“I don’t need you telling me shit, man. I didn’t take off with some chick. She’s mad at me, fine, but it gives you no right to step in and get in between me and Kenzie. And let me make this fucking clear Jonah, she’s mine. Friend or no friend, you mess with her, we will have problems. Ya feel me?
“Yeah, man, I hear ya. Now hear me. I’m taking your girl home.”
“Motherfucker, you better be talking about the house and not yours. Don’t underestimate me, Jonah, I will fuck you up and have no fucking regrets, asshole.”
“Not on your best day, Bogs. I’ll take her to the house. Let this be a lesson, man.” He hung up and the humor in Jonah’s voice only fueled the rage Bogs was feeling.
That had been over forty minutes ago.Where the fuck were they? Any rational thought of how he’d talk to Kenzie wascompletely useless at this point. He was beyond enraged. The lights shadowed into the living room and he heard the engine running.
Jonah would be smart to not come inside with how Bogs was feeling at this moment.
****
She could see his shadow in the window when they pulled into the driveway. She had no doubt he was mad. So was she. Her plan was to walk through the door and march straight upstairs. She had no intention of talking to him, at least not tonight.
She walked past him when he opened the door. She was headed for the stairs when his hand wrapped around her elbow. She pulled away but his grip was too strong.
“Let go of me,” she shouted, louder than intended.
“Not until you tell me why you thought it was a good idea to leave my house with another man.”
She shrugged and snapped. “I’m surprised you even noticed. Besides, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. Now let me go, I’m tired, and I wanna go to bed. Alone.” She pulled her arm but he refused to let go.
Damn those stupid sayings.
She waited and watched his lips press together and the corner of his eyes crinkle. “What’s good for the goose…”
Her anger grew as his subsided. Mocking or making light of what she just said was the wrong thing to do. She tugged hard on her arm and this time it was freed. “Shut up, you know what it means.”
Bogs burst out laughing clutching his stomach with his hand. The sound vibrated through the room only intensifying her fury. He had the nerve to get upset with her for leaving with Jonah when he had a girl hanging on him all night and did nothing to stop her. There was no humor on her end.
“I’m going to bed, and you are not sleeping in the bed with me, so figure out another place. Maybe Kami’s bed has occupancies but mine does not.” She turned and marched to the stairs. She noticed the silence before her foot hit the first step.
“You’re jealous?” It was a challenge.
She halted mid-step. How could she not be? She turned slowly to see him standing in the center of the room with his arms folded, no longer smiling. In fact, the scowl on his face was deeply imbedded into his forehead almost making him look dangerous.
“Jealous? No.” She scoffed. “At least not anymore.” She inched forward throwing back the same glare as he was sending her. “But I’m woman enough to admit I was. Then the jealousy turned into something else.” She drew in a breath. “Hurt.”
Bogs dropped his head, looking down at the floor. His arms fell to his sides and he looked up at her. “You read it all wrong.”
She widened her eyes. “I did? ‘Cause from where I was standing it looked like she was flirting, and you were flirting back.”
He took a breath and sighed. His face softened. “She’s a friend of Rox’s whose boyfriend just cheated on her. Ya know what that does to someone? I wasn’t flirting to get with her, I was trying to be nice, initially. Rox said she was taking it hard, so yeah, maybe I did give her a little extra attention.” He stepped forward, his eyes darkening. “But I’m not the one who took off. I really don’t like the idea that my girl fucking left with another guy.”
“Well, then, Bogs, maybe it’s you who read it wrong. Can’t be mad at Jonah, or even me. See, he offered me a ride ‘because I was taking itkind of hardthat the guy I’m falling in love with, who brought me to his family’s house, was off consoling another girl, while I was left to fend for myself. He didn’tlikethe ideathat I was feeling betrayed and embarrassed while the guy I was there with was ignoring me, not giving a shit about how my feelings might be hurt that he was flirting with another woman.”
Bogs face changed into a heated glare. “I wasn’t flirting with her.”
She gritted her teeth in frustration. “For the record, I do know what it’s like to be cheated on, and I do know how deep that cuts. I also know that when it happened to me, I wasn’t off trying to get with someone else’s man, but that’s just me.”
Bogs clenched his jaw and stepped forward. “Did you leave with Jonah to get back at me, is that it?”
“I left with Jonah because I couldn’t bear to sit by myself on the porch waiting for you to come find me. I can only take so much humiliation. The icing on the cake was watching you with her in the kitchen.” She twisted her lips in anger. “I hope you’re happy together.”
“Fuck, Kenzie. I told her to back off, told her I needed to find you.”
“Yeah, well…you were too late.”
