Page 129 of Driftwood Daffodil 2

“Why?”

“Because of Cindy Fassbender.”

What?

I stopped with my hand in my locker and looked his way. “I fail to see what Cindy has to do with any of this?”

“When Simon cheated on you, what did you do?”

“I was far too inebriated to remember anything I did.” I vaguely recollected strobe lights and a watermelon.

“But you weren’t mad at him.”

That was his argument? “Of course I was.”

“Then why did you stay at the party?”

“Well, because…”Huh? Why did I stay?

“You were so pissed at Gio that you couldn’t wait to get away from him. And he didn’t even touch her.”

“Hey!” I spun around and pointed. “He shoved her on the ground.”

That required touching.

The arch in Memphis’s brow deepened. “And that angers you?”

“Yes it angers me. He shouldn’t have…” I stopped cold as a grin spread across Memphis’s face.

Damnit.

“Okay so made I was mad. That doesn’t prove anything.”

“It proves everything.”

No it didn’t. I was always mad at Gio. He was an ass.

“This is what you do Nova. You push people away before they can get close to you.”

There was some flawed logic. “You’re close to me.”

“I also knew you before your life went to shit. Besides, we know way too much about each other to not be close.”

That was true. I did know way too much about Memphis. Like how he swallowed the first tooth that he lost, that sitting cross legged made him dizzy, and that his first blowjob was in ninth grade with a guy named Patrick who coughed so hard sperm came out of his nose. But it didn’t prove anything.

“I’m close to other people.”

“Name one.” Memphis challenged then quickly clarified, “That you’re not related to.”

Why did he have to be difficult?

I took a second to go through all the people in my life before answering. “Mr. Garibaldi.”

His face dropped. “Plotting war against the local raccoon population with your neighbor does not count as close.”

“Clearly you’ve never been to war.” Things got intimate when planning an attack.

“Nova?”

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