Page 61 of A Summer of Stars

I gripped my tie and pulled, loosening its unrelenting hold around my throat.

This was an act. It was all an act. Her relationships, past and present, shouldn’t matter.

But that logic didn’t seem to calm me.

This house was either haunted and determined to kill me, or seeing Luna Aldridge like this—like she was three years ago on that rainy night—with a man who didn’t deserve her was shrinking my ability to focus.

There was a stutter in their rhythm.

She scowled at him. He said something back, his eyes pleading. Then her brows caved into a downward slope and the muscles in her neck sharpened. They were arguing. She was trying to stay calm, but her cheeks were a sunset pink. I could see the impression of his hand on the back of her dress, the material stretching against his grip as he tried to reason with her.

“Are they…” Cecilia’s voice was sharp. A best friend ready to intervene.

“They’re fighting,” I confirmed.

“That’s it, this has gone on long enough.”

“I agree.”

“Should I, or would you—”

“I couldn’t be happier.” I put the glass back on the table and moved in long strides across the ballroom.

Not one of my best thought-out ideas. Maybe one of my worst, actually, right up there with counting the number of crystals onher dress. But there I went, impulsively marching forward with no thought of consequence or rationale.

I didn’t stop walking until I was taking Aldridge’s hand out of his and pulling her in a different direction.

Did people notice? Probably.

Did I care? Not at all.

Did she? Highly probable, since she was cutting off the circulation in my hand as I pulled her out of the ballroom.

“No, that’s fine, I wasn’t in the middle of a conversation or anything,” she huffed as we came to a halt in a quiet hallway lit only by windows.

“I reacted, okay? You looked hurt and—”

“That ismybusiness—do you think I can’t handle myself?” she retorted. The lamplight from outside caressed her face.

“You know I don’t think that.”

“I can handle my own battles, Kieran, but now I’ll never know what he had to say, because that moment is gone.”

“I thought you were trying to get away from him—”

“Well, you were wrong. You know what I think?”

“Oh, please tell me, as if you haven’t made your opinion obvious enough.”

“I think you love to insert yourself into every situation that has nothing to do with you.”

“Says the woman who begged me to come this weekend so she could prove something to a man who doesn’t deserve her.”

“Begged?I did notbegyou. I do notneedyou here, and I don’t need to prove anything to anyone.”

I scoffed. “Oh, sure, okay. I didn’t know we were blatantly trading lies now.”

“Why do you even care? Why do you care about who I’m dancing with or talking to or—wait,are you jealous?”