Scorched (Frigid #2)(3)
Author: Jennifer L. Armentrout

Tanner pushed off the wall, turning to Kyler and Syd. “Is she going to the cabin? If so, I need to pack hazmat gear.”

I was going to hit him. Seriously. Plant my fist in his solar plexus, right at the exact moment he inhaled.

Struggling to keep a straight face, Syd looked at me. “I don’t know. I was trying to convince her before you two showed up, but now that seems like a giant waste of time.” She shot a dark look at Tanner.

He smiled broadly. “Sounds good to me.” Clapping his hand on Kyler’s shoulder, he started to walk back into the hall. “I was thinking about inviting Brooke.”

My jaw hit the floor. Brooke Page? Blonde and big booba-licious Brooke Page who needed a calculator to count to one hundred?

“You are not inviting Brooke,” Syd said, sighing.

Tanner chuckled. “How about Mandie?”

A choking sound came from Kyler.

I rolled my eyes. Now he was just being silly. “You have such classy taste in women.”

Casting a long look over his shoulder, he winked. “At least none of them are spoiled little rich girls who couldn’t balance their own checking accounts without Daddy’s help.”

“I am not a spoiled little rich girl!” I shrieked, and Syd suddenly found something interesting on the ceiling. Okay. Being that both my parents were very successful plastic surgeons, they were well off. The apartment I lived in? Paid for by Mom and Dad. As was most everything inside said apartment and the car—an older Lexus—I drove, but just because I came from money didn’t mean I was spoiled. My parents were never afraid to remind me of just how much they paid for and how quickly all of that could go away—they were making me pay my tuition, now that I’d switched majors, and the loans were already adding up. “And I know how to balance my checkbook, unlike Mandie and Brooke.”

“So you say,” he replied, walking down the hall.

I prowled after him, ignoring the exasperated noise coming from Syd. “What? Tanner-man, you don’t want me to go to the cabin?”

“Do I really need to answer that question, Andy?” He headed for the galley kitchen.

My lip curled. I hated that nickname. Made me feel like a dude with big shoulders…and I kind of did have man shoulders. Before I could reply, Tanner said, “It’s Friday night, shouldn’t you be plastered by now?”

“Ha. Ha.” Actually, I was usually a bit tipsy by this point on a Friday night, but Syd was staying in tonight with Kyler, and the rest of our friends were gone.

I can’t go to the cabin.

The moment that thought finished, a slice of panic twisted my stomach and my throat dried. If I didn’t go, I’d be…stuck here. I’d be alone. And if I were alone, I’d just sleep and be…be lame, and if I didn’t sleep, then I’d spend all the time thinking.

Sometimes thinking didn’t end well.

I had to go to the cabin.

Stopping in the entry to the kitchen, I looked down the hall, back to where Kyler and Syd lingered. “When are you guys planning to go to the cabin?”

“Next week.” Syd appeared, her hair mussed and out of the ponytail. Jesus. Kyler was a man of opportunity and a fast worker. “We’re going to leave on Monday morning.”

“Hmm.” I turned to Tanner and smiled sweetly. “Well, since I’m a spoiled little rich girl, it’s not like I have to get time off from work. I’m free next week.”

Tanner reached into Kyler’s fridge and pulled out a beer. Screwing the top off the bottle, he raised it to me. Wisps of cold air rolled up from the neck of the bottle. “Well, since I don’t have a drinking problem, I can have one of these.”

“I don’t have a drinking problem, asshole.”

He took a long and slow drink from the bottle as he rested his hip against the counter. The half-grin was back in full force. “You know, I’ve always heard the first step to recovery is acceptance that you have a problem.”

I drew in another cutting breath and felt the warmth spread across my face. Tanner and I gave each other a hard time, that much was obvious, but for some stupid reason, a knot exploded in the base of my throat and the back of my eyes burned as I watched him take another drink. Embarrassment seeded in my stomach, blossoming into a tree that only bloomed rotten fruit.

I didn’t have a drinking problem.

Tanner lowered the bottle, and the moment our gazes collided, the grin faded slowly from his striking face. His brows knitted as his lips parted, and I quickly turned toward Sydney, my voice embarrassingly hoarse when I spoke. “Count me in.”

Tanner

Aw, shit.

I watched Andrea walk into the living room, the normal twitch of her hips absent. No one swayed ass like Andrea, and seeing it gone from her step was answer enough. Our normal whatever-the-fuck-it-was between us had gone further than I intended. No doubt what I’d said had cut her, but shit, it was no different than any other day.

My hand tightened on the neck of the bottle. For the life of me, I had no idea what the hell Andrea Walters’s problem was. Honestly. No fucking clue. One minute, sweet and sugary words parted those pouty pink lips of hers. Next second, she was a fire-breathing dragon from hell—a hot, fire-breathing dragon, but still. Her moods flipped more quickly than cups did during a game of flip cup.

Maybe it was because she was a redhead?

I smirked.

She’d always been this way with me, and the most fuckedup thing about it, there was a part of me that actually looked forward to whatever was going to come out of her mouth. Twisted as fuck. It was like a game between us, to see who could hit the hardest without lifting a finger. If nothing else, it was damn entertaining—or at least, it had been until now. Now, I wasn’t too sure about it.

Those pretty doe eyes of hers had looked suspiciously damp right before she’d looked away, and yeah…that didn’t sit right with me.

Kyler shot me a look as he walked past me and grabbed a beer out of the fridge, but I watched Andrea sit on the edge of the couch, her posture unnaturally rigid.

Sydney leaned against the arm. “We’re thinking about leaving early in the morning, around six.”

My gaze flicked to Andrea, expecting her to make some kind of crack about not getting up that early, but she was abnormally quiet. My spine stiffened.

“That should put us at the cabin between nine and ten in the morning, depending on traffic.” Kyler stood beside me as he screwed off the cap. “Then we’ll be heading back the following Monday.”