Markus: For good reason, but cool, maybe I can talk to her.

Jace: Be good for both of you.

Suddenly, his timer started going off, signaling it was time to go but also startling him. Turning it off quickly so it didn’t wake Mekena, he typed back a quick good-bye to Jace. The news that Skylar and Mekena weren’t talking did something to him that he didn’t understand. It was bad enough that Mekena’s heart was broken, but she didn’t have her sister either? It was all Skylar’s fault, but still, he felt bad about that. He wanted to wait for Mekena to get up, maybe talk to her, but he knew he couldn’t. He had to go. Looking down to the cat, who was finished with the pancake and obviously expecting another one, he shrugged. “Sorry, you’re on your own. See ya, kitty.”

Rushing out the door, he ran toward the main house and then to the left where he knew Jayden and Baylor’s cabin was. Jayden was outside, leaning against his truck as he sipped on a cup of coffee. When he looked over to Markus, Jayden’s brow rose.

“What happened to your face?”

“The same thing that will happen to yours if we’re late.”

That made Jayden laugh harder, though Markus wasn’t laughing. His nose still hurt and he was a bit embarrassed about it, but a smile started to form on his face. Not from the pain—he wasn’t that insane—but because of who did it.

The one he lost.

Rolling to her side, Mekena opened her eyes and automatically shielded them from the light coming in through the window. She should have shut the curtains, but she hadn’t had a chance once her head hit her pillow. She was out like a light. After her fight with Markus—if that’s what it was, she still wasn’t sure what to call it. A whole bunch of yelling and heat in their eyes for sure, but it didn’t feel like a fight. It felt like pain, if that even made sense. Then she had that conversation with Libby and one with Avery about basically the same things she’d talked to Libby about. Everyone was in agreement. She needed to talk to Markus, get some closure, but it all scared her. If they had the certainty it was over, they were truly done and that should be okay. That should be what she wanted, but she didn’t.

Which was downright pathetic, insane, and impractical.

Kicking the blankets off, she rolled out of bed with a heavy sigh. She didn’t know what was wrong with her, what pull Markus had on her, but it was driving her bonkers. She just wanted to be over it all. She didn’t want to dwell or even deal with it, but that was out of the question now. She was staying with Markus until something else opened up. Completely crazy.

Deciding that she needed to think about something else, she looked around for Mr. Right since he wasn’t in his usual spot beside her in the bed. When she noticed the door was open wider than she’d left it, she figured he had gone out to look at the birds from the front window. Heading to the bathroom, she did her morning routine before walking out to check on Mr. Right since he still wasn’t back. He usually sat at the door crying for food, but it was silent in the cabin.

As soon as she reached her bedroom door, though, she paused, reaching for her bathrobe to cover the short shorts and tank she wore. She wasn’t sure if Markus was there since he had said he had practice. But just in case, she didn’t want him to see her body, which she knew was ridiculous. She had lost a lot of weight in the last year. Almost thirty pounds, which was good from her doctor’s point of view, but she thought she looked too thin. She had always been on the thicker side, though not with muscle like Skylar was. She was chunky and embraced it. She loved food, and she wouldn’t deprive herself. Even with the weight loss, she hadn’t been starving herself. She had been so stressed with everything that happened, then the move, and then work that eating wasn’t really that important. She had never been skinnier than Skylar, and now she was. She was a little self-conscious about it.

Especially since she knew Markus had noticed.

She had seen the way he’d looked at her, not with the hunger he had before. He probably wasn’t even attracted to her. Though, why that mattered was beyond her. But there were moments when he looked as if he wanted to eat her for dinner. The way his molten eyes drank her in, the way his gaze washed over her like a hot shower. His tongue had come out, wetting his thick lips. And even with looking away and trying to ignore him, she’d noticed and it set her on fire. She wanted him more than she could ever describe and way more than she liked to.

She didn’t know what he was talking about when he had said she knew nothing, after she accused him of not caring—because she did know. It was pretty cut-and-dried. He fucked her sister, plain and simple. His defense, though, surprised her. The way he was so willing to share a room with her, how he looked at her, like…like he still had feelings for her. That was incomprehensible because if he had cared even an ounce for her, he wouldn’t have cheated. He wouldn’t have broken her heart. But because he did, the whole thing with Markus was one big question mark. One she was dying to figure out the answer to. The only problem was that involved her talking to him and giving him a chance to explain, which was something she wasn’t sure she was ready for.

But she had four days to get ready because they were stuck until Friday.

Rolling her eyes at the insanity of it all, she let out a long breath. She hadn’t seen the guy in over a year, did everything to ignore him, and now she was stuck in a cabin with him. A good ten minutes from anyone else. She was an idiot. That’s all there was to it.

Tightening the strap on her robe, she went out the door to find that no one was there except Mr. Right, who was sitting on the counter, cleaning his face in front of a dirty, empty plate. Great, not only was Markus a cheater, but he was also a slob. She would not clean up after him. There was no way…yet she found herself cleaning the plate and putting it away as she looked to Mr. Right, who was sitting very happily, meowing sweet nothings to her.

“Well, good morning to you, my sweet love bug. Aren’t you in a good mood? Did you have a nice sleep?”

He purred happily as she dried the plate and then put it in the rack. She considered making herself some breakfast but then remembered she was meeting the girls for breakfast, so she switched on the coffeepot just as a piece of paper caught her eye. Reaching for it, she recognized Markus’s handwriting before she read it. Her heart kicked up in speed at his messy scrawl as she read it.