Page 126 of Crazy for this Girl

“No”—I smile—“you just dance with them.”

She shrugs nonchalantly, not at all embarrassed. “Just having some fun. I wasn’t going to go home with them afterward.”

“Nothing wrong with having fun, Miss Reese. However, since I’m around and we do have an intensive past, I think my best friend abilities are going to need to come into play at some point.”

“We’re not best friends anymore.”

“Since when?”

“Since you dumped me on my ass.”

I lean to my right. “Your ass looks fine to me today.”

She hits me with a full-on glare. “Highly inappropriate.”

“Then when can we talk?”

“We just did.”

“Without your attitude and fear of having to forgive me. Apparently, we’re a sensitive topic to discuss.”

“Why should I make time to speak to you when you only did when it was convenient for you?”

“Don’t you owe it to yourself? I think it’s safe to say, Laynee, that even fate wanted us to see each other again. That has to mean something, whether it’s you forgiving me or telling me to fuck the entire way off.”

“Fuck off,” she whispers, averting her eyes to the wall behind me.

“I want to.” I step up on her and get within an inch of her body, noticing the slight shudder in her frame. “You don’t know how many times I’ve thought of that night. How many years I wanted to spill out those words to you. Do you remember them?” I shake my head because I’d never be able to forget. “You don’t even know, yet the shit I went through...you were the only one who kept me from standing on the ground instead of being buried in it.”

Those blues snap back to me full force, and I can see her mind going a million miles an hour. “Cal…” Her brows narrow in confusion, but her lips aren’t pressed in a thin line anymore. “Who hurt you?”

“Everything,” I reply. “Everything, but you, Laynee.” Silence weighs heavily in the air, and I give her the only out I have left to give, because next time, I’ll pin her to a wall and make her listen to me. “Book the flight, restaurants, and car. We’ll be in Detroit Friday.”

She nods and quickly escapes the room with my damn heart still on her sleeve.

“So, you’re Laynee.” A dark-haired man with a chiseled jaw, even darker brown eyes, and a smile that could create an involuntary blush to creep up any woman’s cheeks, holds out his hand for me to shake. “I’m Tanner Abner.”

My brows furrow. “Abner?”

“My cousin,” Cal says casually at my side, leaning up against one of the plush chairs of the private plane we’re in. “Elliott’s younger brother. He’s flying with us to Detroit.”

I quickly extend my hand to return his gesture. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“And you.” His inky irises skim down the front of my cream-colored dress. “My brother has told me—”

“Drinks are in the back,” Cal interjects, pushing off the chair and rising to his full height, throwing at least an inch of posed intimidation over his cousin. “And so are the parachutes. Get yourself one...you may need it.”

Tanner’s mouth coils in an attractive smile. “Still threatening, are we? This young lady must be special if you’re chomping at the bit to—” Cal jerks his head, boring daggers into his forehead.

“Go on. If you want a job here, you need to learn how to listen to directions. I’m still not convinced that you know how to read.”

“Do you know what one plus one is?” I ask, not missing out on the opportunity to throw a jab into Cal’s rude, everything is always collar-tight attitude.

Tanner flashes me a puzzled look. “Yeah…though, sometimes I like two plus one.”

I smile because, c’mon, his comeback was clever and stupid, and definitely going to piss Cal off.

“Miss Reese, I’m about to show you where those parachutes are kept too if you don’t stop goading him,” Cal reprimands, his hand landing on my lower back and causing a shiver to rack up my spine. “Go take a seat. We’re going to take off here soon.”

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