He needed time to figure out what was happening between them, or, hell, what was happening in his own head. “Livvy—”
She turned away and started walking, jerking her jacket over her breasts. Leaves clung to her hair. “Either take me back to my car, or I’m walking.”
“Don’t be like this.”
“Like what?”
Poking and prodding. Overwhelmed from all the confessions he’d shared with her, her snottytone rubbed him exactly the wrong way. “Dramatic,” he snapped, and then grimaced, a chill running through him at the way she spun around and glared at him.
Maria, for God’s sake, stop acting so dramatic.
Drama was cold Brendan’s sworn enemy.Like father, like son.
Oh, fuck. Never.
“That’s what I am.” Her shoulders were set and rigid. “A moody drama queen. Now take me back to my car.”
Chapter 15
LIVVY FLOPPEDon her bed, face-down, like a proper drama queen.
Dramatic.
Well, fuck you too, Nicholas.
She’d refused to speak with Nicholas in the car ride back to town. She’d held her emotions in admirable check on the drive home. She’d showered quickly and then smiled throughout the delicious steak and potatoes dinner her aunt had saved for her and ate every bite, though she wasn’t hungry. She’d gamely tried to engage her mom in conversation about the sitcom they watched after dinner, only to be rebuffed. She’d cleaned up the kitchen, thrown a load of laundry in the washing machine, and whistled while she did it, every ounce of energy being poured into appearing calm.
Dramatic. Moody. Emotional. Temperamental. Artistic. There were so many adjectives she’d been tagged with from people who couldn’t and wouldn’t understand her.
I can give you everything.
She pressed her hand over her heart, the spike ofhope and excitement coursing through her again. She hated him so much for giving her that high, because the truth was simple and stark.
He couldn’t.
She wasn’t a fool. She believed Nicholas when he said his father had made him end things with her. Brendan was totally capable of something so ruthless—hadn’t he cheated her mother out of her half of the company?
Livvy believed he’d been reluctant to leave her and loved her then, and that did bring a measure of peace to her heart. But the second he’d started to talk aboutifs,she’d reached her limit.
He might still have feelings for her, but that didn’t mean he’d ever want or be able to give her more. She deserved more. She did.
Keep saying that, squeaked the tiny defenseless part of herself that sometimes wondered if she deserved anything.
Lethargy tugged at her body, the desire to crawl under the covers and not get up. Resolutely, she rolled to her feet instead. A few more things. She could manage a few simple tasks first. Opposite action.
Livvy placed her phone on the nightstand. After she got under those covers, she knew she’d stare obsessively at the coordinates he’d sent her for the first time in forever, tracing every familiar number, but she’d put that off as long as humanly possible.
She took off her clothes and popped them in the hamper in the corner. She grabbed a button-down flannel sleep shirt from a drawer and drew it on,pressing the fabric to her nose to inhale the comforting scent of laundry detergent and softener. It only marginally calmed the emotions twisting her insides into a knot.
As she buttoned it up, she glanced around, wishing she’d left the place a mess so she could tidy it up and feel accomplished about something. She opened the closet door, but all her clothes had been neatly unpacked from her duffel and hung on hangers. Cursing past-her for her diligence, she started to pace, stopping when she realized how frenetic her motions were getting.
She wrapped her arms around her waist and inhaled and exhaled deeply. Okay. Okay. She needed a breather. Boxes. Her feelings were too big and overwhelming, and they were leaking right out of her. Time to contain them.
Livvy skirted the bed and plopped down on the floor, resting against the wall.
She ran her hand against her leg and slowly, using her index finger, traced a box around the head of the dragon inked into her flesh.
Look at you. You’re a disaster.
