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Not only would I never hear the end of it, I’d be putting Mia in a much riskier position. Not to mention the embarrassment of it all. I didn’t want to put her through more than what she’d already had to endure.

“I suppose so,” I said a little too loudly. The strain in my voice was a shriek for help, and I prayed my friends would understand.

Hayden was the first to step in.

Bless her.

“Unless Alex is hiding a saucy little love interest that we’ve yet to find out about?” she hummed, shooting Alex a wink that was secretly meant for me.

I owed her so much.

“Why is Alex the one who gets the love interest?” Taylor huffed, quickly catching on and playing along. “I could be involved in a particularly raunchy entanglement myself, you know.”

And even though their stares still prickled along my skin, the deep sense of fear had passed a little, leaving me somewhat in the clear.

I couldn’t remember the last time brunch had been as tense and uncomfortable. My mother insisted on making small talk with everyone, all while I prayed that she wouldn’t notice my bare ring finger.

Finally, after the longest hour of my life, she announced she was leaving. She said her goodbyes and got to her feet, and I was ready to punch the air in victory.

“Oh, Reid,” she said, turning around just before I could celebrate. “You and Mia can have dinner without me tonight; I’m meeting an old friend.”

“‘Kay,” I murmured tonelessly.

She waved one last time and whirled off into the early afternoon.

The silence hanging over the table stretched on almost endlessly, waiting for someone to shatter it. That someone would, inevitably, be Hayden.

“Iknewit!” she cried. She pointed at Taylor. “You owe me ten bucks!”

I frowned. “Wait, what the hell is going on?” I asked.

“Oh come on,” Taylor said, grumbling as she pulled out a neat ten dollar bill from her purse and slid it over to Hayden. “You don’t really think you’rethatgood at hiding things from your best friends, do you?”

I glanced around the table, each one of them, except Frankie and Elliot, wearing the exact same shit-eating grin.

“Fuck off,” I scoffed. “You had no idea.”

“Okay, we didn’t really,” Taylor admitted. “Hayden did, which is why I lost.”

I glared at Hayden.

“I know a thing or two about visas,” she said with a wink. “And not everything can be solved overnight without putting a ring on it.”

I narrowed my eyes at her, shame, guilt, and embarrassment swirling low in my gut.

“If you already knew, then why make me go through the exhausting process of hiding it from you?” I asked, my voice bordering on a whine of complete fatigue.

“Because you didn’t tell us in the first place.” Hayden smiled.

“You’re all going to hell, I hope you know that,” I muttered.

There was a murmur of agreement from the rest of the group, which only served to prove my point.

“Whatever.” Taylor giggled, leaning forward with glee. “Tell us everything!”

Chapter 17

The Next Step