stubborn!”
“Gabi, he—”
“I know what he did,” I interrupted. “I was there, remember? But I’ve already forgiven him. Why can’t you?”
He set his jaw stubbornly. “You know why. Tomorrow is going to be a giant waste of time if you invite Evan over.”
“We’ll see about that.” I stared him down. I could be just as stubborn as my boyfriend. I knew I was right. Something would happen tomorrow.
Hopefully it wouldn’t involve Rafe murdering Evan the moment the blond stepped foot inside my house.
Chapter Five
An hour later I was curled up in bed, flipping through one of Chloe’s fashion magazines, when I heard Dad’s car pull up into the driveway. Rafe had left shortly after agreeing to see Alex and Evan, even though I’d been sorely tempted to ask him to stay until Dad showed up. After being kidnapped, I didn’t enjoy being home alone, and now that I’d found out about Collins, I was really jumping at every little noise.
But Rafe had looked exhausted, so I let him go. Tomorrow was going to be a long day and we all needed as much rest as we could get. Despite what Rafe said, I knew he missed Evan. You can’t grow up with someone, share everything with that person and then bam, one day part ways without even saying goodbye. Not when you felt emotions as strongly as Rafe did. He could pretend he didn’t care, which is what he’d been doing for the past two months, but he wasn’t fooling me. I knew Rafe. I knew how much he wanted to see his best friend again.
I listened to Dad climb the stairs and called out a greeting as he paused in my doorway.
“Hey, sweetheart. How was work?” he asked.
“It sucked,” I said without skipping a beat. “But I went out to eat with Rafe, Phil, and Kain, so at least the entire night wasn’t ruined.”
“Phil and Kain came to visit again?” Dad had met the two shortly after the disaster in New York City. As far as he knew, they were old friends of Rafe’s from when Rafe used to live in the city. Dad liked them, and, bizarrely, Kain and my dad got along. Like, really got along. They watched football together, and there was even one time when they went bowling with Dad’s friends from the lodge. And Philip and I stayed home, watching TV. Wasn’t that weird? It was weird to me, but I seemed to be the only one who thought it was, so I shut up and let them have their male bonding time. I still thought my boyfriend should be the one going bowling with Dad (okay, no, that would be strange, too), but what did I know?
“Yep, they’re here. Guess Manhattan is too boring compared to upstate New York,” I cracked weakly, hugging one of my pillows to my chest. I hated lying to Dad, but what was I supposed to say? “Oh, they’re here to make sure no one tries to kill me because of this strange power that’s inside of me, and they’re also keeping an eye on my still-recovering boyfriend?”
Dad knew Rafe had been injured, though. Things had been so crazy after I’d been kidnapped, and I still don’t know how we managed to pull off the lie of the century. It helped that Evan had used manipulation magic on Dad and Chloe to make them think I was stuck home with a cold while they visited Vermont without me. At least then I hadn’t had to come up with a cover story explaining my sudden absence. I’d spent a few days in the hospital, completely drained after healing Alexandra and refusing to leave Rafe’s side, but the doctors took forever to release him, so eventually I’d had to head back home without him. Not alone, though. Philip and Kain had come with me, spending the nights in my house until Dad and Chloe returned after New Year’s. Dad had been pretty shocked to find me with not one but two guys, and strangers at that, but Kain had smoothed things over with a little bit of subtle magic. That was something he still felt guilty about, especially now that he’d grown close with Dad, but we didn’t have any other choice. Then again, once we’d