Twisted(29)

“It wasn’t my business long before last night,” he said quietly, the words ripping equally quiet gashes inside her. They wouldn’t gush blood but trickle it innocuously until she bled out.

“Nick and I haven’t been anything in months.” She shut her eyes. “You ended us.”

“Oh yeah, how did I do that?”

“By changing what we had. It wasn’t fun anymore after you—after we—” She couldn’t finish.

After they’d had that stupid threesome, she and Nick had broken up and it had opened up immeasurable stress fractures in her relationship with Gray. Their situation was an even bigger question mark than what she’d had with Nick.

“What?” he murmured, stepping closer. Their bodies brushed and she shivered, hating the effect he had on her. Fighting it only bought her so much time. The longer he pressed his advantage, the closer to crumbling she came.

“Nothing.”

“Jazz.” He brushed careless fingers over her cheek and she swung her gaze to his, unable to check the tears brimming in her eyes. They seemed to catch him off-guard. He opened his mouth to speak then clenched his jaw and shook his head, backing off. “This isn’t the time.”

“No, it’s not.”

“But you should know that the papers and the TV shows have picked up on the story.”

“What story?”

His head came up but he still wouldn’t meet her eyes. “Don’t play games with me.”

Nerves began to flicker in her belly. “What are you talking about? Tell me.”

“About you and Nick. How he smacked your ass and the way the two of you were cozied up in the club last night after I left.”

She choked out a laugh. “Some newspaper actually wasted ink to print that? Wow, they’re getting desperate.”

“There’s more. On the television, they were talking about our supposed love triangle breaking up the band.”

“Love triangle, my purple push-up bra. A triangle usually means three interested parties. Nick and I went home to practice ‘Captured’ after you took off. We didn’t have sex or anything approaching it. In fact, I didn’t even let him share my grape soda. So whatever.” She started walking up the pathway, unsurprised when he fell into step beside her. That he reached out to take her hand did surprise her—mainly because she let him.

“If I jumped to conclusions, I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, well, too late now.”

He rubbed his thumb over her knuckles. “Why is it too late, baby?”

God, he couldn’t call her baby or rub her hand or make her wish for even a second that maybe she hadn’t lost her chance with him. Her chest hurt too much to take it right now.

“I smell her all over you,” she said tiredly. “Look, forget it. Let’s just go inside and deal with Lila. She’s pretty mad at you and now she’s annoyed at me too.”

“I didn’t have sex with her. She pushed several times and I said no. This last time, I caught a cab that I couldn’t afford from her place rather than spend another minute in her company.”

“Right. I’m just supposed to accept that, no questions asked.”

“That’s why you’re so angry with me? You think I nailed her?”

She had to laugh or she’d cry. “You left me in the middle of a band meeting after promising you’d rehearse a song with me that you knew I was nervous about doing. Then you stayed out all night and show up here in yesterday’s clothes, smelling like you rolled around in Blondie Boop’s bed for hours. How do you expect me to feel? Elated?”

“I guess maybe I didn’t realize you’d care that much.” He tipped back his head to stare at the cloudless sky. “Whatever you think is going on between me and Cricket, it’s not like that. I swear to you that we aren’t lovers.”

Some small part of her rejoiced. The rest only longed to ask more questions. Then what are you? Why did you chase after her last night? When did she start having this hold on you?

But asking would prolong this awkwardness, and they had to get inside before they both had to look for new jobs. “Okay.”

“Do you believe me?” He fixed his gaze on her face. The intensity behind his storm-cloud eyes surprised her into a rapid nod.

“Yeah.” She was trying. For him, she would never stop trying.

“Can we start over?”

If only. She would erase much of the past year if given the chance. “Before which part?”

He scuffed his boot over the ground. “Before we stopped being best friends and started trying to find ways to hurt each other.”