“You’re hurt.” She couldn’t believe no one had told her. Not that anyone owed her any explanations, but she’d made friends with the girls and, she thought, Evan.
“I got into a fight. I’m not proud of it.” He looked embarrassed, and she was dumbfounded.
“I thought you lived to fight.”
“Normally.” He sighed. “I guess we should sit down andtalk.” He seemed to bite out that last word.
She paused, wanting to read him the riot act for ignoring her but concerned. “Do you need a doctor?”
“No.” He gave a sad laugh and carefully sprawled out on the chaise portion of his sectional. “I’m so fucked up it’s not funny.”
This wasn’t going the way she’d thought it might, but as her grandma used to say, in for a penny, in for a pound. “Why have you been avoiding me?”
The million-dollar question.
“Because I’m a pussy.”
She sat next to him and frowned. “Not the answer I was looking for.”
Chapter Twenty
The guys had told him not to tell her what an idiot—or as Cash had so colorfully called him: fuckhead, cheesedick, absolute moron—he’d been. But Smith didn’t like secrets, and he figured Erin had a right to know what she was getting into by being with him.
He forced himself to look at her, taking in her beauty, her selflessness, that fact that just looking at her hurt, because he loved her so damn much.
“I’m not good at relationships.” He licked his suddenly dry lips. “Um, could you get me a glass of water?”
She narrowed her eyes. “That depends. Are you breaking up with me?”
“Me?” He didn’t know if she was joking or not. “Hell no. But I can see you breaking up with me after I tell you what I tell you.”
She didn’t look so pleased with him, but she fetched him a glass of water.
“Thanks.”
“Talk.”
He swallowed half the glass and sighed. “I told you Meg, the woman who raised me, wasn’t very nice to me.”
“She was horrible. Abusive.”
“Yeah, well, she kind of gave me a complex. Like, sometimes I can spiral and think I’m no good, and it affects my relationships.”
“O-kay.” Erin waited.
“So I, well, I didn’t mean to, but—”
“You cheated on me.” Erin stood and glared down at him. “Just like Cody. Of all the—”
“I didnotcheat on you.”
“The—the… You didn’t?” She sagged back to the couch, looking relieved. “Oh, okay. Sorry. Go on.”
He carefully sat up so his feet were on the floor, facing her. “They told me not to tell you. That I would look like a bad bet and you’d run off.”
“They have no idea what I will or won’t do,” Erin said, her spine stiff.
“Yeah, that’s what I told them. You do what’s right. You’re sweet and kind, sexy as hell.” He tried not to let the truth hurt. “And you can do so much better than me.”
