Page 126 of Tell Me Something True

Then her eyes narrowed, and she crossed her arms, looking at him with as much suspicion as her cop brother always did. “Why?”

Because I want to spend time with you.

But he couldn’t say that.

All the reasons he needed to stay away from her were still there. Still real.

“It’s payback. I owe you. For staying with Titus while they took the quills out.”

She dropped her gaze, but not before he saw the disappointment in her eyes. The hurt.

“Idiot,” she whispered under her breath, and he didn’t know if she was talking about him or herself.

All he knew was that he’d said the wrong thing. Again.

He’d hurt her. Again.

And he’d managed to fuck this up after all.

Chapter 24

Keeping her head down because she could not look at Reed one more moment without wanting to punch him right in the throat, Verity let out a soft, humorless, self-pitying laugh.

She’d thought Reed was being nice. That after all his sneers and the snarky way he called her princess and his assurance two weeks ago that it was super easy for him to walk away from her, he’d changed his mind.

Now she wanted to punch herself in the throat.

Yep. Complete idiot standing right here.

She wanted to slink away, but her Jennings pride wouldn’t let her.

Stupid pride.

Stupid handsome boys and their stupid smirky faces and stupid hurtful I owe yous.

But when she peeked up at him from under her lashes, Reed wasn’t smirking. He looked almost… nervous, his broad shoulders rigid, his blue eyes skimming over her face, as if trying to get a read on her.

As if her answer mattered to him.

Right. Like she was supposed to believe that ridiculousness.

“No payback necessary,” she told him, proud of how dismissive she sounded. “I was just doing my job.”

And while she wished she could cheerfully bid him a happy rest of his summer, she was petty enough to hope the rest of his summer sucked.

He’d had his chance with her. He’d blown it.

She wanted him to regret that. Not live his best life.

She stepped to the left to go around him.

And he moved to stand in her way.

Again.

“I didn’t know you worked here.”

She raised her eyebrows at both that statement and his prolonging this already too-long encounter between them. “Why would you? It’s not like we’re friends.”

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