“You’d make a good boyfriend to someone in future, if you had a little instruction.”
Kane rolled his eyes. “Trying to boyfriend-train me? Pass.”
“We could add it to our deal.”
This earned me a more serious look. “What are ye offering in return?”
Heat spread out in a pulse I felt in every part of me.
His phone rang, connected to the car speakers. Without looking at the screen, Kane swiped to answer. “Yes?”
“Kane Ryan,” a woman’s voice purred.
My heart stopped.
That was far from a professional tone.
He breathed out through his nose, his expression flat. “I can’t talk now. I’ll call you back.”
“Okay, honey. You do that.”
She hung up, but not before I registered the name on his screen.
Alice (London).
Oh God. Nausea rose in my throat.
Cringing in on myself, I turned away from him. The name and the way she spoke to him screamed hookup. Alice was probably beautiful. Slim and funny without emotional baggage and down to fuck in whatever way he wanted. Nothing like me.
Hurt chased the other horrible feelings, gutting me out. It was unreasonable. He wasn’t mine. Except for a short while, he had been.
“What?” he asked.
I didn’t answer, busy suffering a little heartbreak for no good reason.
Kane tried again. “That upset ye. I regret answering it but I didn’t know who it was.” He swore and shoved his fingers into his short hair. “Fuck. Ye don’t like me. Ye turned me down. I asked when we were in Leith and ye said no. I described my preference and ye blanked me.”
He was right. Still, I couldn’t find any words. Worse were the awful tears that burned my eyes. One slid down my cheek, and I dashed it away, horrified. But ithurt. I couldn’t pretend it didn’t.
How strange. My emotions had identified him as their target and clung.
Kane swore again then snatched up his phone. He tapped the screen a few times, then a call played out over the speakers.
The woman answered. “That was quick.”
“I’m no longer available. Delete my number.”
He hung up.
Purposefully in my eyeline, he tapped her number again then blocked and deleted it.
“Will that stop ye crying?”
I managed a tiny nod. Though now I felt bad for Alice, whoever she was. Maybe she’d liked him, too.
Kane tossed his phone into the drinks holder, his expression settling back into grumpy. It took a minute for him to form a sentence. “Ye have a high emotional range.”
“I…I know.”
