The Cousins(71)

The only thing she didn’t consider was not telling Matt. This was both of their problem. She wasn’t going to face it alone.

“I just…” Allison paused as Matt opened Brewer Floral’s front door, then turned to lock it and stepped onto the street. “Never mind. He’s leaving. I’ll have to do it another time.” Relief washed over her, quickly replaced by panic when she saw where Matt was headed. “He’s coming over here. Oh no. I can’t talk to him in the middle of a coffee shop.” She slid off her stool and tugged on Anders’s arm. “We have to go.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” he snapped. “You’ll just trip over Matt if you leave now. Stop being such a coward and ask him to take a walk with you.”

“Okay. Yes. Good idea,” Allison said as Matt came through the door. There was no way he could miss seeing her and Anders—they were directly in his line of vision—but he strolled right past them.

“Matt,” Allison called. Her stomach hurt. She hated everything about this already.

He turned, reluctantly. “Oh, hey, Allison. Didn’t see you there.”

“Bullshit,” Anders coughed. Because he was helpful like that.

Allison wanted the floor to swallow her up, but she also wanted to get this over with. “Do you think we could, um, take a walk real quick?” she asked.

“I can’t,” Matt said. “I’m just grabbing a couple of coffees and then I have to be somewhere.”

“How about I come with you, then?”



Matt heaved a sigh. “Look, Allison…I had fun hanging out with you at Rob’s, but that’s all it was. Fun. So maybe you could stop calling me, okay?” Allison just stared, struck silent with humiliation, and he added, “I’m not interested.”

“You’re not interested?” Anders snorted out a rude laugh. “Oh, that’s rich. You should be thanking my sister for giving you the time of day, you townie piece of shit.”

Matt’s jaw twitched. “Here’s a question for you, Anders. If I’m such a piece of shit, why’d Kayla pick me over you?”

Anders narrowed his eyes. “She didn’t pick you. You hooked up once. Big deal.”

“We didn’t hook up once,” Matt said. “We’re together. We have been for weeks. Haven’t you noticed that she stopped returning your calls?”

Allison stole a look at Anders. The tightening around his mouth was almost imperceptible, but she saw it, and she knew Matt’s words had hit their mark. Anders would’ve died before letting him know that, though. “I don’t keep track of Kayla’s calls,” he said dismissively. “She always comes crawling back to me eventually. Have fun while it lasts.”

“She’s not going to…no, you know what?” Matt shook his head, like he was disgusted with himself. “I’m not getting into this with you. You think you own people just because you have money, but you don’t. There’s a whole island full of people who don’t give a rat’s ass about Anders Story. About any Story,” he added, and Allison felt a gut punch of shame at being included like that. What had she ever done, except like him?

“You’re so wrong that it’s almost funny,” Anders said.

“Whatever. I’m out,” Matt said. He turned and left without his coffee, not sparing a backward glance for Allison.



“That asshole,” she seethed as the door closed. Hurt sent a sharp, stabbing pain through her stomach.

“Finally, we agree on something,” Anders said.

And yet, she still had to talk to Matt. She lifted her bag from the counter as she watched his rigid back through the window, then froze as he suddenly held his arms out to catch a girl who was flying toward him from across the street. Kayla Dugas.

Just grabbing a couple of coffees, Matt had said. Oh God. He was on a date.

Matt and Kayla kissed in the street, right in front of them. It felt like Matt was putting on a show, and Allison could feel the resentment coming off Anders in waves. “Come on,” Anders growled, getting to his feet. “I changed my mind. I can’t wait to go out there and tell him you’re knocked up.”

“No!” Allison hissed, digging in her heels. “I’m not doing this in front of Kayla.”

Kayla turned, and for a second Allison thought she’d heard them, even though she was too far away for that to be possible. But she definitely saw them. With one arm looped around Matt’s neck, she blew a dramatic kiss toward the window. Then she went back to making out with Matt even more enthusiastically than before.

Allison had never seen Anders so angry. His face was red and his jaw clenched as he said, “She’s going to regret that,” in a low, dangerous voice.

“Let’s just go,” Allison said. She looped her bag over her shoulder, then gasped as she caught sight of her leg. Her right thigh was streaked with blood beneath her tan shorts. “How did I…” She scanned the stool for something sharp that might have cut her, and nearly doubled over as a wave of pain hit her abdomen. Then she understood.



She wasn’t sick about Matt’s behavior. This was something else entirely.



* * *



—

It took a week for the bleeding to stop. On the night when she’d finally gone a full day without it, Allison took another pregnancy test. One line. She should be relieved—and she probably would be soon—but at the moment, she just felt empty.