With that, Matt shoved Derek back, then turned and grabbed Hannah by the hand. He scooped up the bag holding their burritos that they’d almost left behind, and they left the student center.
Chapter Sixteen
Matt practically dragged Hannah behind him, slowing when he realized her shorter legs couldn’t keep up very well. Once around the corner and under a grouping of trees, their bare branches reaching up to the leaden sky, he stopped, pulled her around in front of him, cupped her cheek, and planted a soft kiss on her lips. That small contact grounded him, and the tension went out of Hannah as well, her body going soft against his.
He pulled back, looking down into her green eyes to ask the question that had him stunned. “You dated that jackass?”
Hannah’s cheeks, already pink from the chilly air, flushed redder, and she lowered her eyelids, pulling away from his hand. “For a couple of months last semester.”
He tilted her face back up, waiting for her to meet his eyes again. “Why?” He kept his voice low, tried to make it nonjudgmental, but he couldn’t keep his surprise out of his tone. The way that guy had acted—the way he’d treated Hannah—he couldn’t fathom why anyone would willingly spend time with that asshat, much less date him. Frustration and anger roiled in his chest. He could admit, at least to himself, that part of it was jealousy that anyone else had touched her, even though he knew she’d dated since him, and he’d dated too, so he really didn’t have the right to feel that way. But she was his, dammit. More than that, his anger stemmed from seeing Hannah treated badly. Whether she’d dated anyone else in their time apart didn’t matter. She was his now, and he wouldn’t stand for that kind of crap.
She shook her head. “He didn’t act like that when I first got to know him. He can be funny and charming when he wants to, and we care about a lot of the same things. When he asked me out, it seemed like a good idea. But he kept trying to tell me what to do and control who I spent time with. He got worse the longer we were together, so I broke up with him after Thanksgiving.”
At least she had enough self-respect not to put up with a guy treating her like that. That went some way toward soothing his frustration. But she let him talk down to her and bully her and dismiss her out of hand. And he knew that today hadn’t been the first time. Her complaints this morning about coming to collect signatures on the weekend again were enough to tell him that. “And now? Why do you put up with him treating you like that now?”
She pulled away, her sigh visible in the cold air. “I actually intended to be less involved this semester. Between school, the internship, and now modeling for Megan, I don’t have that much time. Part of what you witnessed is because he’s mad at me for not being here yesterday. And I told him this morning that I’m unavailable next Saturday as well because of another modeling session. The only reason I’m still doing anything is because of Chelsea, the other girl inside, and my other friend Allison. I’m the reason they joined the club, and they begged me to stay. I couldn’t tell them no.”
Her eyes were wide, almost pleading. Matt nodded, not pushing anymore, lacing his fingers with hers again and tugging her after him, his pace more relaxed now.
Hannah caught up, walking beside him. “Where are we going?”
He glanced down at her. “My place. I still want to eat, and we can hang out some more.”
“But my car is here. And I have early classes tomorrow.”
He smiled at the nervous way she chewed her lip. “Whenever you need to leave, I’ll bring you back for your car. But it’s only one. Surely you can spare a few more hours for me. You promised me dinner too, after all.”
She narrowed her eyes, but agreed without further protest.
Back at his house, he warmed up their burritos in the microwave, staying quiet while they ate at the kitchen table, trying to figure out how to bring up what happened at the student center without pissing her off again. Hannah stayed quiet too, seeming to need the time to decompress. Thank God Chris and Megan weren’t home for a while. He hoped they’d stay gone long enough for him to tell Hannah what was on his mind. Because he wasn’t okay with her being treated like shit by some asshole ex-boyfriend, he didn’t care how bad she felt for abandoning her friends. But how to say that without sounding just as controlling and douchey?
After they finished eating, he rinsed their plates and threw away their trash before turning to Hannah again. “Movie?”
She quirked an eyebrow, one corner of her mouth turning up. “Oh, you mean how we used to watch movies in your room?”
He laughed. “We could do that too, but the only
