Page 88 of Bittersweet Revenge
“Hey, where’d you go?” Tiernan asks.
“Nowhere,” I lie. “Do you think…never mind.”
There’s another pause, another of Tiernan’s deep, penetrating stares, the wheels in his head turning. “She’ll like you.”
“That’s not what I was going to ask.”
“Yes, it was.” He smiles, and I flip him off.
“I hate you.”
“So you’ve told me, more than once. Now, I have to go. I have shit to do.”
“Okay.” I nod like an idiot, words trapped on my tongue. “Tiernan?”
“Yeah?”
“I don’t hate you. You are…the only thing I’ve ever had that’s mine.”Please don’t ever hate me. I’m sorry.
His pupils flare, and I feel the heat from his stare through the phone. “Good night. I’ll be home soon,” is all he says before ending the call, and somehow, it’s all I need to hear.
*
“Did you talkto my brother last night?” Aislin asks as we’re having lunch.
“Yeah. Said something about drugs and the harbor,” I say softly, for only her to hear.
“Why the fuck does my dad want him home? I don’t get it.”
“Me neither.” Rory sits down beside her.
“Same.” Cillian beside me.
“It’s ridiculous. He’s such an asshole.” Aislin rips a bite of her roll and eats it.
“Maybe it’s good I don’t have parents?” Rory says. “Yours is a fucking prick—one we all wouldn’t be here without, but a prick all the same. Cil’s rarely talks to him. What about you, D? You got parents?”
I’m so thrown by him calling me D that I don’t snap at his question. “No…mine are dead too.”
Aislin elbows him in the side.
“Shit. Sorry. That sucks. I hope they weren’t dicks.”
An unexpected laugh tumbles from my mouth, just as Cillian says, “You’re such a fuckin’ idiot, Ror.”
“But you love me anyway.” He flutters his lashes at Cillian, who throws a french fry at him. Rory opens his mouth and manages to catch it. “I’m the fucking man!” He shoves to his feet, arms in the air, and now we’re all laughing.
When Rory sits down again, Aislin asks me, “What are you doing tonight?”
I figure pouting in her brother’s room and wanting him back isn’t a good answer. “I don’t have any plans.”
“I’m doing a self-defense lesson for women on campus. Want to help?”
That’s really fucking cool. Yes, it was my idea, but I didn’t know she’d taken the advice, and I sure as shit hadn’t expected her to ask me to join her.
“We all know how he likes to fight,” Cillian says.
“Not women. Just idiots like you,” I counter.
