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She looked guilty, then pulled out the neck of her T-shirt and peered inside "I couldn’t find it on the band bus Nine tied I definitely would not run back to Sawyer or to anybody when I’veawesome"

Sawyer finally stirred--whether because she’d said his nausto, I didn’t know He rolled onto his side, shifting his head on her thigh Now that he ht be awake-ish, I was evenas you’re on a break with Aidan anyhy not experiment, so you won’t spend your entire life since you were fourteen with one guy? I’lad for you to use him"

I cutthe horrified look onup Even Harper shook her head

Ignoring Harper, Tia gave me her best Who, ine what she’d done wrong

I already felt vulnerable because Aidan had broken up with me and Sawyer see possum and heard this discussion, I would die of e else, I found a notepad printed with the B and B logo, plucked a pen out of the side-table drawer, and wrote her an angry note "Sald not b ‘glad 4 o out w ain" I tore it off the pad--silently--and reached across the coffee table with it Harper half stood to grab it, then delivered it to Tia Harper read it over her shoulder

Tia snapped her fingers,she wanted my pen I winced at the noise but handed the pen to Harper, who delivered it Tia scribbled an answer below , and I was so afraid of what she’d say, that I had half aI was afraid thisor the sound of ave the paper to Harper, who read it with a perplexed expression, then handed it to ain bc he wld see ur not waiting around 4 his boson BULLshit In the meantime u cld experi" Under this she’d drawn a dog stick figure with its tongue hanging out, lying on what appeared to be several yards of shag

"Shhh," Harper said, even though nobody had said anything for several h Underneath the drone of TV brides, I recognized Will’s voice and Brody’s laugh on the other side of the front door

"We’d better go out there before they ring the doorbell and wake upbefore, as if e with Tia had caused a pall to descend over the night

"They won’t," Tia said as loudly as ever "Brody wouldn’t risk her wrath They’re plotting soo out there before they execute their plot and get me in enormous trouble," Harper said

"I’m curious what they’ll do," Tia said "Wait"

We waited The only lights were still the flickering color froh thecurtains The only sound was the whisper of televised voices Then Will’s voice again, hushed, and Brody’s

Suddenly the fireplace seerunted and rolled all the way over on Tia’s thigh with his back to the rooed in the ash and brought out a tennis ball

"Brilliant," Tia said "You’re right, Harper, we have to stop the rogue teens before they cause more harm" She half rose Sawyer threw both arht

"Kaye, coht now" Tia said it with such authority, and I was so surprised at this, that I obeyed, edging between the sofa and the coffee table She rolled out from under Sawyer and held his upper body suspended until I sat dohere she’d been She laid Sawyer’s head in my lap

And thenI’m not sure what I’d expected to happen next, but it wasn’t this: Tia and Harper left the roo the front door carefully behind them

Warmth washed over me, followed by a case of the shivers I couldn’t believe, after all the teasing I’d suffered at Sawyer’s hands for the past two years, he was in ht had suddenly coed: that ould end up together

But he was asleep I was convinced now that I felt his deep, even breaths againstactor couldn’t fake it this well And when Tia had orderedon me to protect his rest, not to wake him or flirt with him or make Aidan jealous

In front of the house, somewhere just beyond the door, Harper talked in a low voice "I’ot hit pretty hard in the third quarter"

"Yeah," Brody responded "I don’t feel that kind of thing until the next day You have about eight hours left to useand provocative--like Tia’s was all the time I’d never heard Harper speak this way before I recalled what she’d hinted toeach other