I pad down the hall, my steps automatically slower, moving toward something I’m not sure I want to find.
The living room is empty, the couch cushions still indented where someone had been sitting earlier.
No one in the kitchen either, just a half-drained coffee pot and a couple of mismatched mugs sitting on the counter like they were abandoned mid-conversation.
My shoulders tense.
I turn toward the front door, and that’s when I hear it: muffled voices seeping through the wood.
I can’t make out the words, but the tones are unmistakable.
Someone’s pissed.
Through the small pane of glass, I catch sight of the three of them standing in a tight knot just beyond the stairs.
Their heads are angled toward each other, bodies tense in that way you only get when you’re in the middle of an argument.
My hand finds the doorknob before I’ve even decided what I’m going to do, twisting it open.
The bitter cold blasts in immediately, wrapping around me like an icy hand.
The crunch of snow under my bare feet is painfully shocking, but I barely register it because the second I step into the doorway, all three of them turn toward me at once.
“What’s going on?”
Three different pairs of eyes, three different tells.
Jack’s hands might be hanging loose at his sides, but I can read the set of his shoulders as a flashing warning sign.
He’s coiled tight, every inch of him ready to spring from holding something in.
Reece is the opposite, looking like he’d rather be anywhere else.
His stance is restless, shifting from one foot to the other as if trying to work out an itch in his skin that he can’t quite get to.
He glances at Jack, then at Reece, then at me, a flicker of guilt in his eyes.
And then there’s Liam.
He’s got that stillness he sometimes falls into, deciding whether or not to pounce.
His weight is balanced perfectly, feet braced in the snow with hands fisted at his sides.
His face is smoothed and would play well at a poker table, but his eyes are what give him away.
“Well?” I press, letting my gaze sweep over all three of them when no one jumps in to explain.
Jack clears his throat. “Nothing.”
The word’s said too fast, too practiced, already deciding on leaving me out before I even asked.
“Nothing?” I echo, not bothering to hide my disbelief.
Reece shoves his hands into his pockets, rocking back and forth on his heels. “Yeah. It wasn’t all that serious.”
“Just a stupid argument that got a little heated. That’s all,” Liam jumps in after him.
I narrow my eyes. “If it’s stupid then why do you all look like you’ve just been caught?”
