“I’ll take you. I said I’ll take you,” Neil said.
“Back off,” Sean told him. “She already chose me, and she doesn’t need to deal with this shit right now, not with her in pain, and especially not after what happened last night.”
“Last night?” Neil frowned, looking at Sean and then back at me. “What happened last night?”
My shoulders curled in as I continued to cradle my wrist against my chest.
“That you don’t know says enough. Come on, Hailey.” Sean pulled the door open, keeping his body as a shield while I slipped out.
“Hailey!” Neil called, but Sean shut the door in his face.
Sean drove a black Chevy Tahoe. He opened the passenger door, helping me get the seat belt secured before moving around to the driver’s side. He turned on the vehicle, scowling toward the front door. “You two have a fight?”
My throat grew tight. “Sort of. He didn’t like that I stayed over at Jack’s.”
“You were crying. On the phone with me, you were crying a lot. He hurt you?”
“Not… not like you’re thinking,” I said softly.
“How then?” he asked, his hand tightening on the gearshift.
I lowered my wrist to rest on my thighs. “He tried to—” I choked on the word. As bad as that was, it was what he’d said after that had broken something. Knowing he’d never been the person I thought had upset me most. “It’s complicated.”
“Right.” Sean shifted into reverse, backing out of the driveway. “Probably best I get us out of here. The urge to go back inside and punch him in the face is really strong.”
“Don’t do that. I just felt overwhelmed. I need to think, but my mind keeps spinning.”
“Maybe I can help unspin it. You can talk to me, Hailey, whenever you’re ready. For now, let’s get that wrist seen to, yeah?”
“I don’t think it’s broken,” I said, my head leaning back against the headrest as I closed my eyes.
“We’ll let the experts decide that,” Sean said. He let me slip into silence, exhaustion making me doze. The urgent care clinic he took me to didn’t have a wait. After seeing me, the nurse led me back to the waiting room with a wrist wrap on and a list of instructions, including icing it and elevation.
The waiting room was still empty, with the opaque window to the receptionist area closed. The seats were upholstered in a swirl of tragic colors, though primarily blue. Sean didn’t stand up. He patted the chair beside him.
I lowered into the chair, giving in to the temptation to tilt my head and rest it against his arm.
“How’s the wrist?” he asked.
“It’s a mild sprain. The wrap is to keep it immobilized for a couple of weeks, and I’ve got a list of things to help.” I fluttered the paper.
Sean took it from me, reading it over. “You ready to tell me what was going on when you fell?”
“He was upset with me about staying at the bar. Not just because overnights are against the rules, but because I was with Jack. He thinks I have feelings for him.” I took a breath. “He’s not wrong,” I confessed in a whisper.
Sean hummed in his throat. “I figured as much. Jack is hard not to like.”
“We almost kissed,” I blurted out.
“Just almost?” Sean asked. “That guy has way too much self-control.”
“He said he wanted to, but then we didn’t. Things felt off after. I was still a little upset when I got home, and I kind of pushed back when Neil got mad. I mean, he’s been doing overnights, too.”
“You didn’t explain about the guy trying to follow you?”
“I tried, but he wasn’t listening. He started in on how his sleeping with other people was to get better at sex for me. He wanted to prove it worked, that he was better.” My uninjured hand curled over the wrap, the scratch of the material helping me to settle.
Sean’s arm tensed against me.
