“I don’t need help.”

Bryce rounded on him. “Why don’t you tell her what you told me? Namely, that you don’t need my help.”

He had no problem doing that. Glancing back at Vashti, he said, “I don’t need Bryce’s help. Nor do I want it.”

Bryce looked at Vashti. “I’m leaving. You either come with me now or he can take you home.”

Vashti looked from one to the other and then threw up her hands in frustration. “I’m leaving with you, Bryce. I’ll be out to the car in a minute.”

When Bryce walked out of the kitchen, Kaegan turned to Vashti. “You had no right asking her to stay here after the party to do anything, Vashti. I don’t want her here. The only reason I even invite her is because of you.”

Kaegan had seen fire in Vashti’s eyes before, but it had never been directed at him. Now it was. She crossed the room, and he had a mind to take a step back, but he didn’t. “I’m sick and tired of you acting like an ass where Bryce is concerned, Kaegan. When will you wake up and realize what you accused her of all those years ago is not true?”

He glared at her. “Oh? Is that what she told you? News flash—you weren’t there, Vashti, and I know what I saw.”

“Do you?”

“Yes. So you can believe the lie she’s telling you all you want, but I know what I saw that night.”

Vashti drew in a deep breath. “Do you? Or do you only know what you think you saw?”

Then without saying anything else, she turned and walked out of the kitchen.

CHAPTER TWO

VASHTI SLID INTO the car and snapped the seat belt in place. Before starting the ignition, Bryce said, “I cherish our friendship, Vash, and I know why it’s important to you that me, you and Kaegan remain friends. After all, it was your idea that we do this,” she said, holding up her finger that bore the scar of the nick the three of them had made years and years ago. They had been in the first grade together.

“But not even this matters to me anymore. I heard what he told you after I walked out of the kitchen. He deliberately said it loud enough for me to hear. It really wasn’t anything I didn’t know already. He does not want me to come to his parties, so let me go on record as saying that tonight will be my last time attending one of Kaegan’s parties, Vash. So please don’t ask me to ever come to one again.”

Vashti didn’t say anything, and Bryce didn’t expect her to. Vashti knew her and knew when she’d reached her limit about anything. Tonight she had with Kaegan. There was no way she could stop him from coming into her parents’ café each morning as a customer, but she could continue to ignore him. And she would.