Circle of Lies (Red Ridge Pack) by Sara Dailey, Staci Weber Page B

away, and her face was purposefully blank. She was making it clear that she hadn’t just got shot down, in case anyone was looking. A few people were.
    Sean was still standing there. He lightly touched my arm and said, “Well…?”
    Shit, shit, shit. Was I really going to go hang out with Aiden? Was I really going to put myself in that position, being alone with him, letting him make me all melty inside, when I didn’t know what his ultimate intentions were? Been there, done that. I turned and said, “Maybe some other time. But, thanks.”
    My words sounded exactly like the ones he had used on Becca. Looking completely defeated Aiden echoed, “Sure. Some other time.”
    He turned and walked away without looking back.

23.
    Aiden
    “If they don’t get a move on, we’re going to be late,” my dad complained as he plopped down next to me on the couch.
    “Be patient, old man,” I said. “Not everyone here is as naturally good-looking as we are. They have to get ready.”
    I leaned back and put my feet up on the coffee table. Things weren’t tense between us for some reason. I didn’t know exactly why. My mom wasn’t alone in lying to me for all those years, but I knew that more than anything Dad wished he really was my biological father. I guess the pain in his eyes somehow made me less angry with him.
    He didn’t seem to heed my advice about my mom and sister, though. “All right, ladies,” he called. “I’m going to warm up the car. Please be ready in the next five minutes.”
    A short time later he was saying, “Remind me why we’re going to watch a musical starring that mean girl who left my baby at a pizza parlor penniless, phoneless, and twenty miles from home.” We were on the way to the high school.
    “Paul, we talked about this,” my mom replied. “We have to try to get along and fit in now, and if one of the pack kids is in a play, that means we go and support them.”
    “Whatever,” Dad muttered.
    Even I had to admit Shari wasn’t all bad. She’d been hanging with the wrong girl. She hadn’t stood a chance going against someone like Kendall, and she had redeemed herself when Alli was kidnapped. If she hadn’t shown us that text from Dylan, we would have never found my sister in time.
    We pulled into the high school parking lot right behind the Walkers. Marcus, Noel, Cade. Awesome. Them and us, one big happy-ass family. Alli and Cade immediately took off together, so I was left walking in with my parents toward the auditorium. All four of them.
    It was hard to believe, but I’d begun to appreciate the frigid weather here a little more. It calmed my nerves, actually, made that slight itchy feeling I’d been getting under my skin lately ease a bit, but I wanted to get away from the uncomfortable situation of walking with the two sets of parents so I faked that I was freezing and walked quicker into the school.
    I knew Teagan was there the second I entered the lobby. I could sense her like I had radar—or really, I could smell her. After a quick, awkward smile to some waving girls, I set off to find the source of that delicious scent.
    It didn’t take long. She stood by the stage door with that guy friend of hers, Sean. When she smiled up at him, I felt this panic, this rage deep inside my gut, but I swallowed it down and listened instead. They weren’t acting all lovey-dovey or anything, so hopefully that was a good sign that there wasn’t anything romantic going on. Then I heard her tell him to break a leg.
    Oh, he was in the show. Good. That meant he wouldn’t be sitting with her during the performance. I definitely didn’t need anyone else getting in the way of my asking her out. I’d had a hard enough time already.
    As soon as he walked off, disappearing through the stage doors, I knew it was time to make my move. I forced myself to forget her refusal of the ride home from school and focused on nothing but her person: the shine of that long blonde hair, the curve of those hips