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“It works.”
“I still don’t understand how she tricked you.”
“Maybe I’m just an idiot.”
“Oh, I know that’s not true,” he said. “Tell me. Did that loser just walk over and start assaulting you?”
“No.” Her voice was very small. “He was nice. I liked him.
He didn’t even assault me. I told you: It didn’t start like that.”
Gabriel snorted. “Couldn’t you tell he was drunk off his ass?”
“No!” Sudden anger swung her around. “How am I supposed to know when someone is drunk?”
“Layne ”
“He didn’t smell like beer. He wasn’t slurring his words. Or do you mean, he had to be drunk off his ass to be into someone like ”
“Hey.” His voice was sharper than he intended, but it got her to shut up. God, she was crazy if she thought someone would have to be drunk to take a second glance at her. The way she was sitting had the skirt splayed across her lap, leaving a long expanse of spandexed leg stretching into the darkness. Anger flushed her cheeks, and curls of hair fell along one shoulder. Her eyes caught the starlight, making him want to “What?” she demanded.
Gabriel jerked his eyes away. He wanted to tell her everything he was thinking, how she looked striking right now, beautiful in the darkness. How he wished he’d known she would be at the party. How he would have been dragging Hunter out of the car instead of the other way around.
He brought his cup to his lips. “Nothing.”
She scowled out at the parking lot. “So is this like your place?”
“My place?”
“Where you bring girls.”
“Yes. I bring girls to this run-down parking lot all the time.”
He gestured with his cup. “I have a sign-up sheet nailed to that tree. Now that you mention it” he glanced at his watch “we should probably wrap this up.”
Her eyes were intense, challenging, fixed on his. “Do you have a five-minute limit before you start getting mean?”
“I don’t know, Layne. Do you have a five-minute limit before you start getting defensive?”
She clamped her mouth shut and turned to face the darkness.
As usual, he didn’t know if he owed her an apology or deserved one.
He picked at the lid of his cup. “Nicky and I come out here sometimes,” he said. “I’ve never brought a girl here.”
“Never?” Her voice was some combination of skeptical and hopeful.
“What do you think, that I’m some kind of thug player who’ll screw anything in a skirt?”
She didn’t answer, and that was answer enough.
“Wow,” he said. “I can’t believe you think I’d beat the shit out of Ryan Stacey just to drag you to the middle of nowhere so I could ”
“Hey.” Her eyes flashed up to his. “Now who’s defensive?”
“Touché.”
They sat in silence for a while, until the crickets were deafening, and Gabriel began to wonder if he should just offer to drive her home.
