Page 58

THIS ABOVE ALL

TEMPEST

F lynn pulled back slightly, his hands framing my face. “I love you, Tempest Navarro. And whatever happens next, wherever I end up playing, that doesn’t change.”

My breath caught. We’d been dancing around these words for weeks, both of us feeling them but neither quite brave enough to say them aloud. Until now.

“Te amo, Flynn.” I whispered, the truth of my love settling into my bones.

His smile was blinding.

He kissed me then, deep and tender, a promise without words. When we broke apart, he pressed his forehead to mine. “You’re not worried about the distance? About LA?”

I wasn’t. Because I was thinking about moving there too. Assuming this FlixNChill deal finally went through, and I had faith they’d figure out the leak, so it would happen, I’d been thinking it would work out great to be where the action was anyway .

“No. Not even a little.” I gave him a sly little smile. “It won’t be that far.”

“You’re right, just a quick plane ride.”

“What if it was shorter than that? Like... a lot shorter.”

“You buying some super-secret sneaky fast jet with your book money, babe?”

“No, but I was thinking I might...go with you. To LA.” I’d just made a huge assumption that he wanted me to go with him. “I mean, we don’t have to like, live together or...”

Flynn picked me up into his arms and spun me around like a Princess Barbie Ballerina. “Fuck yeah, I want us to live together. Having you there with me would make everything that much better. Please move to LA with me.”

He set me back down on my feet and cupped my cheeks, searching my face. “Unless it’s too soon. If you’re not ready?—”

Was this all too fast? Yes. Was I going for it anyway? Also, yes. “I do want to. I’m moving away from my family and starting a whole new life too, so it would definitely be better knowing I had you to come home to after a long day at... work? That sounds so weird to say.”

The back door swung open and Gryff burst out, his eyes wide with excitement. “Hells to the yeah. We can have slumber parties, and midnight margaritas. I’m getting us all matching pajamas.”

He grabbed us both into a hug and if my eyes weren’t popping out from being bear hugged to death, they would at the thought of living with both Kingman twins. That hadn’t quite fit into my future plans.

“Gryff,” Flynn croaked out.

He released us, looked between us both and then laughed so hard he snorted.

“I’m just kidding. I’m not moving in with you two and getting your love cooties all over me.

I’m fairly sure your shiny new domestic bliss and the way Tempest moans your name when you’re making her come would severely cramp my style. ”

Oh, god. He’d heard that? But also, thank goodness.

“I just couldn’t resist when I overheard.” He laughed again.

“Why exactly are you out here torturing us anyway?” Flynn glared at his brother.

“Oh, right. I was just talking to Artie, since she blew me off for some super important rugby thing. And guess who just asked her to be their date for KATman?”

Flynn looked at me. “Your KATman?”

“Oh.” Heat rushed to my face. “Yeah, about that. I’ve never gone before.” I bit my lip. “If you wanted to go with me, that would be…cool or whatever.”

A flash of concern crossed his face. “We have to go to LA for mini camp.”

My heart sank. “Oh. Right. Of course.”

Gryff put one of his hands on each of our shoulders, and leaned in like he was either commiserating or about to tell us something profoundly serious. “You two are the worst.”

Flynn slugged him in the arm. But Gryff shrugged it off, likely having suffered something similar many times in his life.

“KATman isn’t until the following weekend.

And you ruined the big reveal. Parker asked Aarti, and your very own KAT president, cutie patootie Bettie, asked yours truly. We’re going on a triple date. ”

Gryff grinned, looked between the two of us, who were probably looking dumbfounded, and waved his hands like we were a lost cause. “Literally the worst.”

But then Flynn gave me that patented flirty smile of his. “It’s about time I get to see you all dressed up.”

“It would be my first real dance,” I admitted quietly. “With a real date.”

His expression softened. “Tempest... you’ve never been to a dance? Not even prom?”

I shook my head.

Something fierce and protective flashed in Flynn’s eyes. He pulled me close again, pressing a kiss to my forehead. “Then we’re definitely going. And I promise to make it unforgettable.”

Now I needed a dress. So when Flynn and Gryff headed off to LA for their mini camp, which sounded adorable, but apparently was going to kick their asses, I grabbed my friends and went dress shopping.

Which did not go great. After four stores which had only matronly mother-of-the-bride-style dresses in my size, we regrouped at a coffee shop.

“Don’t give up yet,” Bettie insisted.

I shrugged, trying to appear more nonchalant than I felt. “I should have realized sooner. This is worse than my quinceanera. We special ordered a dress because nothing in the stores fit right.”

“You never thought you’d go to KATman,” Alice reminded me gently. “How could you have planned?”

“Exactly. So maybe it’s just not meant to be.”

Parker plunked down beside me, eyes wide, holding out her phone with an email open. “Tempest, did you just get me a job interview with FlixNChill’s IT department?”

“More like strongly suggested they look at your resume. The rest will be up to you.” I managed a small smile. “Because they have utterly failed at finding out who their leak is. And I was hoping you could, umm, help them.”

Parker threw her arms around me in an uncharacteristic display of emotion. “You’re the best roommate in the history of roommates.”

I met her gaze. “I know I’ve been asking a lot of you lately, with all the donkey-sitting and boyfriend-sneaking and identity-crisis management, and well, I owe you.”

“You don’t owe me shit, sister.” Parker spun around in her chair and it wasn’t even the spinny kind. “I am going to hack the hell out of their systems and then they’ll have to hire me.”

We all frowned at her and she stopped spinning. “Uh, ethically hack whatever it is they ask me to so that they are very impressed and offer me a job.” She cleared her throat. “That’s what I said, and you didn’t hear anything different.”

Three days later, Parker burst into our room, her purple hair disheveled and her eyes wild with triumph.

“I finally got it. Well, almost, but I’ve got a great lead.” She dropped my own laptop onto the bed. “Look at this.”

I peered at the screen, trying to make sense of what looked like The Matrix displayed there. “What am I looking at?”

“Evidence.” Parker’s voice was vibrating with excitement. “I traced the digital breadcrumbs. Someone didn’t just leak your identity, they’ve been monitoring your accounts for months. Like, since last semester.”

“What?” Why would someone at FlixNChill be monitoring me way back then? We hadn’t started talking to them until January.

“And I think whoever it is had actual access to your laptop. Because if they’d hacked in from the outside, I would have known.” She shook her head, and I’d never seen Parker so upset. “I’m sorry, Temp, I should have caught it. But this was a serious inside job, man.”

I grabbed her and hugged her tight. “This is not your fault. No way. This is a downright devious inside job.”

But I refused to believe any of my sorority sisters would have betrayed me like this. They were all genuinely happy to find out I was Miranda Milan. No, the only people who were upset about it were my family.

Well, and Mrs. Henderson. She was so scandalized by the whole thing, she’d not only quit talking to me, she wouldn’t even look at me. Even weirder, we hadn’t had any surprise room inspections. Those had been her favorite thing to do all year.

“Could... could it have been Mrs. Henderson?” What did she know about hacking someone’s email?

“She has access to the whole house and no one would blink twice if she went into anyone’s rooms. She does love her room checks. But no way she did this on her own.” Parker narrowed her eyes into her thinking face. “I have an idea.”

She grabbed her laptop from the desk and typed away. Footage from the sorority house’s front door camera popped up with a time stamp from last fall. “I know exactly what day you were hacked and this is a long shot, but maybe we can see if Mrs. H had any visitors that day.”

“Unless they’re wearing a t-shirt that says ‘I hate Miranda Milan’ we’re not going to?—”

Right there at nine twenty-four in the morning, when both Parker and I had a class last semester, was my sister, Rosalind, standing at the front door to the sorority house, looking over her shoulder while waiting for someone to answer.

Okay. It could be nothing. Dropping something off? But all she had was her regular messenger bag slung over her shoulder. Maybe she just stopped by to see me? Not that she ever had before. I waited to see if she left after finding out I wasn’t home.

But Mrs. H answered the door and the two of them talked for a moment. Then Rosalind reached into her bag and pulled out a book, showing it to our house mother.

It was my first book. Even in grainy black and white, I knew that cover anywhere. It had changed my life. I froze. “She read my book?”

Their conversation continued, though we couldn’t hear anything. But Rosalind went inside and no one looked happy.

My stomach churned with the bitter bile of betrayal. I didn’t know for sure if she’d done it. In fact, I was still hoping it was just a coincidence. But I was going to find out.

Casa Navarro was quiet when I arrived. According to a text from Freddie, everyone else was out except Rosalind, who was studying. Law school and the internship she had this summer with the senator always took precedent over everything else.