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CHAPTER 27
Layne sat at the kitchen table and watched Gabriel glare at his trig textbook. He had a fresh piece of notebook paper in front of him, a sharpened pencil clenched between his fingers.
A murderous expression on his face.
“Come on,” she said. “You can’t hate math that much.”
“Trust me. I can.” He glanced up. “You hungry? Want something to drink?”
“I want you to quit stalling.”
“I am not ”
“Oh.” She raised an eyebrow. “Does it usually take twenty minutes to hook up your PlayStation, or was that just for Simon’s benefit?”
His voice dropped. “I was hoping Michael would leave.”
His brother? Layne remembered Gabriel mentioning that they fought, but Michael had been perfectly nice to her. He’d barely said a word during the drive over here, and then left them in the kitchen with the excuse that he had work to catch up on.
“He said he had to run to Home Depot,” said Gabriel. “But he’s probably sticking around to make sure I don’t con you into going upstairs.”
The words almost made her breath catch. Thank god he couldn’t feel her heart rate stutter. “No chance.” She tapped the book with her pencil. “I’m here to help you work.”
“Hmm.” He leaned in and pushed a strand of hair off her face. “Is that a challenge?”
Now she couldn’t breathe at all.
She hadn’t bothered to look at the Internet last night. This morning, either. Kara hadn’t called, and she couldn’t bear to check her e-mail. She had no idea whether Taylor had ever followed through on her threat to put everything online, but if she had, what could Layne do about it?
Nothing.
And it was so much nicer to think about the moments with Gabriel, after the party. She’d turned his words over in her head all night. Not just the kind ones, when they’d been sitting by the water. The harsh ones, the really honest ones, when they’d sat on the tailgate of his car.
ng.
Then he looked out the window beside the front door. No car, either.
“Fuck!” He hit the door frame. It hurt. He did it again.
“Problems?”
Gabriel glanced down the hallway. He’d assumed Michael was out, but he found his older brother sitting in the kitchen.
The laptop sat open in front of him, work papers spread across the table.
“Yeah,” said Gabriel. “Nick took the car.”
Michael didn’t even look up from the screen. “Huh. Didn’t you do the same thing this morning?”
“Don’t talk to me like I’m a little kid.”
Now his brother’s eyes flicked up. “I’m sorry, was that a ma-ture adult punching the front door?”
Gabriel took a step forward, ready to let loose with something biting and acerbic, something that would start a fight to take the edge off this anger.
But then he realized he might just might be able to work this out.
He dropped into the chair across from his brother. “Would you let me borrow the truck?”
