“From paintballing.” He glanced at my legs, which made me strangely self-conscious.
I frowned at his concern. “I’m healing quicklyagain.”
“Again? Was that not the case when you wereaway?”
“I wasn’t getting banged up much when I wasaway.”
As he beeped his car open, something flickered through his eyes—remorse, or maybe it was just the reflection of his bumper lights. I could feel him hesitate to follow me toward the passenger side. In the end, he must’ve remembered I wasn’t a date he had to impress, because he got behind the wheel while I opened my own door and climbedin.
As he pulled out of the lot, I asked, “How long have you and Tamara beendating?”
“We’re notdating.”
“Are you sure she knowsthat?”
“She knowsit.”
I didn’t ask what they were doing if they weren’t dating. I was a virgin, not an idiot. They might not have been dating, but they were most definitely hooking up. My phone thankfully pinged with a message, tearing me out of my strange deliberations. When I saw August’s name in the message box, Ismiled.
He’d sent me a selfie with some of his Army buddies. They were holding makeshift mics to their mouths—bananas. The picture was captioned:You’re missing one hell of a concert. How’syours?
“What about you andAugust?”
I glanced away from my phone. “Me andAugust?”
“Are youtogether?”
“Me and August?” I sounded like a broken record. “No. We’re justfriends.”
Liam’s features were smooth as stone. “Are you sure he knowsthat?”
“Of course he knowsthat.”
A sound scraped the walls of his throat, like a grunt, but not agrunt.
“What?”
“He just seemed awfully happy to see you, that’sall.”
“August used to babysit me, Liam. He’s ten years older than I am. Trust me, he doesn’t see me as anything other than a little sister.” I picked at a loose thread on the hem of my dress. “Were you hopingeveryonein Boulder would dislike me as much as youdo?”
His dark gaze leaped off the road and ground intomine.
“Don’t put words in my mouth.” He didn’t talk to me after that, just drove way above the speedlimit.
The pines hedging the roads blended together in an endless juniper-colored smear. Someone was in a hurry to get rid of his passenger. Not that I wanted to spend a single minute more than necessary cooped up in a car with Liam Kolane. Why was I in his car again?Right…because Everest had looked like he was enjoyinghimself.
My cousin owed me bigtime.
When Liam came to a screeching halt in front of the inn, I pumped my door handle. Before jumping out, I said, “Thanks for theride.”
Liam didn’t respond. He didn’t even look at me as I climbed out, and the second I’d shut the door, he was off, tires squealing against the asphalt road, taillights burning blood-red in the blacknight.
Chapter Fifteen
Ididn’t sleep.Not a wink. I tossed and turned and tossed some more. The night spun on a loop inside my mind. Every damn part of the night too, from my encounter with stupid Justin Summix, to my drive home with infuriating Liam Kolane. Tamara popped inside my head a couple times too, and even though I tried to picture her with acne and buckteeth, somehow she always morphed into a gorgeoussiren.
Ugh!
