it? Why do you guys look so serious?” Zara wondered, nonchalantly sipping the coffee she’d brought up from the cafeteria.
“It’s not for a little bit,” Tahi said uneasily. “Rudy said Eric’s gone for good.”
Zara slid her cell phone out of her pocket and held it up pointedly. “Then how come we’re meeting tonight over at Chauncy’s?”
“Eric said he’d meet you tonight?” Laila asked disbelievingly.
“Don’t look so surprised,” Zara said, rolling her eyes. “Just because he got sick and tired of Asher being rude to him all the time over at his house doesn’t mean he wanted to leave me. He’s still on vacation, you know. He’s got a hotel room in Crescent Bay.”
Laila and Tahi shared an uneasy glance. What was Eric up to?
“If Asher was rude to Eric, it was probably with good reason,” Tahi stated bluntly. “Eric went to Chicago specifically to tattle to Asher’s dad that Asher wasn’t planning to work for the family business. Eric wanted to be the one to break the bad news. He loves to gloat over making Asher look bad. He’s been doing it to Asher his whole life. That’s what Rudy told me.”
“Oh, poor Asher,” Zara said scathingly.
“Zara, listen . . . I really think you have to be careful about Eric,” Laila said, growing more and more unsettled by the second.
Zara’s laugh made a chill go through her. There was something in her cousin’s face in that moment that she’d never really seen before, a bitterness, distrust . . . even disgust toward Tahi and her. Was this what falling for Eric had done to Zara? Turned her against them, Zara’s cousins and best friends? It was like Laila was watching this whole situation with the guys—their carefree summer—begin to unwind.
Grow rancid.
“That’s funny. You preaching to me about being careful with Eric, when you’ve jumped into a grave far deeper than any of us with Asher. Sweet little Laila isn’t so innocent anymore, is she? And yet you sit there and try to throw the blame on Eric?”
Laila flinched back, thinking of how Eric had interrupted Asher and her in bed last night. He’d apparently told Zara about it.
“And you’ve been listening to that little weasel Rudy too much,” Zara said, turning to Tahi, malice twisting her pretty face. “What if Eric did go to Chicago with the intention of telling Asher’s dad about Asher’s plans? Eric does work for GGM. He probably thought Asher’s father should know Asher was never planning to come on board. Eric is loyal to the business and to his family. What’s so horrible about that?”
“Because Asher should have been the one to break the news.” Laila defended Asher hotly. “He planned to do it in person next week. Now Eric has ruined everything with his interference.”
“Eric hasn’t ruined anything. Asher’s a liar. How is that Eric’s fault?”
“Oh, and Eric is just an angel in all this,” Tahi seethed, her cheeks flushed. “And since when do you get off, acting all holier-than-thou. Like you don’t lie through your teeth dozens of times a day—”
“Shut up. Zarif,” Zara warned in a hiss under her breath, her white teeth bared.
Tahi and Laila glanced over their shoulder. Tahi’s older brother, Zarif, entered the waiting room. Laila waved self-consciously at her cousin. Zarif waved stiffly, a puzzled expression on his face. He went over to the vending machine without saying anything, but Laila thought he’d looked a little suspicious about their hushed, charged conversation.
• • •
Zara was cool toward Tahi and Laila for the rest of the evening. Tahi was furious at Zara. Laila was angry too, and worried, and . . . sad. What had seemed like a tiff to Tahi felt like a tear to Laila, somehow, like something elemental had ripped in her family life. Zara was changing.
So was Laila. And that had her scared as much as anything.
After they’d returned to the cottages, Laila texted Asher. She wasn’t sure if he’d met up with his parents yet. But she wanted to give him the information that Eric had returned to Crescent Bay, in case he didn’t know it.
Where’s he staying in Crescent Bay? Asher texted her almost immediately when she wrote about Eric.
There was something about the terseness of his texted question that sent off an alarm in her head.
I don’t know. Some hotel. Asher . . . promise me you won’t look for him.
A short pause ensued.
I’m close to my parents’ house. We’ll talk about it later, he texted.
A vivid picture popped into her head of Eric and Asher pounding on each other.
Okay. I understand. But promise me you won’t look for Eric before you go. Please?