Cricket playfully shoves my shoulder. “You knew I wanted you home for my wedding. What makes you think I wouldn’t want you to be my best bitch?”
“The fact that you have a twin sister?”
Cricket’s eye-roll game steps up a notch. “She’s not my best bitch, though. She’s just a bitch.”
I haven’t seen Karma in ten years. She never came to LA or met me at any of Ricky’s concerts when I traveled with him. I assumed she was mad I missed the birth of her daughters, but Karma was born pissed off, so it’s hard to tell.
“I still can’t believe you’re getting married.” I study my cousin, who is exactly one year younger than me and looks every bit the free spirit she’s always been. Her flowy shirt is probably hemp, and her cut-off shorts are likely ones she stole from me when she was sixteen years old. “You swore you’d only ever love God, nature, and your family.”
“That was until I got the good dick. Now I gotta put a ring on it so I can make sure I’ve got that shit locked down for life.”
My smile widens so far it hurts my cheeks, and real laughter rings from between my lips. “Good God, Cricket. I’ve missed you like crazy.”
“Well, obviously. None of those fake bitches in LA could hold a candle to your best girl. We’re blood, baby. It don’t get better than that.”
She hugs me again, and I squeeze tight like she might slip away and I’d lose the one good thing that’s happened to me in years. When we finally separate, I pull my sunglasses off to catch the tears gathering on my lids.
Cricket tilts her head to the side. “Please tell me you got mugged. Because what the fuck, Whitney?”
I wince as I touch the tender skin on the right side of my face, and then quickly slip the giant shades back on. “Angry fan. Got through security and went a little crazy.”
All peace and joy flees Cricket’s expression. “I’m going to kill that limp-dick motherfucker. And the fan who did this.”
There’s no doubt she’s talking about Ricky first.
“That’s going to be a little tricky.” I try to keep humor in my tone, but it falls flat. “Considering he’s already dead.”
“Fucker deserves to be brought back to life and run over by a truck repeatedly for what he did to you.”
I don’t want to think about the message Ricky posted on his fan page hours before that fatal dose hit his bloodstream. He doesn’t get to ruin my reunion with my cousin. He doesn’t get to ruin anything else in my life ever again.
“Can we get out of here?” I glance up at the glass building and the name looming over me. “As much as I like hanging out at bus terminals ...”
“Damn right. Besides, we’ve got way too much to catch up on, and that’s best saved for non-bus-station conversations. I’ve got all the good-dick stories to tell you.”
With a smile back on my face, despite memories from Gable and LA hounding me, Cricket and I load everything I own in the entire world into the back of her conversion van—after she folds up the bed and moves a bottle of lube.
When I stare at it wide-eyed, she just laughs as we climb up into the burgundy cloth captain’s chairs that I’m pretty sure might swivel.
“What? If they didn’t want people to fuck in these, they wouldn’t have put beds in the back. Besides, Hunter works all the time, and I like to make sure I don’t miss out on my chance to get me some. I like multiple orgasms, and he can make this baby rock and roll. I know you haven’t seen him in years, but let me tell you—”
I hold up a hand. “Wait. Hunter who?”
Cricket, the sneaky ho who withheld the name of her groom in all our conversations because she wanted to tell me in person, smiles wide. “Hunter Havalin. He’s the lucky man who snagged me.”
My jaw hangs slack and my eyes feel like they’re about to bug out of my head. Hunter Havalin is the only son of one of Gable’s other affluent families. The Havalins aren’t Riscoff rich, but they’re still loaded.
I try to picture Cricket the free spirit, Ms. One with the World who eschews money and privilege, marrying a guy who probably knows every inch of the country club. My cousin is everything that is the exact opposite of Hunter Havalin. He was a senior when I was in middle school, andeverygirl had a crush on him, but he only dated girls from the private school one city over.
“Are you serious?” I finally manage to blink. Cricket’s giant smile is the only thing keeping me from asking her if she had a bad trip she didn’t tell me about.
Her glow fades at my shocked tone. “See?Thisis why I didn’t tell you. I knew if you knew that I was marrying Lincoln Riscoff’s best friend, you’dnevercome home.”
I jerk back in my seat like I just got hit with a wrecking ball. First, because she spoke the name that is not to be spoken, and second, becauseI didn’t know they were friends.
“What?” The word comes out between a cough and a squeak.
“Whit, please. Do not freak out. It’s not like Lincoln is the best man or something. I would never put you in that position. He’s way too busy for that, anyway.”