing to think about her.
Suddenly, the back patio sliding door opened and slammed shut with such a force, Dane braced for the inevitable clatter of glass falling to the floor. Luckily, the door didn’t break.
“Hey!” Dane yelled. He whipped his head around, ready to reprimand a drunken teammate, only to see it was—
“Austen?”
And she looked …angry.
She stamped to the edge of the pool, fists on her hips, a furious scowl. Was she trembling?
“What are you doing here?” Dane said, shouting to be heard over Matchbox’s playlist.
“Look at you! Up to your little tricks again, aren’t you?” she shouted back. “You’ve gotsomenerve, you know that?!”
Reavo waded next to Dane’s side. “You’vegot nerve, lady. What the hell are you even doing here? You’re the reason D’s taking so much shit and—”
“Shut up, man. Stay out of this.” Dane gave Reavo’s chest a shove and pushed him away. “Austen. Talk to me. What’s going on?”
But Austen wasn’t interested in talking to him; she cupped her hands around her mouth and yelled at the party guests instead. “Ladies! This asshole only invited you into the pool so he could see you in your underwear, and so your makeup would run! Don’t fall for it!”
The girls glared at Austen with judgmental eyes. The group closed ranks and broke into a fit of gossipy laughter among each other.
“So what?”
“Like, if they wanted to see me in my underwear, all they had to do was ask!”
“I know, right?”
“What a bitch!”
Dane groaned. He climbed out of the pool, water streaming down his strong thighs. He tried to near Austen, but she retreated with every step he advanced.
“Stay away from me!” Austen yelled.
He held his palms out to show he wasn’t a threat. “Austen. Please relax. I just want to know what’s going on.”
“You’re gross, Dane! Stay the hell away from me!”
When she turned and sprinted for the door, Dane gave chase. She flung the sliding door open, quickly jumped into the house, and spun around to slam the door shut behind her.
Dane lunged, trying to catch the door in the nick of time.
He caught it, alright—but he didn’t have enough time to stop it.
The heavy door crushed his hand against the frame with a sickeningcrunch.
Chapter 32
Austen
The fingers didn’t look like they belonged to anybody. They didn’t even lookhuman,the way they seeminglysprouted and grew right out of the door jamb. Austen could only stare helplessly at those fingers as they turned a deeper purple with every passing instant.
The athlete yelled and banged on the glass.
“OPENTHEDOOR!OPENTHEDOOR!OPENTHEDOOR!”
Reality began to set in.
