Didn’t mean I had to like it.
Didn’t mean I had to accept it.
Didn’t mean I had to sit back and pretend it didn’t get under my skin, because it did.
More now than before.
A lot more.
I pushed off the bench and started pacing the length of the garage, boots echoing off the concrete in short, restless strides.
She’d been flustered today.She wasn’t that way with Lark or Penny.
With me, it was like she didn’t know where to land.Didn’t know what to say and didn’t know where to look half the time.
That wasn’t nothing.
That wasn’t just her being polite or friendly or going along with it.
That was… something.
And I felt it.
Every second she was in that space with me, I felt it.
The way her attention stuck and the way her voice shifted.
The way her whole damn body reacted when I got close.
I stopped in the middle of the garage and planted my hands on my hips again.
“That’s not nothing,” I muttered.
Because it wasn’t.Not even close.
I’d seen enough women in my life to know the difference between someone being nice and someone being affected.
Ever wasn’t just being nice.And if she wasn’t fully locked in with Jesse and she wasn’t calling him her boyfriend… then there was an opening.
The thought hit clean and sharp.
It finally settled into place like it had been waiting for me to catch up to it.
I blew out a breath and let my head drop forward slightly, staring at the concrete.
This wasn’t something I’d ever thought about before.
Not once.
Ever had always just… been there.Someone I knew and saw, but not someone I wanted.Not in a way that had me standing in a garage after she left trying to figure out how the hell I was going to see her again.
Something had changed, and now… now I couldn’t unsee it.
I ran a hand through my hair and let out a short laugh under my breath.“This is fucked.”
Because it was.
She was seeing someone.
