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his smile even wider, making Lily feel truly welcome. “Drink?”
    “I’ll have a beer. Water for Lily,” Tristan answered. Scot raised an eyebrow. “Lily doesn’t drink,” Tristan stressed, a hint of a warning in his voice.
    “That’s cool. I’m not drinking tonight, either,” Scot said as he waded through the crowd to the kitchen. He pulled a beer and a bottle of water out of a giant tub of ice on the counter and brought it over to them. “Just a heads-up. Miranda’s here,” Scot said as he politely opened the water bottle for Lily and handed it to her.
    “Christ,” Tristan said under his breath, scanning the growing crowd.
    “She’s downstairs in the family room. Dancing. Or stripping. I can’t figure out which at this point,” Scot said with a wry grimace. “Why don’t you go and talk to her before she comes up here and starts throwing things at you?”
    Tristan glanced at Lily, silently asking permission.
    “Go. Seriously. You need to take care of that,” Lily replied immediately, sounding much more encouraging than she felt.
    “I’ll keep Lily company,” Scot offered. “Make sure she doesn’t get trampled by the hockey team.” He gestured into the kitchen with his head, where four beefy dudes were downing shots and doing a lot of unnecessary shoving and bellowing.
    “Okay. I’ll be back in a bit,” Tristan finally decided. “Or I’ll be back in bits, depending on what kind of mood Miranda’s in.” He drank most of his beer in one gulp.
    “Courage, man,” Scot said bracingly, fixing Tristan’s shirt.
    “Thanks, dear,” Tristan replied, like they were husband and wife. Lily watched their joking around, feeling the warm glow of inclusion.
    When Tristan had gone, Scot took Lily’s elbow and steered her in the opposite direction. “I think it would be a good idea to keep you as far away from Miranda as possible.”
    “There’s no reason for her to be upset with me,” Lily said.
    “Maybe, maybe not.” Scot stopped to admire her. “You really look great tonight.”
    Lily dropped her eyes, feeling her cheeks heat up. “Thanks.”
    “Look out.” Scot grabbed Lily’s arm and pulled her toward him suddenly, making her drop her bottle of water. Behind Lily, two drunk girls stumbled past, debating which path to the bathroom would lead them by the cutest boys.
    “Sorry about that,” Scot said after the girls had left. “I’ll get you another.”
    “It’s okay, really,” Lily began, but Scot had already picked up the bottle and was making his way to the kitchen. Lily took some napkins off a nearby coffee table and mopped up the spilled water as best as she could while she waited for Scot. He came back moments later with a glass of bubbly red juice.
    “No more water. Sorry. The only thing in the fridge was cranberry juice and seltzer. I mixed them. Is that okay?”
    “It’s fine,” Lily said, taking a sip of her fizzy cranberry juice. It tasted a little sour, like it had gone bad, but she swallowed it and smiled anyway. “You don’t have to stay with me if you don’t want to, you know.”
    “I know.” It was Scot’s turn to blush. “I want to, though. I’ve always wanted to hang out with you. Did you know that?”
    “No. I didn’t.”
    Another wave of partygoers passing through the busy living room made Lily and Scot reposition themselves.
    “Do you want to go somewhere cooler?” he asked. “I know you get hot easily. Tristan told me once.”
    Lily was so surprised she just nodded. She had no idea that Scot knew anything more about her than her name.
    “How’s your drink?” he asked as he led her upstairs.
    “Great.” Lily took another big gulp to be polite, even though the mix of seltzer and cranberry burned her tongue a bit. “It’s really stuffy in here.”
    “There’s a balcony off my room.” Scot swung the door to his bedroom open and went inside. Lily stopped on the threshold. Something didn’t feel right.
    “You don’t have to worry,” he