Page 97 of Ex's & Oh's (The Lucky Girls 1)

I climb out of the car.

“Jenna!” I call.

She turns, and when she sees me, the expression that flickers across her face is hard to read.

I walk to her.

“You’re not gone.”

She shakes her head.

“Can we talk?”

“Fine,” she says. She’s closed off from me. Distant.

“Do you want to come to my car?” I ask.

She shakes her head. “We can talk here.”

I glance around. In the parking lot of an airport? I’d rather we be somewhere more private, but if this is what I can get, I’ll take it. I just want to tell her how things stand.

“I was a dick,” I say.

“Yeah. You were.”

I shake my head. “I’m trying to apologize; you’re not supposed to agree with me.”

“Well, I’m not going to tell you that you’re not if that’s what you were hoping for.” She narrows her eyes at me. “Where did you think this was going? How did you think this whole thing was going to pan out if you didn’t tell me about Noah being here?”

“I have no idea what I was thinking,” I admit. “I hoped if I ignored the problem long enough, it would go away.”

She just looks at me and I don’t know what she’s thinking. I expected her to be upset, but now that I’m here, talking to her, I don’t know how to bridge the gap between my apology and confessing my feelings for her.

“You should have told me,” she says.

“I know.”

“You said you weren’t going to hide anything from me.”

“Damn it, you sprung that one on me from left field, making this whole thing so damn complicated when we’re not there yet.”

“We weren’t there yet?” she asks. She folds her arms over her chest, looking like she’s either trying to block me off or to hold herself together. I’m not sure which; I can’t figure out what state of mind she’s in.

“You were the one who told me this isn’t just a fling to you anymore. You were the one who started this whole ‘serious’ thing between us, not me. I fell for you, sure, but I never put any kind of pressure on you to be more than just…whatever the hell we were to begin with.”

I bristle. I’m getting upset, but not because she’s pissing me off. I’m getting upset because she’s right. I was the one to bring up how serious things were getting between us.

“I didn’t think we went from fucking around to being open about each other and having this crazy trust thing going in one leap. I mean, hell, doesn’t it take years to trust someone?”

“Yeah, sure,” Jenna agrees. “But it doesn’t take years to be honest with each other.”

She’s right; I know that. But it’s not that simple.

Fuck, none of it is.

“I don’t know why you’re so pissed off with me,” I say. “I know I lied to you or hid shit from you, or whatever. But everyone makes mistakes and I’m telling you, I’m sorry.”

Jenna sighs. “I know.”

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