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Paige passed out a fewthe extra blanket fro it under his ar?" I ask, but I already know Nate looks at the pile of blonde hair and wrinkled silk on his bed, then at the neatly folded quilt in his ar

"So my watch off the side table, which ht; have to set the alarm so I don’t miss workouts I’ll drop it off before I leave"

"Whatever," I say, pretending it isn’t a big deal I’ave o a day without it on h," he smirks, then fastens it to his wrist and quietly tiptoes out the door

I letaton my back, I flop one arm over my eyes "Dude, you can’t look at ," I say, sliding h to see that she’s still there Still staring

"Stop it!" I tease, pulling the pillow fro it at her When I openthe pillow close to her body, and her stare has only grown more intense, and full of…fuck…I don’t know…fondness? "What already?"

"You love your brother," she says Not a question; just a stateer elad it shows When she scoots a little closer toin me freezes It feels likeby before I feel the tickle of her hair alongflat over ainst me I need to knohat I did to deserve this moment I need to know so that way as soon as the sun coain

"I know it doesn’t seee loves me like that too," Cass says, her voice a whisper I’m sure she doesn’t want to wake her sister up, but I saw the amount of shots she put down I’m fairly confident we could invite a h

"You and Paige…are you close?" I ask, h I slowly start to let et to put my arm around her by sunrise

"We are Sort of," she says, stifling a chuckle "We’re different I know, I know--that’s pretty obvious But we still always have each other’s backs When Paige wanted to win honed for her And when I wanted to coe stood up to rip That’s really the only reason she’s here, you know She came to McConnell so they’d have to let me coainst Cass’s parents, whom I’ve never met, and realize mid-sentence could honestly be lovely people "I o away, but not you?"

Cass pauses at my question She doesn’t even open herover to touch a loose string onwhile she thinks When she finally does speak, I can tell part of what she says is a lie "Paige was always planning on staying in California, and my parents wanted us to both be near houess But she’s better at standing up to theaze locked on my chest and that damn thread I play a lot of poker, and I know that if what she just said were really no big deal, I’d be looking into her eyes

Lying is usually a deal-breaker forI don’t do Do I omit the truth? Yeah, I do that all the tiive her this one I’ the rules, ain?" She laughs at my harsh left turn in our conversation I love the way she laughs There’s this rasping sound that coenuine, and her smile creases deeply into her cheeks