“What does that mean ‘you won’t tell’?”
“Is she here?”
When he took another step up, I took two.
“You saw my mom when she came in.”
“Not her. Your girlfriend.”
“My girlfriend? What the fuck are you talking about? You’re delirious. Let me get that for you.” He grabbed the water bottle and my bowl of food and squeezed past me.
“Hey!” I shouted after him, but by then, he was already in my bedroom. “You need to leave,” I said, motioning toward the door.
“Nope. Not going anywhere until you agree to talk to me.”
“We have nothing to talk about. Not to mention if you stay up here, my brother is going to come looking for you. What reason will you give him for being in my bedroom?”
He stepped onto the threshold. “You’re right, but we need to talk.”
I shook my head. “We don’t.”
“Sloane, what happened—”
“First of all, lower your voice. And second, I’m more than happy to pretend like it was all a bad dream if that’s what you want.”
He rubbed his chest with one hand. “Wow. Was it really that bad? Is that why you took off? I’ve never had anyone—”
“Just shut up and go away,” I said, giving him a hard shove. It was far enough that I could close the door, but he stuck his hand out and stopped it. He came back inside and shut it behind him.
“Look, I’m sorry. Okay? You’re right. What we did never should’ve happened.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You’re willing to pretend it was a bad dream? Sounds like you said exactly that.”
When he sighed and looked up at me with those gorgeous green eyes, I wanted to fall into his arms and beg him to forgive me, not just for being a bitch to him now, but for racing out that day and blocking his calls since. But there was still the matter of the “woman in his life.”
“Why are you here? There’s nothing to talk about. If you’re afraid I’m going to tell someone and it’ll get back to her, don’t worry. My lips are sealed.”
“I don’t know—” Tackle went silent when we heard footsteps coming up the stairs. “Answer your fucking phone when I call you,” he half spat, half whispered before opening the door and stepping into the hallway.
“What’s going on?” I heard Knox ask.
“I helped Sloane bring some stuff up from downstairs.”
“How’s she feeling?”
“Not sure.” At first, I thought they’d walked away, but Tackle’s next words sounded like they came from right outside my door. “Except she’s really fucking grouchy.”
“Usually is when she’s sick. Takes after our mom.”
This time, I was sure I heard two sets of feet going downstairs.
7
Tackle
“You hungry?”
I was. Halo’s mom was a great cook, and every year, I looked forward to coming over here to eat the traditional Venezuelan food she made.
My parents were straight-up American, but both sets of my grandparents had immigrated here from Scandinavia. Outside of Swedish meatballs, which never tasted as good as they sounded, my mom didn’t make much food from her parents’ homeland.
I followed Halo into the kitchen, ready to heap a plate with food, but found I wasn’t as hungry as I thought I was. My conversation with Sloane had been so damn weird.
Under any other circumstances, I would go straight back upstairs and get to the bottom of the weird shit she’d said. If you’re worried it’ll get back to her, don’t be. Back to who? That was only one of the things she’d said that made no sense. Like her asking if my girlfriend was with me. Where had that come from? I hadn’t had a girlfriend since college, and even then, they hadn’t lasted very long.
“What do you think is wrong with her?” I asked.
Halo looked up from the roast pork he was devouring. “Sloane?” He shrugged. “Probably the flu. She’s hiding out so she doesn’t get everyone else sick.”
I leaned forward. “She was saying some crazy shit.”
Halo stopped eating. “Like what?”
“She asked if my girlfriend was here.”
“Oh.”
I sat back in my chair. “That doesn’t seem to surprise you.”
“Yeah. Sorry, man. That’s on me. I kinda asked if she’d seen you around with anyone.”
“Why?”
“On the plane, you said there was someone but you weren’t sure she felt the same way you did.”
“Halo, what the fuck?” I muttered, trying to keep my voice down. “I told you that in confidence.”
He leaned forward like I had. “What’s with all the mystery, anyway? Since when don’t you tell me about a chick you’re into?”
“Since I stopped referring to them as chicks and started calling them women.”
He pushed back his chair and went to get more food. “I didn’t realize it was a damn secret. What is she? A teacher from our high school?”
Worse. Way worse, but I couldn’t tell him that. “It doesn’t matter anymore. Like I said, she wasn’t as into me as I was her.”
He sat back down and shoved more food into his mouth. “So who was she?”
“I just told you it doesn’t matter.”
He shook his head, got up from the table, and put his plate on the counter. Without another word, he stalked off in the direction of the living room.
After making sure he was staying put for a few minutes at least, I went into the hallway and pulled out my phone.
When I couldn’t decide what to say to Sloane, I shoved it back in my pocket.
An hour later, I decided there was no point in my sticking around here any longer. Halo was being a dick, answering every question I asked either with a one-word answer or nothing at all. Sloane hadn’t shown her face again, not that I’d expected her to.
“Where are you off to?” Halo asked when I grabbed my jacket from the front hall closet.
“Goin’ to the grill.”
“Mind if I come along?”
“No, but you sure you want to?”
“Look, it pisses me off that you didn’t say anything to me about whoever she is, but I get it. Like you said, she isn’t into you.” Halo grabbed his jacket. “It
