Make Me Hate You(33)

“Perfect.”

“Maybe some honey, dripping from the stems.”

I cocked a brow at her. “That would be sticky.”

“Just making sure you’re listening.”

“I’m here.”

“Are you?” Morgan stopped, pulling me to face her in the corner of the shop. “You seem a little distant today, and honestly, you’ve seemed a little… tense, ever since your plane landed.”

I swallowed, looking over a collection of magnolias without a response. I’d never told Morgan what happened between me and Tyler that day my mom left, and she’d always assumed I left because of my mother, that she was the reason I never came back to Bridgechester to visit.

And I let her assume that, because telling her that I was in love with her brother wasn’t just a worse option — it was an impossible one.

Morgan sighed. “I have to tell you something.”

When I looked at her again, her eyes were wide, brows tugged together, and she was worrying her lip between her teeth like she was about to tell me someone died.

I tilted my head, watching her warily. “Okay…”

Morgan let out a long sigh, looking around like someone in the great big town of Bridgechester might overhear us. And when she looked at me again, it was with an apology already written all over her face. “I know what happened between you and Tyler.”

All the color drained from my face.

“I’m sorry I didn’t say something before now,” she rushed. “I just… he told me in confidence, and I knew you were hurt over your mom, and I didn’t want to bring up something that obviously meant nothing, and I figured you’d be embarrassed.”

She kept going, but my mind was sticking on the words tumbling from her mouth at a hundred miles per hour.

He told me.

Meant nothing.

Embarrassed.

“… bring it up, you know? But then you guys just stopped talking, and you never came home, and I missed you and I missed us and I guess I just thought that you coming back home, that you guys could put everything behind you, and we could all be friends again, you know? Like the old days.” She smiled weakly. “The Wagner Kids — Plus One.”

I think I smiled. I think I managed to clear my throat before I asked, “Tyler told you?”

Morgan grimaced. “The next morning. You were still asleep in my bed, and we were both down in the kitchen, eating cereal. He was all quiet and broody and then he told me what happened.”

I blinked. My head was whirling, and I needed to sit down, but there was nowhere to sit.

“I was furious at him,” she continued, waving her hand in a gesture. “Obviously. I mean, you and James had just broken up. And then your mom, God,” she says, shivering. “I just knew you were in such a dark place. And then for him to do that, to… to sleep with you,” she whispers. “I was horrified.”

“You told him you were mad?”

“Duh!” She shook her head. “I told him he was an idiot and a jerk for taking advantage of you in a moment like that. I mean, sure, I knew he had a crush on you — he had since the day you two met.”

The blood drained from my entire body, and I swayed, planting a hand on one of the wooden tables behind me to steady myself.

“I was screaming at him. I told him you weren’t ready for anything, not after James, and after your mom. I mean, could he have worse timing? And then, you left,” she whispered those words, her bottom lip trembling when I looked at her again. “And you never came back, and I thought it was because of your mom, but then I slowly started realizing it, how you and Tyler never talked, how you never asked about him when I visited, how you never invited him to visit with me.” She rolled her lips together. “And then I figured, well, I was right. She wasn’t ready, she feels embarrassed and like she could never tell me, and never look Tyler in the eyes again, and my brother just ruined everything. Our amazing friendship, up in flames because he couldn’t keep it in his pants.”

Swallow. Breathe. Don’t faint.

“But the more time that went on… I thought, maybe I was responsible. I feel like… like I’m the reason you two are no longer friends, because I didn’t trust him to figure it out with you, or you to be able to make your own decisions when you were so messed up from your mom leaving. I don’t know, like maybe if you would have been the one to tell me, and then sit Tyler down and tell him that obviously you guys couldn’t… you know… I don’t know, maybe then it would have all been okay.”

My stomach knotted, and I tried to swallow again, but came up dry.

“I’m sorry, Jaz. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, and I’m sorry I stepped in where I shouldn’t have.”

For the longest time, I stood there — frozen, not blinking, not breathing. Then, suddenly, I did all three things at once, pulling Morgan in for a hug that had her letting out a relieved sigh in my arms.

“It’s okay,” I told her, rubbing her back. “We were young. Kids, you know? It was a weird time for all of us.”

“Such a weird time.”

“And you’re right,” I said. “It was hard for me with my mom. I wasn’t in the best head space.”

She pulled back. “So, you’re not mad at me?”