Foreplay (The Ivy Chronicles #1)(67)

“That’s right. Just remember that. You don’t know shit. I’m not dead yet. I’m still here.” Mr. Mulvaney beat his chest with one knotted hand. “This is my place.” His barrel chest fell and rose with exerted breaths. Seemingly satisfied that he’d had his say, he glanced back at Logan. “I’m done. C’mon.” He rolled past Logan down the ramp.

Logan approached his brother, rubbing the back of his neck. “Look, I’m sorry—”

“It’s okay. Go on. He’ll be yelling for you.”

Nodding, Logan followed after his dad.

Slowly, Reece turned. He moved toward me, but instead of reclaiming his seat he remained standing, his fingers lightly brushing the table, his gaze avoiding mine. “I’ve got to get back to work.” His voice was carefully neutral.

“Reece, I’m—”

His eyes snapped to my face. “What? You’re what? Sorry?”

Yeah. I was sorry for him. And I understood. I knew what it felt like when someone you loved betrayed you and stomped all over your heart.

I shook my head. “Why do you blame yourself?” I nodded to where his dad had been moments ago.

“Because if I had been home it wouldn’t have ever happened.”

“It was an accident. You shouldn’t spend your life paying for it.”

He snorted. “There’s no such thing as an accident, is there? Really? We all make choices. Everything that happens is a result of those choices.” His gaze flicked over me coldly. “Just like you made your choice. You’re going to be with this Hunter guy. I’m just a distraction until the real thing comes along for you.”

His words flayed me. He made it sound so ugly. Like I was using him. I guessed technically I was, but I’d always been up front with him, and he had wanted to do this, too. I thought we were enjoying each other. At least that’s what I told myself. Besides, he was the one who initiated things that night he pulled me upstairs after him.

“No,” I whispered, but I wasn’t sure what I was denying exactly. That Hunter was the end goal for me? He still was. He had to be. I’d spent the last seven years believing in that.

It just felt wrong to label Reece a distraction. He was more than that to me. What, precisely, I didn’t know. But definitely more.

The weary look came over him. He waved a hand toward the exit. “Why don’t you just go? You really don’t know about any of this. You don’t know me.”

I sucked in a breath and resisted pointing out that I thought I was starting to know him. From the first moment I met him, when he pulled over and announced that he didn’t feel right leaving me alone on the side of the road, I’d had a good understanding of him. But I didn’t point that out to him. Because obviously he didn’t want me to know him. It was in every tense line of his lean body and the hard set to his jaw.

“Okay,” I murmured. “Good-bye.” I pushed up from the table, leaving the half-eaten food behind. Skirting him, I fled the bar, convinced that this time I wouldn’t be back. This time he’d asked me to leave. He wanted me gone. It didn’t matter what I wanted.





Chapter       23

Hopping back      into the car, I handed Hunter his soda and bag of chips as I settled in against      the plush leather seat of his BMW. Definitely a luxurious way to travel home.      More comfortable than my Corolla. Plus, I didn’t have to drive all by      myself.

“Bugles?” I questioned, shaking my head with a      smile as he ripped into the bag. “Never took you for a Bugles kind of guy.”

He grinned. “Don’t knock it till you’ve tried      it.”

“Oh, I have. I think I was seven when I last ate      them.” When I lived with my mom we’d subsisted on a steady diet of vending      machine fare.

“Well, then you know the wonder that is the tiny      Bugle.” He held aloft one tiny bugle-shaped chip as if it were the Holy Grail.      “Go on. Try just one.”

“I’m fine. Really.”

“If you can resist, then surely you’ve never tasted      one.”

Giggling, I reached inside the bag, grabbed a few,      and threw them into my mouth. Chewing the salty, cheese-powder-coated chips, I      said, “There. Satisfied? I tasted and can still resist.”

“You’re simply not human.”

Shaking my head again, I unscrewed the cap on my      water bottle and took a sip, washing away the taste of Bugles from my mouth.

“Bet you didn’t know I liked jerky, too.”

“No way. You? Wow. But they don’t serve that at the      country club,” I mocked.

“I haven’t been to the country club since I don’t      know when. Not really my scene anymore, you know?”

No, I didn’t. I might have known Hunter all my      life, but I didn’t really know what he did with his free time. Aside from      studying to get into med school and devoting the last two years of his life to a      demanding girlfriend.