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That was the story? She hadn’t told him anything except what he already knew—that Levi Rider was a selfish prick. What Sean wanted to know was, had she loved the guy? Did he break her heart? How was the sex?
What he wanted to know was whether she’d grown to resent the way Rider treated her or still didn’t see it, even after the divorce. And none of that was any of his fucking business, so he looked at the highway and kept his hands loose on the wheel and kept his mouth shut the way he should have in the first place.
When he’d calmed down enough to glance at Katie again, she was watching him. “Do you remember me?” she asked.
“What?”
“From high school. Do you remember me?”
“Sssure.”
“Did you like me?” she asked.
“I d-d-didn’t know you.”
“Yeah, but did you like me?”
He looked back at the highway. It wasn’t meant to be an embarrassing question. She couldn’t see into his soul, couldn’t know how much he’d liked her and for how long.
He nodded.
“Did you like Levi?”
“Fuck no,” he said.
It was the first clean sentence he’d managed since she climbed into the car, and it got a smile out of her.
“That makes one person.”
“Wuh-wuh-one p-person what?”
“One person who liked me more than Levi.”
She untucked her feet from underneath her and stuck them on the dashboard. It wasn’t the sort of thing he’d normally stand for, but he made an exception.
“That’s why I married him,” she said. “At least, that’s what it seems like to me now. That was the seduction. I loved him, or I thought I loved him, but he was the only guy I’d ever gone out with. I don’t think I married him because I loved him. I think I married him because everybody liked him so much, and I thought, ‘This is the guy to spend your life with. The guy everybody wants to be around. He needs you, and so you’re lucky just to be with him.’ ”
Fiddling with her thumb again, she said, “He’s a complete horse’s ass. That’s what I decided. People are just stupid. I was stupid, too.” She looked out the window for a while, then turned to face him, and she seemed taller, her voice taking on the sharp edge it had in Louisville last weekend. “I’m not going to be stupid anymore. That’s why I changed jobs. I’m going to be a different person. Smarter, and stronger, and all-around tougher and less idiotic. So, you know, fair warning if you liked the old Katie. I’m killing her off.”
Sean watched the road. They blew by a green highway sign that told him Buffalo was 243 miles away.
The situation was so much worse than he’d thought.
At her house this morning, he’d just about talked himself into going for it. Katie didn’t fidget or flick her eyes from side to side when he talked, looking for a way to escape the conversation. Nine times out of ten, when you stuttered in front of people, they got so busy feeling sorry for you and worrying about what to say, they couldn’t even hear you. You started to feel infectious. You started avoiding opening your mouth, because God forbid you should make someone uncomfortable.
With Katie, it wasn’t a problem. Either she didn’t care, or she was exceptionally good at pretending she didn’t. Her lack of reaction had
relaxed him enough that he’d started talking to her openly, without thinking too hard about what he was saying.
It turned out he couldn’t have a normal conversation with Katie without hitting on her.
She was interested in him, too, no question. He’d coaxed a real smile out of her—the smile that showed her cute crooked tooth—and he’d caught her staring at his stomach. When he’d told her she was the farthest thing from terminally unfuckable he could imagine, her lips had parted, her pupils had dilated, and he’d known if he tried to kiss her again, she’d let him.
But then Caleb walked in, and Sean came to his senses. Katie wasn’t some random woman he could take to bed without worrying about the repercussions. It was never a good idea to fuck your friend’s little sister, not unless you planned to marry her. Caleb would wipe the floor with him if he found out, with good reason.
Now he had another reason to maintain his distance, and an explanation for the way she’d acted with Judah. Katie was wounded. Coming off a divorce, she was looking for some excitement. Maybe looking for a man to convince her she was desirable after whatever Levi had put her through when their marriage fell apart. She wasn’t herself, and that made it a bad idea to get tangled up with her.
He needed to think with his head instead of his dick, because if he slept with Katie, somebody would get hurt, and he wasn’t completely certain it would be her.
