Boone kept his head forward, though I noticed his eyes drift off the road toward the numerous trampled trails animals had made through the trees.
“Don’t think I won’t follow you in there too.” I gave the engine one more rev. “Come on. Talk to me. Say something. I know you’d prefer to pretend like nothing happened and you didn’t just have to drag your sister out of the bachelor party she was scheduled to strip at and that Ford McBride isn’t still an immature, petty asshole whose goal in life seems to be to make yours as unbearable as possible, but I know you feel something.” I hung my arm out of the window, glancing at him. His face was flat, his eyes matching. “I know you feel lots of somethings. Name one. Any one. Just give me something, for crap’s sake.”
“Frustrated,” he growled. His jaw returned to its former position—clenched so tight, it made the sinews running down his neck look as if they were going to pop through the skin.
“Frustrated, okay, yeah, sure, I can understand that.” I nodded and gave the car a little more gas. He was really trekking. “I’d feel the same way if something like that happened to me.”
“I’m not frustrated with them. I’m frustrated with you.” He glanced at me from the corners of his eyes.
“With me? Why are you frustrated with me? I’m not the one who hired your little sister as the main attraction at Ford McBride’s bachelor party.” I edged the Chrysler closer to him. He wanted space? I wasn’t going to give it to him.
“I’m frustrated because I told you I wanted to be alone, and here you are, stalking me down some dark back road in your daddy’s car. I’m frustrated because you’re pretending to care when all you care about is me showing up and standing by your side at the right time for your family to see you’re not some poor, single, just-got-dumped woman. But mostly I’m frustrated because I’m not so sure you picked me to pay ten grand based on your limited options that night, and it had more to do with you wanting to piss off your family and everyone else all over again. I’m frustrated because I feel like a damn puppet in your master scheme of waving your middle finger in your family’s face.”
I hadn’t realized I’d come to a stop until Boone had to shout his last words back at me. I had to shake my head to clear it enough to make sure that when I reapplied pressure to the gas pedal, it didn’t ram all the way to the floorboard. Still, the car jumped forward faster than I’d intended. Boone shot to the side of the road, throwing me a look like I’d been trying to hit him.
“If I wanted to run you over, I would have done it years ago,” I snapped, making sure the car was in park before I threw open the door and burst out. “I can’t believe you’d say that to me. Any of that!” I flailed my arms at him as I stomped toward him.
Boone took a few steps back, not as though he was afraid of me, but more like he wanted to keep his distance.
“Me choosing you back then had nothing to do with wanting to piss off or please my family. It had nothing to do with them at all. And me choosing you this time definitely didn’t have anything to do with that either.”
Boone made a face. “Forgive me if I’m not convinced. I’m a little jaded from the two years we spent dating and how you spent that whole time making sure you were holding my hand when Daddy walked into the room, or we were making out when your mommy got home from her rotary club brunch. You weren’t content unless we were wrapped around each other whenever anyone from your inner circle was close by. I was too young and dumb to see it then, but I see it now. Find someone else to be your puppet. I’ve done my time.”
It was a good thing he’d put so much distance between us, because he’d just earned himself a slap on that other cheek of his. “How dare you, Boone Cavanaugh. How dare you say I was using you when I went through hell that entire time we were together.”