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For reasons unknown, it made me want to rage. “This,” I said, jabbing my finger toward my house, “is not a fair trade.”

“I know.”

“I didnotsign up for this.”

“I know, Abigail.”

“The only reason I haven’t talked to Gabe is because—” I stopped. I didn’t want to admit how much my brother’s attitude hurt me. “Because I don’t want him to hate youforever."

Rex sighed and shrugged, spreading his arms. “It’s just for a few days. I’ll—I’ll make it up to you.”

He looked so resigned. I frowned. “How did you get to the point where your brother is dating your ex, and now you’re bending over backward to do everything you can for them? They sure don’t seem to care that much about you.”

Rex flinched, and a tiny part of me felt bad. Only a tiny part, though. He let out a long breath. “This is the way it is between me and Donny.”

“Maybe Donny should learn to take care of himself.”

Rex shrugged. “He just needs a little help sometimes.”

“With life?” I snarked.

“Yeah, with life,” Rex replied. “My dad died, and it hit him hard. He was so much younger than me; I had to step up. And now he relies on me for things like this. He’s not a bad guy. He’s just…Donny.”

“You sound like Gabe,” I said, upper lip curling. “The brave, clever, overprotective big brother who just has to take care of his screwup of a younger sibling.”

Rex frowned. “That’s not what Gabe thinks.”

I snorted. “Isn’t it?”

“Well, it’s not whatIthink.”

“You seemed pretty happy to play along with him calling me a disaster waiting to happen this morning.”

Rex stared at me, and understanding dawned in his eyes. He’d hurt my feelings, and he knew it.

Ihatedthat. It burned through me, the shame of his compassion, the absolute mortification of Rex fucking Montgomery preparing to be so goddamnniceto me again.

“I have to go inside and make sure Blair hasn’t turned my living room into a film studio,” I said, brushing past him?—

And promptly tripping over one of the concrete blocks I’d dumped in the backyard over a year ago when I’d had dreams of building a fire pit where Charlie, Sophie, and I could hang out on warm summer evenings.

Rex caught me before I hit the ground, helped me right myself, then moved toward the concrete blocks like he was going to clear them out of the way.

“Don’t touch those,” I snapped at him. “That’s my fire pit.”

Rex straightened, gaze on the five or six concrete blocks tumbled in the middle of my yard, almost completely obscured by grass and weeds. His eyes flicked to me. “This is your fire pit?”

“Oh, shut up, Rex,” I said, and spun on my heels to rush back inside.

Blair looked up when I entered the kitchen, and I didn’t even have the energy to duke it out with her. I made my way to my bedroom and slammed my door behind me.

My home was overrun with unwanted houseguests. I had to pretend to date my brother’s best friend, who had made it more than clear that he was in no wayactuallyinterested in me, which would be fine except for the fact that I’d discovered he was unbearably attractive. And worst of all, he was trying to beniceto me. I couldn’t get out of this situation without ending up even more disgraced than I was now, so my only choice was to see it through.

But I would not cry. Not over Rex, and definitely not over Blair and Donny. I was better than that.

Winston looked up from where he’d been grooming himself nearmy closet. His black-and-white head tilted, green eyes clear and bright in the fading sunlight illuminating my room. I got on my knees in front of him and let him sniff at my fingers for a second, then enjoyed his motor-engine purrs as I scratched him behind the ears.

“Everything really sucks, Winston.” I sat down fully, and he climbed into my lap. “Everything just really, really sucks.”