“Are you guys hungry?” Finley asked. “You must be.”

“No,” I said, shaking my head quickly. “Not really.”

“Oh. Okay, then … we’ll meet you at Avis in ten minutes.”

“Perfect,” I said, smiling at them until they walked out the door.

Tyler and I didn’t speak until we made it to the truck and he slid into the driver seat and shut the door.

“This is awful!” I cried.

“This is fucking great!” he said with a wide smile.

I glared at him. “They’re coming to my apartment. I’m stuck with Fin for an entire evening. She’ll find out about Sterling by dinnertime. I’m fucked.”

Tyler wrinkled his nose. “I don’t understand your strategy, Ellie. You haven’t seen your sister in almost a year to avoid her finding out something that may or may not make her never want to see you again.”

“Exactly.”

“If you never see her again, what does it matter?”

“At least she won’t hate me.”

Tyler drove us to Avis, and I waved at Finley from behind the passenger side window of the truck. They followed us north on the toll road toward Estes Park.

I sighed for the fourth time in ten minutes.

“Ellie…” Tyler began.

“I have less than an hour and a half to figure this out. What are you doing?” I screeched.

“What?” he cried.

“You’re speeding! I need time to think of a way to keep her out of my apartment!”

Tyler eased back on the accelerator, looking annoyed. “What if you tell her it’s being fumigated?”

“Then she’ll go to your apartment.”

“So?”

“She’ll expect me to come, too.”

“Okay, then you get car sick on the way to Estes.”

“I like it, but it’s a temporary fix to a permanent problem.”

Tyler sighed. “Maybe … maybe you should just tell her.”

“Are you out of your mind? Do you want Finley to hate me?”

“If it were me—” He hesitated. “I would be more upset that you kept it from me. She’ll get over it if you’re honest with her.”

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “You don’t know Fin like I do. She holds grudges, and Sterling …”

“Is a whiney little cunt nugget.”

I closed my eyes. “Don’t say that to her.”

When we pulled into the parking lot of the MountainEar, my heart began to pound in my chest, and my palms were slick with sweat.

“You’re sure you don’t want me to come in?”

“Just long enough to follow me into the bathroom and…”

Marco knocked on Tyler’s window. He looked at me and then pressed the button, waiting until it rolled all the way down.

“Hey, Ellie’s not feeling great. I think she’s a little car sick.”