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Grayson had barely finished eating when he pushed back from the table. “We need to get going. Thanks for a great dinner.”
“Whoa.” Chase’s exclamation was painfully loud compared to the silence it shattered. “What’s going on?”
Jax shrugged. “Nothing.”
Chase looked at me.
“Nothing.” Apparently. The guys hadn’t wanted Chase to know before. They sure as fuck wouldn’t be interested in filling him in now. Not that I wanted to either.
He looked at Anne. “Don’t suppose you know.”
“Nope.” I wouldn’t have him drag her into an argument that had nothing to do with her beyond being my confidant. “Nothing means nothing.”
“Except it’s notnothing,” Chase said. “Someone’s got an issue with someone, and I want to know who.”
“Why? Why is it any of your fucking business? Why has it ever been?” Jax’s retort was harsh.
The surprise on Chase’s face matched what I felt. “Because we’re all family. Aren’t we?” He said.
“I wouldn’t assume anything of the sort.” Grayson gripped the back of his chair, a visible tremor running through his hands.
His retort scraped across my already raw nerves. It was true, I’d turned down their offer to see where things went, but he hadn’t exactly been up front about his intentions when this entire hook-up thing started. “I don’t know why you expect anyone else not to make assumptions. Seems a bit hypocritical to me.”
“Someone seeing the world differently than you do isn’t hypocrisy, it’s reality,” Grayson fired back.
The way he twisted my words cranked my anger a notch higher. “And it’s also not my fault. Are you going to guilt me into changing my mind? Pull some sort ofI was just being a nice guybullshit?”
Grayson’s face shifted to that stony cold I was learning to dread, and he clenched his jaw.
“Nice guy...” Chase trailed off. “Did you... With one of them?”
“Both.” I bit off the word. “And Jax is right. Since when is it your business who I hook up with?”
“Don’t drag me into this after pushing us away.” Jax’s voice held a hash edge. “You’re not even fucking interested. After all that.”
“How does it feel?” My retort slipped out before my brain caught up.
Jax stared at me. Then again, everyone was staring at everyone. Poor Anne looked like she wanted to crawl under the table and hide.
“What are you talking about?” Jax asked.
The past I’d tried to pretend for so long was behind me, came rushing back. That frozen instance of, “Being led on. Having to find out from someone else that you convinced the girl in the tacky outfits that you liked her.” Repeating the words tasted foul. Reliving that moment when Chase told me that... The scars were fresher than I expected.
“You sound like you’re referencing a specific thing, but I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Confusion bled in Jax’s anger.
My hurt grew. “Of course you don’t remember. Chase overheard you, back in high school. It’s why he stopped talking to you for so many years?”
“Umm...”
“I stopped talking to him”—Jax cut Chase off—“because he told me not to date you and I told him it was none of his business who I went out with.”
The pretty story now didn’t change what happened then. “Because you were leading me on.”
“About that...” Chase worked his jaw.
“Because I was falling in love with you,” Jax shouted.
Wha... The bottom dropped out of my reality, and my insides pooled in my feet. “But Chase told me...”
