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Quinn slapped him. Hard, with all the passion of their kiss and her panic behind it. “Don’t you dare call him that.”
Tyler caught her arm and pinned it to the blanket. He got in her face. “Don’t you dare hit me. I was going to call him a stupid f**k.”
Oh. It wasn’t better, but somehow, it was.
She looked up at him. “I’m sorry.”
“For what.” He said it flatly, not even a question. He didn’t even wait for an answer, just moved off her to sit back on the blanket and stare at the fire.
She sat up next to him.
Talking about Nick seemed like a minefield, but all she could think about was how badly she’d derailed this entire evening.
For everyone.
She wanted to touch Tyler—but she didn’t.
“Why did you kiss me?” she whispered.
He had another cigarette between his fingers, twirling it across his knuckles like a miniature baton. He mused for so long that she wanted to throw it into the fire after the first one.
Then he said, “Because I wanted to.”
“No,” she said. “Why did you kiss me now? After you knew about Nick?”
He looked at her. “Because I could.”
She licked her lips, tasting smoke from the fire. “I don’t understand.”
He looked back at the flames. “I could have screwed with you to mess with him. I thought about it. Last night.” He shrugged it off and looked at her. “I didn’t want to do that.”
Quinn couldn’t decide if she’d destroyed everything, or if she’d cleared a path for something to grow.
Tyler looked at her. “Why were you sitting behind the 7-Eleven Monday night?” She opened her mouth, and he gave her a hard look. “The truth.”
She hadn’t even told Nick the truth.
When it got right down to it, she didn’t even want to admit it to herself.
Quinn stared right back into his eyes and made her voice as challenging as his was. “Because my mom drinks like a fish and it turns her into a crazy bitch.”
He studied her for a long second. “Is that all?”
He didn’t say it like it wasn’t enough of a reason to be upset.
He said it like he knew that it wasn’t a complete answer, like he knew there was more behind it.
Quinn shook her head. “I have to wait until she passes out or falls asleep if I want to go home. Otherwise she’ll start screaming at me.”
“She hit you, too?”
Quinn shook her head.
Tyler didn’t believe her. “So she wasn’t the one to knock you around the other night?”
Quinn looked at the sand. “She’s slapped me before, but she’s never left a mark.”
“I know you said Nick didn’t hit you. Who did?”
