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“Yep,” Nick said. “And now she’s with me.”
He couldn’t help but feel triumphant when he said it. At last he had something Kevin wanted.
Kevin laughed.
“With you,” he said. “You really had me going, buddy. Well done.”
Nick wanted to feel angry; his face burned with shame instead. “What’s funny?”
Kevin shook his head, chuckling. “Look, man, I’m sure there are plenty of girls who’d be interested …”
“But nobody who can walk would ever want to be with me.”
Kevin almost looked apologetic. “Nobody who can dance like her,” he said.
Nick tried to shake it off, but Kevin’s words felt true. Nick had said as much to himself.
“So you told me to hang out with her,” Nick said dully, “because you knew she would never sleep with someone whose legs were all fucked up.”
“I was at Vivez most nights.” Kevin threw down his cigarette and ground it out. “And she was here. You know how many douchebags there are in bars like this.”
“Because it’s not like you could actually trust the woman who moved here with you. Or, ya know, spend more time with her.”
“Enough, okay?” Kevin started for the back door. “I meant what I said. You were her friend, and I appreciate it.”
“I’m more than that,” he shot back.
Kevin glanced at him with pity in his eyes. “No, you’re not.”
“We were in the back of my car tonight.” It was the only ammunition Nick had left, and it got Kevin to stop.
“You didn’t,” he said. “She wouldn’t.”
“So if you were to go in there and ask her whether it was her idea to climb into my backseat just before you got here, what do you think she’d say?”
Kevin stood stock-still, and Nick watched incredulity turn to rage.
“I’ve been out there,” Kevin was shaking, “trying to make it allworkagain.” He reached for the door. “And if thatbitchthinks she can just—”
The breath he needed to finish got knocked right out of him. Nick had rushed forward and driven the palm of his hand into the center of Kevin’s chest. Kevin was too surprised to brace himself, and Nick was propelled by anger. The force of the shove threw Kevin up against the side of a van.
“She’s mine, you piece of shit!” Nick was yelling now, almost screaming. “She was in my bed the day you left, she’ll be in my bed tonight, and there’s nothing you can do about it!”
Kevin stared at him, mouth gaping, and then something else got his attention.
Nick’s stomach dropped. He turned toward the building, already sure of what he’d see.
40
Hayley had decided to go back to the parking lot ten minutes after returning to the bar. Nick was taking too long to come back, and she didn’t want him running into Kevin without her.
She had not expected to open the kitchen door and see her rock star shoving her ex into the side of a van.
Nick’s words sent her stumbling against the door. Kevin looked angry when he noticed her standing there. Nick looked half dead.
“Is it true?” Kevin asked.
“It … I …” She was stammering.
