Totally, Sweetly, Irrevocably(54)

“Maybe what?” he asked, though he looked like he already knew what she was going to say. And didn’t like it.

“Maybe we had a shot.” Wow. That hurt worse than she thought it would. But she pressed on. “I think we’re kidding ourselves.”

She could see his jaw muscle clenching, like he was gritting his teeth, the joint at his temple popping in and out. “Gina…”

“No. It’s okay. Don’t worry about it. There’s really nothing left to say.” She climbed back into the truck and started packing away the cleaning supplies.

“Gina, would you stop for a second, please?”

He came inside with her, and she tried her best to ignore him. Impossible to do even if she’d had ten acres. But inside the small space of the truck, he filled her world, overwhelmed her. She leaned on the counter, her head hanging.

“I don’t know what you want me to say, Rick. We had some fun for a while. Now it’s over and we move on. No harm, no foul. Why make something out of it that it’s not?”

He frowned. “Is that all I was to you? A temporary good time?”

She could hear the hurt in his voice. It surprised her. She wasn’t sure why. She’d known he cared, but…it never seemed like guys cared as much as she did. But then, Rick was different.

“No. That’s not all you were. I wanted it to be more. But I just don’t think this will work. I’m sorry if I hurt you…” she started.

“What is it? You’re still not over Tony, are you?”

Gina stared at him, surprised. “Where the hell did that come from?”

“It was pretty obvious, Gina. You were in the middle of the street screaming at him and dumping shit all over his clothes. You don’t get that worked up over an ex sleeping with someone else unless you still have feelings for them. So what did that make me? Rebound sex?”

“Of course not! That is unbelievably unfair, and completely untrue.”

“You were so upset you had half the neighborhood calling the cops!”

“I was upset because it was your sister he had in there. Because I knew how upset that would make you, and because your sister is a nice person who deserves a hell of a lot better than that jerk. And because he was trashing my truck. Again. It had nothing to do with me still having feelings for him. Because I don’t! Did I enjoy seeing him with another woman? No. But that’s only because he was with her in my truck. That I sell food out of. And she was your sister. Who I like. I think anyone would be upset under the circumstances.”

Rick shook his head like he didn’t believe her. “None of this would have happened if you hadn’t broken your promise tonight…”

“Excuse me?” Anger rushed through her, and she embraced it. Anger she could deal with. “You’re going to blame this whole mess on me?”

“You’re the one who broke your promise to me. All you had to do was wait. Instead, you took off on your own and did the one thing I asked you not to. And then on top of it all, you went and destroyed property, committed an assault, disturbed the peace, and who knows what else would’ve happened if I hadn’t shown up.”

He took a deep breath and jammed his hand through his hair. “I want this to work. But I don’t know how I’m supposed to be with someone who can’t keep her word. Who isn’t remotely interested in compromising…in any way. Who I can’t trust. I’m a cop, Gina. Do you have any idea how it feels to get a call on the radio and know it’s my girlfriend at the scene?”

“No one asked you to be with me! I certainly don’t want to damage your reputation.”

He stepped closer, invading her space and backing her up against the counter so there was no escape.

“This has nothing to do with my reputation. This has everything to do with your behavior. Your safety. Your future. Not everything is a game, Gina. You can’t do whatever you want, whenever you want. What you want isn’t the only thing that matters in the world. Do you ever think about anyone else before you act? Did you think about me at all before you ran off to find him?”

“That is so unfair,” she said, pushing past him. He didn’t fight her, but he didn’t back off, either. “You are the only person I thought of. I called you. I let you know what was going on. I wouldn’t have done that for anyone else. Things just happened too fast. I could hear stuff breaking in the truck. What was I supposed to do? Stand there and let them trash it? And then when I saw who was in there…I knew how you’d react. Jenny was freaking out. I was trying to take care of it before you got there.”