Page 76 of Suits and Spark Plugs

“You’re wrong. Steadyisall that matters. I can’t hang my future on a maybe.”

He turned back to me, amber eyes drilling down into hazel. “Did Blaine know about this?”

“Of course not.” My tone was sharper than I’d meant for it to be.

“Why is it crazy for me to assume your boyfriend would know about this?”

“I just told you, it’s mine. I don’t share it.”

“Even with your boyfriend?” he pressed.

“With no one.”

“Yet here I am.”

My breathing felt like it had paused. “I kind of wish you weren’t.” My lips were tight, and my nostrils flared as I tried to get my lungs working again.

“Where’d you get the money?”

“What?” The question threw me even more off balance.

“Where did you get the money to pay off your bill at the shop?”

I shook my head, trying to reboot my brain, which felt like it was stuffed with cotton candy at the moment. “Oh, yeah, my dad gave me some money for school and I took it out of there.”

“I hate for you to use your school money to pay me when we had a perfectly good arrangement.”

“I think it’s probably best if we just settle the account and, you know, move along. I’ve made things weird between us, and...” His expression was neutral, but I noticed some color on his cheeks that wasn’t usually there, and an alertness in the way he was holding himself. “So, anyhow.” I swallowed hard. “I hope that at some point you’ll be able to forgive me, because I really am sorry, but for now I think we’d probably be better off going back to casual acquaintances.”

“That’s it, huh?”

“I guess. I don’t know what else to do. We can’t go back and undo everything.”

“Hmm.”

He took another step closer to where I was standing near my bed. His eyes chased over my face, watching my expressions and most likely reading me like an open book. I sucked in my lips and chewed on them for a moment while my mind spun, waiting for him to say what it was he’d come here to say.

The silence spun out, which allowed my mind to fret. What shouldIsay? I was pretty sure I’d already apologized, but had I done a good job of it? Maybe I could get the ball rolling and he’d get out of here quickly if I apologized again. The most important thing was that he never know how I had come to feel about him.

I dove right in, the silence eating at me. “I’m truly sorry, Connor. I thought Levi was going to shoot you. I reacted without thinking. I caused you a lot of embarrassment and frustration, and I don’t blame you for wanting nothing to do with me anymore.”

“Why do you think I don’t want anything to do with you anymore?”

At this my eyes grew large. “It’s been almost a week, and nothing. You haven’t been in the diner, or run into me around town, or tried to talk to me at all. I left you a note at the shop, and still you didn’t bother to even shoot me a text.”

His eyes softened. “I’ll probably never forget how you looked bursting through that door swinging a tire iron above your head, curls flying, with a battle cry screaming out of you.” His eyes crinkled and his teeth flashed.

I stared at him, my mouth falling open. “You think this is funny? I try to save your life, and you think it’s funny? I almost get assault charges filed on me, and become the hot gossip topic of the year, and you think it’s so funny that you give me the silent treatment for days?” His amusement faded as my eyes shot daggers at him. Gone was the numbness and worry. Now I was angry. While I’d been agonizing over my part in everything and mourning my feelings for him, he’d been laughing about it behind my back. “I can’t, I don’t, I...” Hot, furious words all crowded in on each other, begging to release.

As I spoke, his expression became completely serious. “Actually, Liv, I’ve been trying to laugh about it because if I don’t see the humor in it, then I feel like I’m going to lose my mind.”

My mouth clamped shut and my eyes narrowed. “What do you mean?”

“I mean,” he said as he took that last step toward me, “that I have never been so terrified and upset in my entire life. Yes, it’s a little bit funny to think of you charging in the door, all five feet of you ready to do battle. Until I think of Levi, twice your size, lifting you in the air and shoving you away, and I just...” He bit off the flow of words and ran his hands roughly through his hair. It looked like flames coming out of the top of his head, and I was fascinated by the colors happening in his eyes and on his skin as he grew more agitated. “I wanted to kill him. Then I wanted to beat some sense into you. What on earth were you thinking?”

“I wasn’t thinking about anything other than saving you,” I whispered. I tried to take a step back to put distance between us, but my legs bumped up against my mattress.

He acted like he hadn’t heard. “So, I stayed away from you for a few days. I was afraid of what would come out of my mouth if I did see you. Then I got back to my shop to find a note from you saying the friendship was over.”

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