When Alex finally shut the hell up, she gave Rusty a light jab in the arm. “Maybe you could call him later, no way he’d turn down a booty call.”

The idea appealed, she couldn’t deny it. She’d thought of Reid all day, could still feel the man between her thighs. She was tender after their night together, but in a good way, in a way that made it impossible to think of anything other than what they’d done.

“I don’t know.” She grinned over at Alex, who had stopped at a red light.

“No more waiting, remember,” Piper added.

But Alex wasn’t looking at her. She was staring out the window, eyes locked on something across the street. “Motherfucker,” she whispered.

“What is it?”

“Nothing,” she answered quickly, too quickly. “When’s the goddamned light going to change?”

Rusty followed her friend’s gaze toward the Seascape Hotel. Reid’s Plymouth was parked out front, waiting for a valet by the looks of it. The man himself stood beside it, dressed in jeans and a dark gray button-down, looking gorgeous as ever. A beautiful brunette stood beside him, laughing at something he said, then he flung an arm around her shoulders and they headed inside.

Piper reached forward and wrapped her fingers around her bicep. “Rusty, there could be a perfectly good explanation for it. I’m sure it’s not what you think.”

No, it was exactly what she thought. God, how could she have been so stupid? A horn blasted behind them several times. Alex cursed and slammed her foot on the gas.

“Rusty?” Piper shuffled forward in her seat. “Don’t freak out, not until you’ve talked to him.”

“I’m not gonna freak out, Piper.” No, she was too numb to do anything but stare woodenly out the window. Too numb to think. And she sure as hell wasn’t ready to dwell on why she wasn’t enough, why she was never enough. Why besides her brother and the two women in this car, everyone else saw her as nothing but an empty shell. That because of a genetic fluke that made her some kind of ideal, a fantasy, they assumed there was nothing else.

Alex cursed and beat the crap out of the steering wheel. Then the car wrenched to the right, and they came to a stop outside a gas station.

Her friend looked over at her, determination shining in her eyes. “No, we’re not going to freak out. We’re going to get even.” Then she climbed out of the car and stomped inside. A few minutes later, she returned with her arms full of toilet paper rolls. She made three more trips, filling the trunk with what had to be every roll in the store, then slammed it shut and climbed behind the wheel. “Address,” Alex said, eyes narrowed, steering wheel in a white-knuckled grip.

Rusty turned to Alex and rattled off the address, then hung on as they peeled out of the gas station.

Yeah, TPing someone’s place was juvenile, but right then she needed to do something, anything to get back at him. Because it fucking hurt.

Her stomach curled into a heavy knot, and she clutched the door handle in a grip tight enough to cause pain, afraid she’d shatter into a million pieces if she didn’t hold on for all she was worth. Afraid she’d crumble to dust from the inside out. She never thought anything could feel worse than that night after her senior prom, but she was wrong. This was so much worse.

Seeing him with another woman—God, it cut, so damn deep, more than it should, but she’d fallen for the asshole hook, line, and sinker. Idiot.

A short time later, they were parked in front of Reid’s house, unloading toilet paper onto his driveway. Since he was currently holed up at the Seascape Hotel screwing someone else, and fences on either side made his place nice and private, they were free to decorate to their hearts’ content.

Alex loaded up with rolls. “I’ll take the back. Piper you get the garden and the garage. Rusty, you take the front of the house and the lawn.”

Piper nodded, a grim expression on her face. “Let’s do this.”

They knew better than to throw sympathy at her, knew how much she hated that. There would be no crying jag while listening to sad songs, and no eating her body weight in chocolate. That was not her, not how she dealt with crap when it was flung her way. The fact that these women knew that, were prepared to vandalize someone’s house for her, with her, and actually came up with the idea just to make her feel better? Well, it meant everything. These women meant everything to her. Always had, always would.

Rusty grabbed some rolls, shut her mind down, and got to work, putting extra effort into the task.

The entire front of his house had a curtain of white toilet paper hanging from it by the time she finished, matching the attached garage Piper had taken care of. She was aggressively hurling rolls over his small patch of carefully maintained lawn when lights hit them from behind, full beam, followed by the deep rumble of an idling engine. An engine she knew all too well.

Piper spun around and her mouth dropped open. “Holy shit.” The roll she was holding, ready to fire over the garage, dropped from her hand at the sound of a car door banging shut. “Ah, Rusty…”

“What. The. Fuck?” Reid’s voice came from close behind her, low and dangerous.

“I’m just…I’m getting Alex,” Piper hissed and tore off around the back of the house.

“Rusty?” he barked.

Ignoring him, she reached down and picked a decent-sized rock off the ground, tightening her fingers around its hard, cool surface. A mix of emotions swam through her, hurt and anger were right up there, but right then humiliation trumped the lot. I’m such an idiot.

“You wouldn’t fucking dare,” he said, coming closer.

Hauling back her arm, she let the rock fly, the sound of smashing glass followed as it exploded through the garage’s side window. “I fucking would.”

She bent to pick up another one, but he wrapped his arms around her waist, holding her immobile, and dragged her against his front. “Stop acting like a bitch and tell me what the hell’s going on?”

Fuck him. He did not get to be pissed at her. He was the one screwing someone else, not her. He was the one throwing the word exclusively around, lying to her face. “We weren’t expecting you home so soon. If you give us a few minutes to finish the front, we’ll be on our way.”

He dropped his arms and spun her to face him, staring down at her. Pissed didn’t really cover it, furious was a better description, maybe murderous. “There a reason you’re vandalizing my place, smashing the fuckin’ windows?” His eyes narrowed. “This can’t be because I canceled our plans?”

She laughed, the sound bitter to her own ears. “I’m not that goddamned precious.”

“Why?” he gritted out.

She imitated his stance, but only because she needed some kind of barrier between them. “I don’t like being lied to, and I sure as hell don’t like being treated like a brainless piece of ass.” She shrugged. “I thought you knew that about me—big surprise, I was wrong. You’re just a pig, same as all the other pigs I’ve had the displeasure of crossing paths with.”

Before she knew what she was doing, her hand was in the air, heading for his cheek, but he was faster and grabbed her wrist before it made contact with the side of his face. She tried to pull free. “Let me the hell go.”

“I don’t react well to being hit. I wouldn’t try that again if I were you,” he said, voice deadly calm.

She wrenched out of his hold and turned to Alex and Piper, who had just rounded the corner. “Let’s get out of here.” She went to push past him, but one of his hands wrapped around her upper arm and stopped her in her tracks.

“Talk to me, and I mean now, Rusty.”

Alex stormed forward. “Let her go, you cheating piece of shit.” Piper grabbed Alex around the waist before she launched herself at Reid.

“Cheating?” he repeated.

“We saw you with that skank outside a hotel. Don’t try to deny it,” Alex fired at him.