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“It will be fun,” Matthew was saying in an undertone to Jonas, because none of these people seemed to understand that both Bethan and Jonas could kill all of them. With very little effort. “Maybe a hike, maybe shoot some pool. Stuff like that.”

“Matthew and his groomsmen are staying in a hotel about ten minutes away,” Birdie chimed in. “Now that we’ve found you, he can give you a ride tonight.”

“To the hotel that’s ten minutes away,” Jonas said, sounding... wooden. Maybe only she could see that he was as baffled as he was horrified. “So that we can...”

“Bond,” Bethan told him, suddenly seized with a sense of what she could only assume was mischief. Yes, at his expense. It felt like the logical response to all these years of nonsense. “How fun, honey. Don’t you think?”

And she smiled sunnily at him when he shifted that dark, murderous glare to her.

After they’d all sat around in that sitting room talking wedding details to death, and after Jonas had been forced to smile and tell his loud jokes before heading off with Matthew, Bethan found herself bundled off to the vineyard house with all her sister’s friends—and a shared bed. Which she lay in while her sister snored gently beside her and tried to imagine Jonas doing frat boy things.

She fell asleep with a smile on her face.

***

The following morning, all the bridesmaids got up and insisted that it was time for a morning run.

“Fun run!” one of her sister’s blonder friends squealed.

Bethan’s halfhearted protests that she had to go back to her room to get her running stuff were ignored because they could lend her everything.

“Lucky me,” she murmured while Ellen snickered at her.

And then off they all went in a giant pack of giggles to do their fun run, which bore no resemblance to any kind of run Bethan ever did on her own.

“Zoe runs a 5K every two years and thinks she’s a marathoner,” Ellen muttered under her breath as they all ran about the property like a herd of prey.

“Amazing,” Bethan said in return, trying to fit in, but her sister only smirked at her.

“Yeah, yeah. You’re a badass and you probably run six marathons every morning.”

“I didn’t say anything!”

“You don’t have to say anything,” Ellen retorted with a laugh. “Your entire body says it all for you.”

“I do not, in fact, run marathons. Any morning, thank you.”

“How many miles do you actually run, then?” Ellen asked, and Bethan recognized the competitive look on her sister’s face. As it was so often the same look on her own.

She thought of Isaac’s hideous workouts. “I don’t only run.”

Her sister tilted her head slightly. “All right, then. Let’s race.”

Bethan let out a laugh before she thought better of it. “I’m not racing you.”

Ellen snorted. “Are you afraid I might actually be better at something than you?”

Bethan nudged her with her shoulder. “You’re better at a lot of things, El. But probably not physical things.”

“Coward,” her little sister threw at her, and then took off.

And for a moment, Bethan was torn. She didn’t want to race Ellen. Well, that was a lie. She was highly competitive, especially with her sister, and would enjoy nothing more than kicking her butt. But was it worth it? This was Ellen’s weekend.

“Who’s the badass now?” Ellen yelled over her shoulder.

And that decided it.

Bethan took off. She rounded the bridesmaids and went after Ellen, who was running full out down the side of the vineyard toward the house they’d left earlier. When she got closer, she realized her sister was laughing maniacally asshe ran. And when Ellen glanced back over her shoulder, her face was filled with glee.