Sweet Peril (The Sweet Trilogy #2)(28)

I tensed, sick of her snide tone.

“That’s enough!” Marna said, but her sister ignored her.

Ginger’s soft voice was laced with cruelty, and she never took her eyes from me. “Admit it, Anna. You’re pleased about this.”

A bolt of anger ricocheted inside me and I closed the space between us with clenched fists. My heart pounded at the prospect of a confrontation, but this had been a long time coming.

“I’ve put up with you saying a lot of things to me, and about me, but let’s get one thing straight. I would never want Kaidan to put himself in danger. He has nothing to prove to me. He doesn’t even talk to me! I understand that you resent me, Ginger, because I haven’t had to go through everything you have. But believe it or not my life isn’t perfect, and neither am I.”

“Right.”

“Geez, Ginger! What do I have to do to prove myself to you?”

“Tell me one mistake you’ve ever made in your perfect little life,” she challenged.

Ugh. Fine.

“Okay. For one, I fell in love with Kaidan and showed him my colors.” I sucked in a reflexive breath at my own declaration.

Ginger smiled victoriously, and Marna’s body jumped with a giant hiccup. In my peripheral vision I saw Kope shove his hands in his jeans pockets and stare down at the white carpet.

“That really was quite stupid,” Ginger said, “but we’d guessed as much already. If that’s your only so-called mistake—”

“Aw, Gin,” Marna started, but I shook my head, not willing to be sidetracked.

“No, that’s not it,” I started. “When we went on that road trip last year . . .” Was I really going to admit this? Her eyebrow rose in eager anticipation. Taking a deep breath and fully aware of Kope’s listening ears, I told my biggest secret. “I wanted to . . . be with him. You know. But he said no.”

Oh, my gosh. I wanted to curl up under the table away from their stares. Ginger’s mouth and eyes rounded and she let out a snigger. I didn’t dare look in Kope’s direction, but I could see he’d frozen in place. After a moment Ginger dropped the act and eyed me with seriousness. We’d both been rejected by Kaidan. That had to put us on more equal ground. And even if it didn’t, I was done being bullied.

“This isn’t about Kaidan,” I told her. “It’s about us. I’m tired of how you treat me. And you wanna know what’s really sad? Even though you’ve been nothing but hateful to me since the day we met, you have no idea how much I want your approval and how many things I envy about you.”

She scoffed. “What things might you envy about me? Could it be my arsehole father who refuses to let us attend university because they don’t offer slut degrees, even though I could teach the bloody classes myself? Or maybe it’s the record number of marriages I’ve ended this year?”

“No,” I said, softening. “I envy that you’re such a strong person, despite those things. I wish I could speak my mind like you, and be the kind of person who people don’t try to walk all over. You don’t put up with crap from anyone. And . . .” I glanced down at her low-cut V-necked sweater with the perfect amount of cleavage on display. “I envy your boobs.”

Marna snorted. Kope swiftly turned and walked away with a shake of his head. Ginger held my eyes as she crossed her arms under her chest, fluffing her boobs upward even higher.

“They are rather nice,” she admitted. Marna bent over at the waist and laughed now. Ginger and I cracked a smile at the same time, stepping back from each other as the tension slightly lifted.

“Please come back, Kope,” Marna called. He’d gone to look out a window across the room. “Let’s all sit down and have tea before it gets cold.”

His gait was stiff as he walked to the square white table and sat.

“There, there, luv,” Marna patted his shoulder and placed a cup of warm tea in front of him. “You poor dear, having to hang out with the likes of us.” She winked at me.

He kept his eyes down. It was clear he didn’t trust us not to steer the conversation into uncomfortable territory again. I picked up a book that had gotten pushed aside by the tea tray. It was a book of sign language.

“Ooh,” Marna said, taking a dainty sip of tea. “We’re learning! You guys should learn it, too. Blake and Kai came up with the idea to learn sign language for those times when they weren’t sure if their fathers were within range.”

“That is very dangerous but smart,” Kope remarked.

“Isn’t it?” Ginger asked. “I can’t believe those two thought of it. Marna and I made up our own general signs when we were younger, just playing around, but this will be better.”

“Do you think the whisperers have picked up on sign language, though?” I asked.

“Well, we obviously wouldn’t use it in front of them,” Ginger said. “It’d just be for when Dukes are nearby, but no one can see us. Thought about making up our own, but that’d take too damn long.”

I nodded.

“Supposedly Kaidan’s having a difficult time ’cause he can’t say swear words in every sentence,” Marna said with a smile. “He’s determined to find signs for cursing or make some up himself.”

“Really?” I asked. “He doesn’t cuss that much.” In fact, I’d only heard him use a few minor words here and there. I looked up to find Marna and Ginger staring at me with disbelieving expressions.