“We went to the wine tasting, I threw up like an idiot, and then you pulled away.” I explain it to her like she doesn’t already know. Like she wasn’t there. “If you want to call it, just tell me.Apparently, I can’t deal with not knowing what’s going on in that batshit crazy head of yours.”
Realization washes over her. Her eyes soften justa tad, and miraculously, she releases a bit of the tension that she’s been holding all night.
“Carter, I don’t care that you got sick. That’s not even remotely important. I had a great time that night.”
I blink.
Huh?
No, that’s the only thing that made sense. I made a fool of myself and she hit the road like a bat out of hell. That was theonlything that happened that could have changed things. Everything else had been nearly perfect.Tooperfect.
Unless…
My face hardens. I mentally prepare myself for the answer to my next question. “Are you seeing someone else?”
Her head jerks back like I smacked her. She gives me two beats to add something else, or maybe to make it clear that I’mjoking, but I don’t. I’m too busy studying her expression for any indication of the truth.
If this wasn’t about my disastrous inability to hold my wine, the only thing that makes sense is that she met someone else.
She doesn’t speak, so I shove my whole foot in my mouth.
“Is it the cop?”
That’s the final straw, apparently.
“Fuck you,” she bites out, and she throws the door open so fast that I don’t have time to stop her. She’s halfway to her front door by the time I find the capability to react. Her key is already in the lock when I clamp my hand around her wrist and whirl her around.
“Don’t!” she hisses, yanking her hand back.
“Yes or no?”
“No!” she seethes, brown eyes burning with rage. “No, Carter. I’m not seeing Noah. I’m not seeing anyone!”
“Thenwhy?” I ask, my breathing heavy.Why are you pushing me away?
“Whywhat?”she snaps.
“Don’t look me in the eye and tell me that you haven’t been acting differently toward me. That somethinghasn’t changed. It has.”
“Which is whatyouwanted!” she snaps, and then she spins around and finishes unlocking the door. I’m behind her so quickly that she can’t shut it in my face or lock me out, but she doesn’t seem to care; she just flies into her kitchen and hauls a bottle of wine off the counter.
I follow her. “What are you talking about?”
“I pulled back because youwanted me to,” she says again, filling up a glass for herself. She doesn’t offer me one, and I’m grateful. My stomach churns just looking at it.
“Did you get hit in the head?” I ask her, leaning against the threshold of her kitchen. “Because I have never said that.”
“Don’t,” she says again, taking a big swig. Those brown eyes are glaring at me over the rim. “Don’ttry to convince me that I’m making this up.”
“Well, you might be,” I tell her. “Because I sure as shit don’t feel that way.”
She rolls her eyes and it makes my anger boil.
“I missed Declan’s poker night. I missed the night where he was going to ask me to be a groomsman.”
She lowers her wine glass, flinching a bit. “I know.”
Of course she knows. She was at Penny’s all day.
