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Since it was as good an exit line as she could think of when her brain was ready to explode, she turned on her heel. And spun right back when he grabbed her arm.
He didn’t look distracted now, she noted. He looked ice-cold mad. “I wasn’t flirting or making dates.”
“Just kissing and touching then.”
“I kissed her because she’s a friend, a good one, who I haven’t seen in a while. I kissed her the way you kiss a friend. Which is nothing like this, for instance.”
He gave her a yank that threw her off balance so her body collided with his. Then was scooped up, pulled in. He got a fistful of her hair, gave it a quick tug. And had his mouth crushed to hers.
Not sweetly, not warmly, but with the stark heat of raw temper. She struggled, shocked that she was clamped so hard and tight she couldn’t fight her way free. A thread of fear snaked through her anger, and began to tighten just before he let her go.
“That’s how I kiss women I don’t feel friendly toward.”
“You think you have the right to treat me that way?”
“As much as you do to accuse me of doing something, of being something I’m not. I don’t cheat and I don’t lie, and I’m not going to apologize for my behavior. If you want to know something about my relationship with Dory, or anyone else, past or present, then ask. But don’t come tearing into me with
accusations.”
“I saw—”
“Maybe you saw what you were ready to see. That’s on you, Hayley. Now I’ve got work. If you’ve got any more to say about this, then say it after hours.”
He strode off toward the pond, leaving her no choice, as she saw it, but to storm away in the opposite direction.
“THEN HE HAD the nerve, the nerve to snap at me and act like I was in the wrong.” Hayley paced back and forth on Stella’s front porch while Lily raced over the lawn after Parker. “Acting like I’ve got a dirty mind or that I’m some crazy jealous witch because I have a reasonable and legitimate complaint about him slobbering all over another woman. And in front of my face.”
“Before you said she was slobbering over him.”
“It was mutual slobbering. And when I walked in on them, after seeing all this going on through the door, he acts like it’s nothing. He doesn’t even have the grace to look embarrassed or nervous.”
“So you said.” Twice, Stella thought, but she understood the nature of female friendship and didn’t mention the repetition. “Sweetie, we’ve both known Harper for some time now. Don’t you think he would’ve looked embarrassed if he’d been caught doing something he shouldn’t?”
“I guess I just don’t mean enough to him for it to embarrass him.”
“Now stop. That’s not true.”
“It feels true.” Hayley slumped to the steps. “It feels awful.”
“I know.” Sitting beside her, Stella wrapped her arm around her shoulders. “I know it does. I’m so sorry you were hurt.”
“He doesn’t even care.”
“Yes, he does. Maybe what you saw hit you wrong because of the way you feel about him.”
“Stella, he kissed her.”
“He’s kissed me, too.”
“It’s not the same.”
“If you hadn’t met me before, and you saw him kiss me, what would you think?”
“Before or after I mentally ripped your lungs out through your nose?”
“Ouch. I’m not saying it didn’t look bad, but that you might have, possibly, misinterpreted. I’m saying that because I know Harper, and because of his reaction.”
“You’re saying I overreacted.”
