“I was already mid-drop!”
“It’s not that lengthy a process! You could’ve aborted the drop. Or, how about not turning around.”
“You screamed. You startled me. You’re the one who barged intomyspace.”
“You said it wasn’t that big a deal!”
He shrugged one shoulder. “I’d like to think it’ssomewhatbig,” he muttered.
I blinked. “Did you just make a reference to your dick?”
There was a moment of silence in the truck as we kept driving toward town.
Then I started snickering. Dean’s dimple appeared. It was a lot like yesterday, when we’d both started laughing after leaving Phelan’s place. At least there were no SUVs chasing us down this time.
“I used to love that about us,” Dean said, after we’d gotten our giggles out. “How easy it was to laugh together about the dumbest things.”
My smile faded. “It was nice.”
“Seems like we’ve still got it.”
“Guess so. Even if nothing else is the same.”
Another silence, but this one didn’t lead to laughter. It was full of awkward, sad tension.
“Keira, I had that photo because I missed you. I told you that before. I have photos of you on my phone too. I look at them more than I should admit.”
I sighed. “Right. Let’s not rehash everything.”
“I just get the impression you don’t believe me. I’ve told you how much I care about you. How much our friendship meant to me. I left for other reasons, and I’ve shared those with you too.”
“Yes, Iknow,” I said testily. “You left so you wouldn’t hurt me. And because of your history. We’ve been over it, so let’s drop it.”
“You’re very special to me.”
I squeezed my eyes closed. “Dean,stop. Please. I am begging you.”
Neither of us said anything for the rest of the drive. We still had to figure out the next step of our plan regarding Donny Phelan, but I couldn’t handle it right now. I needed some space and time to think. Distance fromDean.
I had to figure out some way to stop these old feelings from choking me every time I looked at him.
Dean took the road leading to my neighborhood. One ofmy neighbors was out walking her dog, and I waved as we passed.
Finally, my house was in sight. I couldn’t wait to take a bath using all my products, change into sweats, and take a nap.
But as he pulled up my driveway, Dean muttered a curse.
“What is it?” I asked.
“You’ve got a broken window.”
“What?Where?”
“Down there. Past the side door. Furthest window on the right, corner pane of glass.”
“You can see that?”
He pointed at his eyes. “I’ve got 20/8 vision. They called me Bullseye for a reason.”
