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"She's the one who started this," he reminded me.
"Oh,sheis?" I shifted so he could look right at me. "That woman is not a toy to keep you happy. She's the real fucking deal. And if you ever shove her the way you've been shoving me, I will not stop J.D. from killing you, you hear me?"
He had to try struggling again, to no avail. "Yeah, I was going for J.D., you dumb shit. I'm not gonna hit her."
"Oh, this time," I snarled.
"Any time!" he shot back.
"So you'll just make sure she hurts in other ways, hm?" I asked. "Because if you don't think you kicked her when she was down, you're a fucking dumbass!"
So Ty tried to stand again. This time, he pushed up hard enough to lift my feet, but I had this. A jab of my elbow in his back reminded him to be a good boy. It also hurt bad enough to take the fight right out of him.
"You want a fight?" I taunted. "You think you even scare me? I can do this all night long, Ty."
He was breathing hard under me, clearly pissed, but he didn't reply.
So I leaned into his ear. "You broke her heart. She wanted to talk, maybe even to give you another chance, but this? You just lost her, Ty. She was slipping away and you gave her a nice little push tonight. Too bad for you, there's not a damned thing I can do about it."
"I was trying to keep her safe!" he snapped.
"In all the wrong ways," I assured him. "You wanna know how to protect her? How to be the kind of man she needs? You stand your ass behind her, ready to back her up, not fucking take over! That woman? She doesn't break. She might fall down, but she will always get back up - and then double down."
He nodded, and his body had relaxed completely. "Let me up, Tanner."
Slowly, I eased my weight off. Ty nodded again, and when I stepped back, he stood up, wiping something off the side of his face. He was still pissed. I was still confused, but at least I knew what side I was on. And while I'd always stand up for Cody, I couldn't make myself hate this guy. Shit, I felt bad for him.
Then Ty offered me his hand. "Truce?" he asked.
I took it, aware the crowd around us might be thinner, but wasn't completely gone. Instead, they'd returned to their tables and were trying to act like they weren't listening in. Thankfully, the music over here wasn't so loud that I had to yell. Except for Gustavo and Ty's little buckle bunny, we were basically private right now.
"What the fuck, man?" I asked.
Ty used his sleeve to wipe away the remnants of whatever alcohol I'd shoved him into. "J.D. comes over here bitchin' at me and trying to chase off Lacey. You think I'm gonna just ignore that?"
I gaped at him in complete astonishment. "Do you even hear yourself?"
"What?"
So I gestured at him. "You ignore that? Chase off your girl? You. You. You." I groaned in annoyance. "Jesus fuck, Ty! That woman came here to give you a damned chance, but you couldn't even wait a day. You couldn't even be bothered to stick around long enough to talk to her about what happened."
"She said all that needed to be said," he insisted.
"No, she fucking didn't!" I yelled. "That's the whole point. You throw things in her face, all but daring her to do it, so she does, and then you don't give her a chance to explain why? You count on the fact that she's out there doing hergoddamned jobto keep from having to face it. You ran, and now you're trying to look likeyou'rethe tough one? Fuck you. Shit, fuck all of this!"
"Wait!" Ty said, halting my feet before I could even turn away.
"What?" I demanded.
He stepped closer, but nothing about his posture was threatening this time. Instead, he was just making this chat a little more private. I glanced behind him at where Gustavo and that girl were still a little too tense. Then I looked to the side, seeing Austin grinning like this was the best shit that had ever happened.
"What the fuck does she want from me?" Ty asked. "Tanner, I tried. I figured out a way to be around her, and that did nothing but piss her off. What the fuck am I supposed to do? I tried, man. I fucking tried my heart out and all I did was fail. When should I give up?"
"When you aren't interested in the girl," I told him.
"Your girl?" he asked. "Yeah, because that's really gonna work out in the end."
"She was supposed to have beenourgirl," I countered. "You just got scared of someone saying shit about you like they do about me."
