Carter drags his hands down his face before resting his elbows on his knees, his voice tight, like he’s dragging it straight from his chest. “I didn’t know how to tell you Haven, honest,” he admits, voice rough. “At first, I didn’t think it mattered. You two hated each other, but it was just a game, just gamer shit-talking, nothing serious. But then…” He pauses, drags a hand through his hair, his eyes shifting to mine, searching. “Then you started talking about him differently.”

I blink. “Differently?”

Carter shifts, fingers flexing like he wants to reach for something, for me, maybe, but stops himself. “I mean the way you’d talk about how he pissed you off, the way you’d get so worked up, the way it wasn’t just about the game anymore.”

My jaw locks, irritation flaring hot under my skin. “Yeah, because he made it personal. He went out of his way to piss me off.”

Carter lets out a dry, humorless laugh. “Yeah. That’s what he does, what he thrives on.”

I stare at him, waiting, waiting, waiting for him to get to the part where this somehow makes any fucking sense. “So what?” I ask, shaking my head. “You just decided I didn’t need to fucking know at all?”

His fingers curl into his palm, his jaw tight, his shoulders tense up like he already hates his answer. “I didn’t want you to look at me and see him.”

That stops me for a moment, it’s not what I was expecting. I inhale sharply, my thoughts racing, fitting together pieces that I didn’t even realize were sitting on the table. Instead of warning me, he let it play out. I don’t know if I’m more pissed at him for keeping it from me, or more pissed at myself for not seeing it sooner. I stare at him, my pulse a hammer against my chest, my brain already moving a mile a minute.

Now that he’s said it out loud? There’s no way in hell I’m letting this go. For a second, I just sit there, letting the weight of everything he just admitted settle in, feeling the tension radiating off of him in waves, watching the way his jaw is locked so tight it looks like it might snap, the way his fingers flex against his knees like he doesn’t know what to do with them, like he’s waiting for the moment I completely lose my shit. Yeah, it’s fucking insane.

The fact that Carter’s twin is the guy who has been singlehandedly responsible for my most rage-inducing gaming moments all while driving me insane with those ‘pretty girl’ words.

The fact that Carter knew and never said a damn thing. Even with all of this crashing down around us, my brain still has the audacity to acknowledge how stupidly attractive both of them are.