The Hookup (Moonlight and Motor Oil #1)(91)

“There’s three feet of space between us.”

She looked down at the bed but again to him when he continued speaking.

“You worried about your sister?” he asked.

“A little,” she answered. “Mostly I’m relieved. Perry’s always been a loser. I hate how she finally figured that out but I’m glad that part of her life is at an end and she can start fresh without him dragging on her.”

He believed at least that.

“You worried about the money it’s gonna take for her to get shot of that guy?” he went on.

She shook her head. “We always find a way.”

Yeah, he bet they did.

“So what is it?” he pushed.

“It’s nothing, Johnny. I’m just a little hungover and into this show.”

“Iz, we talk. That’s the deal, remember?”

“Your deal,” she returned.

His brows drew together. “What?”

She turned her eyes again to the TV. “Nothing.”

“Izzy,” he growled.

Her eyes shot to him and she pushed up to a hand in the bed.

“Okay, so, I’m learning the kind of guy you are, maybe you should learn the kind of woman I am,” she stated.

“Hit me,” he invited.

“Sometimes I need space to sort through things in my head.”

“Does this space need to be physical?” he asked.

“I . . .” She looked around them and back at him. “Sorry?”

“Can’t you sort through things in your head curled up to me?”

“I . . . I . . .” She stopped there like she didn’t know the answer to that question.

He tried something else.

“What did you mean, ‘your deal?’”

“What?” she asked, beginning to look panicked.

“You said it was my deal that we talk. What did you mean when you said that?”

“I meant that, uh . . .”

“Spit it out,” he prompted.

“Hold your horses!” she snapped, panic gone, she was ticked.

Johnny shut his mouth and stared at her.

The only times he could recall that she’d snapped at him was when she lost it right before he fucked her in her stable and when she got slightly ticked when he’d brought up Shandra on the balcony.

It just wasn’t her.

But maybe it should be her.

Maybe she should feel free to get pissed every once in a while, quit with the stiff upper lip, stop rolling with the punches and punch back.

And maybe now was the time to show her that she was safe to do that with him.

“You could curl up to me,” she noted angrily.

“Would you have been good with that?” he asked.

“I . . . don’t know,” she said. Then she went back on it and answered, “No.”

“So you need space to sort through things, it needs to be physical, but can you let me in on what these things are?”

“That’s part of having them to myself to sort through them, so no.”

“You ever had anyone to sort them out with?”

“Of course. Mom. Addie. Deanna.”

“A man,” he clarified.

“What’s that matter?”

“Iz—”

“She’s my sister, you know,” she declared suddenly.

Johnny shut his mouth again.

Izzy didn’t.

“Yesterday, when you were asking if it was Addie’s plan all along to come up here and stay with me, and I told you no but she was going to be with me for a while, you looked unhappy.”

He set his beer aside, turned to her and tried again, “Iz—”

She cut him off. “And she’s my sister. We’re . . . we . . . this is good. What you and I have. It’s new but it’s good. And it’s not habit, me looking out for her. It’s family. She needs me. So I need to be there for her. She’d do the same for me.”

“I told you yesterday it was all cool.”

“Yes, but at first you looked upset about it.”

“Because we’re new and this is good and I want more of that,” he hedged.

It was more than just that. He just didn’t want to bring it to his bed with Izzy in it with him.

“That’s lovely and all but you were there. Perry didn’t just prove himself a loser, he proved himself a total jerk. She’s going to be a single mom, a real one now, in a new place and I want more of this too. I mean, you have to know that. I hate that it’s true what Addie said, she’s cramping our style. But it’s true, and I hate that she feels that and I hate that you feel that and I’m stuck in between, not giving the best to either of you.”

It was time to shut this down and there was only one way to do it.

He didn’t like that way.

But it was the only one.

“Shandra left me because of her brother.”

To that, Izzy shut her mouth.

“I can’t say why but I’ll say me not going to the police to share about shit he did makes me an accessory after the fact. So since I’d rather not be incarcerated, it’d be good you didn’t say anything to anyone, including Addie.”

Her eyes were now big.