That’s what I thought.Little fucker.“Who the hell do you think you are?” Blair tightens her hold on my tee but it’s not enough to stop me, and when I break free, I feel her behind me as she wraps her arms around my waist.
“Oh, sorry, man, looks likeshe’scontrollingyou.”
“Motherfucker.” I grab Blair’s hands to break free but she locks her fingers together, holding on for dear life.
“Leave it, Zane. Please.” She tries to keep her tone even but her pitch rises at the end.
“Fine.” I give in, deflating in her hold. “You can let go now.”
“Nope. Not until they leave.”
Standing her ground, she waits, her hold on me locked tight while the guys laugh.
If I cared at all about the world’s perception of me, I’d probably feel emasculated, but instead, I smile along with them. This isn’t a bad place to be.
However, I know how to get her to stop.
“Feel free to lower your hands a little, B,” I taunt, desperate to get another little rise out of her. “If we’re going to be stuck like this, why not be productive?”
“Zane!” she squeals and, just as expected, jumps back, releasing me so fast you’d think she’d been burned. “You can’t say that.”
“I meant you could scratch an itch for me. What were you thinking?”
“That you’re an asshole.”
“An asshole that you care about.”
“I don’t.”
“You don’t? Then why not let me go after those fuckers?”
“Because it’s my fault they got annoyed.” Her expression drops, along with her shoulders. “I’m sorry I did that. I shouldn’t have said anything. You’ve got your reputation to uphold and—”
“What the fuck? You have nothing to be sorry about. Something like that isn’t going to ruin my reputation. I’ve done way worse, and even if I hadn’t, it’s not on you to hold back because of me.”
“Still, I—”
“No, those guys were assholes. And what they said…”
“It’s just words. And those words affect me less than you going after them affects you.”
“Not true. At all. Has Nathan made you—”
“No. It’s not that.” She stares at me confidently, but I don’t miss the way her voice softens. She’s lying.
“You deserve better,” I tell her, instead of specifically accusing that asshole of being a dick. And then, to save myself an angry retort, I move on. “Question, though… What does ‘thatfootball player’ mean?”
“Huh?”
“You said ‘yes, he’sthatfootball player.’”
“Oh, ah. I meant nothing by it.”
I bite back a smirk, letting her off the hook, happy in the knowledge that she’s been keeping track of me. “Whatever you say, Little B. But now that’s out of the way, are we going up or down?”
“Up.” She smiles, pointing toward the peak of the mountain while I groan. Not the response I was hoping for.
“Up it is.” Grabbing a stick, I take a few steps before realizing I’m alone, a laugh bursting out of me.
