Page 28 of The Debutantes
“Atkins!” Jason booms, his glass sloshing as he gives me a side-hug. “What isup,my dude?”
“Your blood-alcohol content, apparently,” I tease, but I’m actually kind of glad to see him. At least he’s another friendly face, even if Iamsupposed to be grilling him about the ball. Which, I’m realizing, I have no idea how to start.
“I’m getting another beer,” Wyatt mumbles, setting his empty bottle down on the nearest table and sulking away.
“Damn,” Jason says. “He’s in a mood.”
Sav’s jaw tightens, and I feel mine doing the same. Wyatt must not have even told Jason about Lily yet. I watch as he broad-shoulders his way toward the bar, and suddenly, it’s obvious that Jason isn’t the one I should be mining for info.
“Be right back,” I tell them, following Wyatt down the hall before I lose the nerve.
I catch up with him in the kitchen, where he’s fishing another beer out of the fridge. It’s mostly empty in here, besides a few extra trays of hors d’oeuvres. All the other food is arranged in an Instagram-worthy spread in the dining room or being swept around the house by uniformed caterers.
“Hey,” I say. “Can we talk?”
Wyatt turns to face me, the beer dripping in his hand. “About what?”
He’s going for his usual surly tough-guy crap, but it’s hard for him to get away with it when he’s facing me head-on. Wyatt towers over Lily, but he’s only got a few inches on me.
“Last night,” I say. “What happened?”
“Nothing.”
“Lily was texting someone, right? Who was it?”
His grip tightens on the beer. “How do you know that?”
“I saw a message pop up on her phone,” I tell him, figuring I’ll leave out the part where his sister narced on him. “And y’all were both being weird. I know something was up.”
“Why do you care?”
“Are you serious?”
He tries to sidestep me, but he’s pissing me off, and I know a thing or two about playing defense.
“I care because she’s missing,” I snap, blocking his way. “And I don’t know about you, but I want to find her.”
“You think I don’t?”
I’m opening my mouth to fire back when Jason appears in the kitchen doorway.
“Whoa,” he says in abreak-it-uptone. “Wyatt, my man, what’s—”
Wyatt shoves him hard enough that Jason stumbles back.
“What the hell?” Jason laughs, shocked, like maybe he thinks Wyatt is kidding. He glances over at me. “Is everything—”
But he doesn’t get to theokay,because Wyatt grips him by the collar so fast it makes my stomach drop.
“Mind your own fucking business,” he says through gritted teeth. “Or I’ll—”
“Hey, what’s going on here?”
The tone is unmistakable: authoritative but somehow still totally chill. Coach.
Instantly, Wyatt releases Jason. “Nothing.”
Coach gives Jason a look. “You good, man?”
