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She almost choked on the gum.
Hunter came to a stop sign at the end of the road and turned to look at her. “What are you really doing here?”
“I was invited.”
“Yeah, and how’d you drum up an invitation? Did you send Nick Merrick na**d pictures of yourself?”
She wanted to punch him, but some part of his words were ringing true, and that stung like crazy. “What do you care if I did?”
He turned back to the road and hit the accelerator.
“Jealous much?” she said.
His jaw was so tight she could make out the lines where muscle met bone. “If we’ve decided the problem is Calla and a bunch of middle schoolers, you shouldn’t be hanging out with the Merricks.”
“They invited me!”
“You could’ve said no, you know.” He cut a glance her way. “Or is that foreign territory for you?”
“I’m a little sick of you acting like I’m some big slut.”
“Oh, I’m the one acting like you’re a big slut?”
She didn’t give a crap that he was driving, her fist was just flying in the general direction of his face.
He caught her wrist one-handed, and he wasn’t gentle about it. In a flash she saw that kid lying on the field, passing out from the pain in his arm.
She was about to pass out from the pain in her own.
Kate got ahold of his keys with her other hand, and killed the engine while they were still moving.
Then she used the fistful of keys to stab him in the crotch.
She was lucky he didn’t flip the car.
They ended up on the side of the road. Casper was standing up on the backseat, one paw on the center console. Hunter’s hands had a death grip on the steering wheel, and his forehead was between them.
“I think I might have to kill you,” he said. “Just as soon as I can stand up straight.”
Her heart found that odd syncopated rhythm again. “You deserved it.”
Hunter turned his head and looked at her over his fingers. “You’re right. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said those things to you.”
His apology took her by surprise more effectively than if he’d run off the road again. She couldn’t remember the last time someone had apologized to her.
And he’d done it so simply, like it was nothing.
But beyond the apology, she couldn’t get past the realization that he hadn’t struck back. She could still feel tenderness in her jaw from where Silver had knocked her around, and here Hunter took a solid hit with something like . . . grace.
She cleared her throat. “Are you just apologizing because you’ll never father children?”
“Probably.” She made like she was going to jab him again, and he winced, then almost smiled. “Nah. I mean it.”
She looked back at the road. A few houses sat down the way, but right here nothing but trees lined the roadway, and the jeep had kicked up a bunch of red and yellow leaves. The air swirled through her hair, just this side of chilly, making her want to tuck her hands under her thighs to warm her fingers.
She still couldn’t figure Hunter out, and she kept her hands where she could use them.
“What were you doing over there, really?” he said.
