My jaw tightened, but I stayed quiet because this wasn’t about me. This was about her finally saying shit out loud.
“He’d tell me I’d be prettier if I lost weight.”
I stared at the grill. At the burgers. At literally anything except the look on her face, because I already wanted to kill a man I’d never met.
Josie laughed. The saddest fucking laugh. “He used to say it like he was helping.”
My grip tightened on the spatula.
“He’d say...” She swallowed. “‘Nobody else is going to want you.’”
I looked at her.
Nobody wanted her?
I could barely go a few seconds without thinking about her.
“He told me I should be happy he loved me.” The words came out quietly. Matter-of-fact. Like she’d repeated them enough times, they no longer shocked her.
I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t, because the angrier I got, the quieter I became.
Josie noticed. “You okay?”
“No.” My voice was flat. Dangerously flat.
She blinked, and I took a breath. Another. Then, finally, I looked at her. “That man spent years lying to you.”
Josie shrugged.
“After awhile...” She looked down at her beer. “You stop hearing it as a lie.”
I hated that.
Hated.
It.
I thought she believed me when I said she was beautiful. She smiled. Blushed. Argued. But deep down... She still believed him a little more.
“Fuck that guy, babe.” I paused. “Fuck anyone who doesn’t see you the way I do.”
She let out a loud laugh. “Oh, Rome. Where were you when I was twenty-one?”
I tipped my head to the side. “Uh, I was fourteen.”
She let out another peal of laughter. It was pretty crazy to think about.
Josie crossed her bare legs, shirt riding up. The sight of her unguarded, toes tucked up, and her hair in a messy twist made me wish I could stare forever without getting caught.
Josie rubbed her shin absentmindedly with her foot, and I caught sight of the pink of ner underwear.
I twisted the burner off, closed the grill, then stalked over. The boards creaked beneath my bare feet, and she smirked. “You realize you’re burning dinner, right?” she said, tilting her chin at the grill.
“We’ll start with dessert,” I said.
I watched her nipples tighten beneath the cotton of my shirt, and that was it. I was done waiting.
I grabbed her arms and hauled her up with me, my mouth crashing down on hers before she could make a sound. She gasped against my lips, her hands flying to my chest. Her fingers curled into my shirt and pulled me closer.
