Kiss and Break Up (Magnolia Cove, #1)(19)

Tears glossed her eyes, turning her voice raspier. “Why would you do that?”

Fucking hell. She really was mad. Hot sauce in her shampoo kind of mad.

I concentrated on breathing for a beat, hating the way the sight of her tears made my chest ache. “You’re easy to take advantage of, Freckles. And believe me, they’d fucking take advantage.”

“They can’t take what I’m willing to give,” she seethed, her chest rising and falling in a way that had her tits straining, cleavage bared.

I swallowed and looked away, my words struggling to clear my gritted teeth. “I’m going to pretend you didn’t actually say that.”

“Well, I did. All this time, I thought you were just a little overprotective. All this time, I thought something might’ve been wrong with me.” I frowned, about to tell her she was stupid, when she almost knocked me on my ass. “Turns out that something isn’t me. It’s you.”

The ache in my chest started burning as though the organ in there might catch fire and disintegrate. I steeled my jaw and tried to push down the anger and injustice. “Did you kiss him?”

She threw her hands into the air. “Why the fuck do you care?”

“Peggy?” her mom called. “What’s going on?”

“It’s fine.” Peggy rubbed at her cheeks. “Sorry, Mom.”

And that was the crux of it, really. Why the fuck did I even care? I kept my voice low. “Because he’s a fucking douchebag who’ll hang around long enough to fuck you, then ditch you.”

A bitter laugh fled past her glossed lips, and she stabbed a finger at me. “Pot meet kettle, you hypocritical asshole.”

She had me there, but this wasn’t about me. It was about her and her stupid decisions and crazy-ass tantrums. “What the hell has gotten into you?” It was like an alien had stolen my best friend. A sexy, angry, emotional alien, but an alien all the same.

She blew out a breath, then walked in small circles in front of her sticker-covered closet doors. “You don’t get it.”

I took a hesitant step forward. “Try me.”

“You’ve never had to worry about it, Dash. What it’s like to wonder if you’re not good enough.”

“Because I couldn’t give a flying monkey’s dick what people think of me.”

“Yeah,” she said, following up with a nod. “Well, not everyone is like you. I do care.” She stopped, tapping a finger at her heaving chest. “I care. I wanted to date. I wanted to experience what most other girls my age already have. But you had to be your typical controlling, selfish asshole self, leaving me to think that I’m not good enough …” She shook her head, swiping at a tear that’d raced down her cheek. “Just go home.”

A thousand cutting insults sat on the tip of my tongue, but I swallowed them, felt them slice deep, and stalked back through the house.

For untold minutes, I sat in my car and stared at a patch of their yard illuminated by their back porch light.

Once home, I parked behind Dad’s BMW and stayed there a moment, staring at it as I tried to shake off the bullshit that’d transpired. She’d be fine and hopefully back to her usual self by tomorrow.

A tapping on my window startled me, and I jerked out of my daze to find Dad’s face there. He gestured for me to put down the window. “You getting out of that thing? Because if you are, move it over first. I have a late dinner meeting.”

I turned the car on, shifted into reverse, and moved it behind Mom’s car.

“What’s eating you, boy?” Dad asked, leaning against his car and swinging his keys around his finger.

The familiar act made me cringe. Did I really take after him that much? As one of the best attorneys in the state, he was a dick, but every now and then, he’d make time to check on me if he was home.

“Nothing. Maybe that’s the problem.”

He chuckled, then smoothed a hand over the blond and gray hair atop his head. He’d recently turned fifty, though he looked at least ten years younger. “Your mother’s in a state, so I’d steer clear.”

“What’d you do this time?”

“Whatever the hell I want, as usual.” He opened the car door, winking at me as he slid inside the sleek interior. “Don’t buy yourself a wife, kid. Most are non-refundable.”

It was something he’d said to me countless times, and my response was always the same. “Noted.”

I walked inside to the sound of crashing and followed it down the hall to the kitchen.

In a sparkling golden gown, Mom sat on the floor, cutlery and broken plates decorating the tiles around her. Mascara blackened her cheeks, and even though I stood there for a solid minute, not once did she take notice of my presence.

Her problems were always too big.

And as I had enough of my own, I had no room to care about hers. Not that I ever did.





Peggy



I spread my sheets out before me on the dining table, but none of them were calling to me.

“Try the purple birds,” Willa said, opening her small traveling kit. “Paired with some white and the picture from the party, and the effect will be stunning.”

She was right. I pulled the purple sheet close to me and plucked up one of the pictures Willa had printed.