I eyed him. “You don’t actually like her, do you?”

“Nah,” he said, smiling. “I just want you to admit you do.”

A sigh of concession blew out of me, the pause filled with my thoughts. “We almost kissed yesterday,” I admitted.

Kash sat up so fast, he thunked his head on the bottom bunk. “Goddammit—” He rubbed at his forehead “—Warn a guy before you go saying things like, I almost kissed Tess.”

I laughed openly at his misfortune, hoping it left a mark. “She fell off a ladder in storage, and I caught her. Topless.”

His eyes bulged, hand still pressed to his forehead. “Tess was topless in storage?”

“No, I was.”

He rolled his eyes, chucking a pillow at me. I caught it midair and chucked it right back at him.

“I’m surprised she didn’t deck you,” he said, fluffing the pillow before leaning back again.

“Me too, if I’m being honest. She hates me. Hated me. Maybe still hates me a little.”

“What’d you do to her?” he asked. At this point, the question was rhetorical—neither of us knew, no matter how many times we’d asked.

“Who knows? But I think the last couple of days have helped my case. All I had to do was show up and not fuck up.”

“Don’t worry. There’s still time,” he reassured me.

“Trust me, I’m aware. I’ve been working on the installation for her in the back, and I’m both convinced I’m going to disappoint her and that I’ll knock her socks off.”

“Or her bra. Think you can knock that off?”

“If she were anybody else, I’d guarantee it. But Tess?” I made a resigned noise.

He watched me for a second in that way he had about him, the quiet assessment that ran under his outward charm. It was a mask—that much I knew for a fact—armor to protect his soft spots. Everyone thought he was nothing but a girl-crazy flirt, just like me. But that was just how we liked it. Let them think we were empty.

There was comfort in being underestimated. We were constantly set to impress everyone.

Something in his expression shifted, and I knew what he was going to say before he said it.

“Wendy’s back in town.”

A long, noisy draw of breath filled the space between us. “Laney told me.”

Another pause, his eyes the deepest, darkest blue of all of us. “What do you think she wants?”

“I don’t know. Can’t be a coincidence that she’s on my heels.”

He frowned. “Didn’t think so either. Think she heard Marcus bought the shop?”

Unease twisted around in my stomach like a nest of snakes. “Maybe. Though I don’t know why she’d bother coming all the way back. I’ve only seen her a handful of times since … well, since it ended. The last time was a few weeks ago. She seemed her usual then.”

“Charming? Messy? Manic?”

“All of the above.”

His frown deepened. “Was she up or down?”