Chapter 120

Kaia

“—and then the Ashford boy fell off the boathouse roof, right into the lake, in his good suit, and Noah says he did it on purpose because he wanted Mira Pike to jump in after him, which she didn’t, obviously, because it was October. Hold still.”

I held still.

Chloe had been doing my hair for forty minutes. She had arrived on Liam’s doorstep at five with a bag full of pins and brushes and something in a spray can that smelled like oranges, announced that Liam had asked her to make sure I got to the packhouse in one piece, and walked straight past me into the house before I could think of a reason to say no.

She had not stopped talking since.

I sat on the chair in front of the mirror in Abby’s old room with my hands folded in my lap and let her work. My braid was gone. She had brushed it out until it crackled and then started pinning it up in sections, twisting and tucking, with her tongue between her teeth and a mouthful of hairpins she someh