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“Would you just smoke another cigarette or something—”
“Jesus, you’re hardheaded. Answer the question.”
“My brother.”
She felt Tyler draw himself up, and she peeked over at him.
The look of fury on his face was almost terrifying, and she was glad she wasn’t the target.
“What happened?” he said.
“It’s nothing—”
“Shut the f**k up about it’s nothing. What happened?”
Her mother had defended Jake for so long that Quinn was shocked to hear someone act like her brother’s actions were not okay. “He’s home from college. He keeps smoking pot in my room. He has his friends there all the time. The other night, he slammed my face into the wall because he thought I stole his money or his stash.” Her voice started to break, and she kept talking fast, as if fractured words would hold off tears. “I can’t even get my clothes out of there to crash somewhere else, because his friends think I’m fresh meat. They keep touching me, and I can’t—I can’t even—”
She stopped short. Tyler was standing, pulling her to her feet, picking up the blanket to shake it free of sand.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“I’m driving you home to get your stuff.”
“You’re—what? Why?”
“Because I can. Because I have an apartment, and you look like you could do with eight hours of sleep. Because—”
“You expect me to stay with you? But—”
“But what? You have a dozen better offers? Get in the truck.”
She got in the truck. They were a mile down the road and he hadn’t said anything else when she finally turned to him. “Because what else?”
He looked at her like she was nuts. “What?”
“You said because, and I cut you off. Why are you doing this?”
His voice dropped. “You don’t have to stay with me. I didn’t mean to make it sound like I was kidnapping you.”
“Shut up. You’re not making me do anything.”
He snorted and rubbed his cheek. “No kidding.”
“Shut up! Because what else?”
He looked away from the road long enough to meet her eyes.
“Because I like you.”
“No one has ever done anything like that for me,” she said.
Not Becca. Not Nick.
You didn’t tell them, her brain whispered.
But they’d never pushed as hard as Tyler.
“Well,” said Tyler, “maybe it’s time someone should.”
