“We’re here,” I say, trying to keep my words to a minimum because I can tell her internal struggle is having quite the effect on her.
“I’m not hungry.”
“Okay.”This girl. “You said you were hungry before.”
“That was before. This isnow.”
I repress an eye roll. “This is our first stop. Logan said—”
“Logan can fuck off.”
“Okay.”
She’s good. She’s fucking good. No matter how determined I am to show patience, she is really starting to tick me off.
I have a very short fuse, and she knows it. The last thing I want to do is to get angry at the girl that I’ve hurt beyond anything imaginable, but I’m only fucking human.
Blowing out hard through my nose, I get back into the driver’s seat and turn the engine back on.
Not ten minutes later, she says, “I have to pee.”
I actually have to pause and slow my breathing so I don’t lash out. “Okay. Why didn’t you pee at the diner ten minutes ago?”
“I didn’t have to peethen.”
Got it. I’m in love with a fucking three-year-old.
I open the driver’s seat, slam the car door shut again hard, trying to take out my frustration on it so I don’t take it out on Piper. Then I open her door, and immediately regret the slamming, because I can tell she’s trembling.
She’s trying to hide her hands between her thighs, but they’re a dead giveaway.
“Come on,” I say, making my voice soft.
“Come on?”
“Don’t you have to pee?”
She nods, gulping nervously, undoes her seatbelt and gets up.
“What are you doing?” she questions as I follow her a littleways into the woods that border the road.
“Keeping you company.”
“Quill!” She bats at my chest, which would have pissed me off in the past, but instead I once more focus on my breathing. “You are NOT going to watch me pee!”
“Logan said to watch you closely. He said—”
“Fuckwhat Logan says!”
Logandidtell me to keep an eye on her, but I get the feeling he wasn’t beingthisliteral. Still, Piper’s face is turning splotchy red with embarrassment, and it’s adorable. Anyway, watching her pee feels like a pretty harmless way of getting revenge after spending the past two hours keeping my frustration contained while she did her very best to annoy me.
So I lean back against a tree as she glares at me.
“Turn around.”
“Okay.”
I don’t budge, still staring at her intently.
