“I’m saying your mother lied, and my father didn’t contradict her.”
I stiffen. My instinct is to be outraged on Mom’s behalf, but listening is important. There are things I should’ve known that I didn’t until Shane confided them. “Why would she lie?”
“You’ll have to ask her.”
He always makes it difficult to get information from him, which is frustrating.
“I think you have a theory, Shane.”
A strand of his hair comes out from behind his ear. Without thinking, I tuck it back for him, my thumb grazing his jaw in the process.
Shit. Do not touch him.
His head turns briefly to look at me speculatively.
I give my shoulder a penitent shrug. “Sorry.”
“It’s fine.”
It’s definitely not fine. We’re not dating. When I tried to get him to mend fences with Ethan, Shane ordered me to my knees. That’s our relationship. I’m servicing his needs, like a sex worker. My arms fold across my chest, closing me down.
Then I think about the way he hugged me when I was upset, and it causes an unwanted warmth to spread through my chest again. I liked that he did that. I’m sure that’s not the way a man touches a prostitute.
We’re in uncertain territory.
“Well?” I ask, trying to get back to the topic of his not-really-dead grandfather.
“I think your mother wants to pretend there was no first Mrs. Moran. And she’s definitely not interested in going to Back Bay for the holidays with my mother’s family. Before you guys showed up, my dad came with me at least once a year.”
“Ethan wouldn’t let a new wife keep you from seeing your grandfather. He’s too good a dad.”
“Father of the year.”
Rubbing the bridge of my nose, I look away. “He never meant to hurt you, Shane. You must know that. I’m sure everything he did was to put my mom—his new wife—at ease and convince her I was safe. Was it so wrong for them to try to protect me?”
“Seems to have worked out, princess, with you trading blow jobs so you can live with me.”
I wince and then purse my lips.There, see…we’re definitely not heading into a real relationship. “And who demanded blow jobs as rent? Seems like our parents were right all along to worry you’d exploit me.” I wait for the explosion.
“I guess they were.” His voice is calmer than I expect, but the dangerous undercurrent is there. “Ethan should’ve let Sheri castrate me with the garden shears when she asked him to.”
I sigh and roll my eyes, staring out the windshield. Despite what happened, I don’t believe things were ever as bad as he seems to think. Yes, my mom was probably cautious, but she doesn’t go around trying to emasculate men.
If Shane made her extra paranoid, it was probably because she sensed there was something brewing between us. And she knew my level of experience back then was nil, when his certainly wasn’t.
“Answer something seriously,” I say. “When they told you to stay away from me, did it make you want things more? Did you plan to defy them?”
“He didn’t say I had to stay away from you. She’s the one who said that.”
Did Mom really say that to him? So baldly? Because that would practically be an accusation in and of itself. No matter how worried she was about me, she shouldn’t have spoken to Shane that way. He’d been abandoned by one of his parents, just like I had. Mom knows how tough that is for a kid. If she’d tried first to be a good stepmom to Shane, their relationship might have been so different.
Sunlight drives through the windshield like a golden white laser. Shane takes aviator sunglasses from the console and puts them on.
“My dad wanted me to treat you like a little sister.”
“Mmm. You tried at first, didn’t you?”
“You were there. You know exactly what I did.”
