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“Jesus, I thought you were over that,” I said on an irritated laugh. “We were seventeen, and I got rid of it.”
“Could’ve fucked my scholarship.”
“You didn’t even use your scholarship,” I reminded him with a roll of my eyes.
“I know you,” he repeated through gritted teeth, getting back to the point of the conversation. “We don’t keep shit from each other. You’re keeping something from me.”
I blew out a slow, strained breath, head shaking as I murmured, “Just something I’m trying to talk myself out of.”
“That doesn’t inspire confidence.”
Hesitation pulsed through me as I tried figuring out what all to tell him and how to say it. Because Maverick had fallen in love with Einstein right about the minute he met her, even though she’d been with someone else at the time.
He would’ve done anything and waited forever to have the life he was finally living with her. So, even though Maverick knew my thoughts on marriages and relationships in our sadistic world, I never mentioned it because I refused to bring my brother’s happiness down.
“Don’t make me follow you,” he said under his breath as he took one of the last turns.
“You could try,” I said just as softly. “You wouldn’t be able to.”
“Diggs...”
“There’s a girl,” I finally admitted, lifting my arm only to let my hand fall to my leg with a slap. “Just someone I met—new in town. And she...she’s just getting in my head.”
For a long time, Maverick didn’t respond. Then again, he didn’t need to.
He knew what it meant if I was bringing her up at all, just as he knew why I’d been so in my head.
When he spoke, hesitation fueled every word. “The right person can change everything you thought you knew or wanted.”
My head was already shaking before he finished speaking. “That isn’t what’s happening,” I said and hated how obvious the lie was.
Maverick made an unconvincing sound and pulled up along the curb when I gestured for him to. Two houses away from the one we needed to go to in case the owners of the restaurant were watching and felt like hiding.
Again...not that they truly could.
“So, what’s her name?” Maverick asked once we were climbing out of the truck, forcing a laugh from me.
“I actually don’t know,” I admitted, even though I should’ve just shot the question down. When Maverick sent me a questioning look, I shrugged. “Walked up to her one night at The Jack and laid it on thick. Said something like, ‘My name’s Diggs. Remember it because I’ll have you screaming it later.’”
Maverick’s head tipped back with a laugh. “You’re such an idiot, man.”
I lifted my hands in surrender. “It works, but not on her. She just laughed and said, ‘Oh, okay. I see your game. Then I guess you can call me...Tree,’ after thinking on it for a second.”
“To be fair, your name is almost as terrible as your pickup line,” Maverick offered, a smirk slipping across his face when I flipped him off. “Einstein only named you that because you were trying to dig through a concrete floor with a spork when they found us.”
“I would’ve gotten through the top layer of the floor eventually,” I said defensively, voice low as we neared the house. “Still, this girl’s the first one to question my name.”
“And is that why?” Maverick asked, drawing out the words meaningfully.
I gave him a knowing look before rolling my eyes because he knew me better than that. There were plenty of girls who were the first to do something.
They didn’t consume me.
Their scent didn’t linger in my veins, slowly driving me insane.
“When do we get to meet her?”
“Never.” My answer was immediate and harsh as flashes of my life—our world—burst through my mind. A world I refused to drag anyone into. “I just need to fuck her out of my system,” I lied, the words coming out unsure at the end when we stepped onto the porch.
