No wonder he hated me.
So much for whatever fledgling connection we’d formed.
CHAPTER TWENTY
ALEX
Shit.
My hands trembled as I stared at the door Ryder yanked shut behind him.
Cold sweat dripped down my spine, raising a trail of goose bumps in its wake.
Shit.
I squeezed my eyes shut as I blew out an unsteady breath.
It didn’t help.
“Alex…”
I turned back to my mom, fighting to keep my face impassive, but one look at her disapproving frown, and time turned back to when I was ten and in trouble for throwing ice-packed snowballs at my neighbor’s car.
“Alex…” she said again as I crouched down to redress the wound on her foot. This time, her voice held a disapproving bite I hadn’t heard directed my way in ages.
“I know. I was a dick.”
“I’m not sure who that boy was, but he helped you out at two in the morning.”
I’d have chuckled at how she called Ryder a boy if I had an ounce of humor lurking in me tonight.
“That’s a good friend, honey.”
Friend. Is that what we were? Probably not after the way I screamed at him for daring to return my phone. The disappointment in my mom’s gaze was nothing compared to my internal flagellation.
“I’ll apologize to him at work tomorrow.”
I avoided looking up at her while I placed the gauze beneath her toes, then wrapped it the way her surgeon had demonstrated. As detrimental as her neuropathy was, in times like these, I was grateful she couldn’t feel a normal sensation in her foot. At least these twice-weekly dressing changes didn’t cause her pain.
“Care to tell me why you reacted that way?”
“No.”
Her silence hit harder than if she told me I was being a brat.
“It’s nothing.” I sighed. “Personal stuff. We have a bit of a complicated friendship.”
There was that word again.
“Are you ashamed of me? For your friend to meet me? You never bring anyone around.”
“What?” I jerked my head up, meeting her sad gaze. “No. Of course not. You’ve met Trevor.”
She pressed her lips together as she nodded. “Yes, but he is the only friend we’ve met in years.”
“I’m not ashamed.”
Was I? I’d always considered myself protective, but who was I protecting, my mother or myself?
