Her words were sweet. Her tone was not.
“Babe, you led with snapping out you’d have this covered if you could move those lug nuts. You didn’t even fuckin’ say hello. How, exactly, would you have liked me to respond to that, seein’ as you haven’t so much as looked at me in a long fuckin’ time.”
She threw out her hands in a bullshit gesture of apology. “Sorry, Shy, so, so sorry. I mean, it isn’t like I was on my way to do something when I got a stupid flat then I couldn’t move the stupid lug nuts and I tried for, like”—she leaned in—“ever. So when you rolled up to help out, instead of being understandably frustrated, I should have put the smile on and given you the love. I get that, you hauled yourself out here to help out and me being pissed off that my day is totally screwed, my hands are dirty, my jeans are dirty, and I have to go home and change isn’t your problem. I shouldn’t make it that way.”
Fuck, she had a point.
“Tabby—” he started, but she cut him off.
“And the blowjob crack was out of line. I apologize for that too.”
“Tab—”
“As was the friend thing and, well…everything. Now, are we good?”
There it was.
His shot.
And he was going to take it.
He took a step toward her and said quietly, “We’re good, babe, but since your day is screwed anyway, and we’re out in the middle of nowhere, we should take this time to talk.”
When he moved toward her, she held her ground. After he made his suggestion, she leaned slightly back.
“About what?” she asked.
“I got the feeling you’re avoiding me.”
“I’m not,” she stated, too quickly.
“I haven’t spoken to you in over a year,” he pointed out.
“We were never really close, Shy,” she replied.
Shy tried a different tactic. “Used to see you all the time, Tab. Now I never see you.”
“I’m busy.”
“You were busy before and I still saw you.”
“Now I’m busy…er.”
He shook his head and moved closer. She stood her ground but he saw her body go stiff. He ignored that and continued, “You’re avoiding me and have been since that shit went down a while back.”
“What shit?” she asked, and she was so obviously attempting to pull the wool, he almost smiled because it was fucking cute.
Damn.
“You know what shit,” he replied.
“Shy—” she began, moving back, but he caught her by her upper arm and she went still again.
He leaned down so their faces were close.
Jesus, she had a fantastic mouth.
“It was harsh, babe, way harsh, too harsh. I see that now, but it’s been over a year and you’re still freezing me out. This shit can’t go on, Tabby. We’re family.”
He saw that fantastic mouth of hers twist in a way that made his gut do the same before she whispered, “We’re not family.”
“We’re both Chaos,” he reminded her.
“We’re not family,” she repeated.
“Babe—”
She twisted her arm out of his hold but didn’t move away when she spoke.
“My family talked to me about the shit that went down with that guy after it happened years ago, Shy. Ty-Ty, Dad, Rush were there for me. I screwed up, things with Mom were bad, she was always all over me even when I didn’t do anything wrong. I was sixteen and stupid so, I thought, what the heck? If I was going to be in trouble anyway, I might as well do something to be in trouble for, and I was with a guy who was way too old for me. He tried it on with me, it flipped me out, and when I said no, he wasn’t cool. He hit me, hurt me, and I called Tyra to help me out. She called you to take her back. And, well, you were there. You know the rest.”
“Tab—” Shy tried again, now trying to cut in because he could tell going over the past was not somewhere she wanted to be but Tabby kept talking.
“When they confronted me about it, it wasn’t comfortable but it was honest and gentle and what I needed. Sheila took me aside and she asked me and listened to me when I had to let go of shit about Mom. Arlo took me out for a hot dog and a discussion on how to spot a good guy and when to know when a guy’s a jerk. And all of them had my back for years after that went down to make sure nothing like that went down again. It was overboard, overprotective, and annoying but at least it was loving.” She shook her head. “But you…you made assumptions. You showed you decided exactly the kind of girl I was that night when that guy took his hand to me without knowing one single thing about me. I wasn’t what you thought, Shy. I didn’t need your shit and I also didn’t deserve it. Family doesn’t make judgments. They talk. They support. You made a judgment. You acted on that judgment. You doing it hurt me so that means you are not my family.”
After gutting him, she turned on her boot, stomped to her car, folded her curvy, little body in and then she was off, leaving Shy standing at the side of the road.
*
Four months later…