Page 73 of The Rebound
He doesn’t hear me, his hands moving around my back, reaching for the clasp of my bra. I sit up before he can get to it, breaking his hold as he blinks, trying to focus on me. “What’s wrong?”
Nothing. Everything.
Just the sight of him makes me want to pull him closer again. His lips swollen, the expression on his face so adorably confused. But I don’t. I can’t. Not with Beth hung up on him. Not when she’s been so nice to me. Even if there’s nothing between them, Ican’t. And I open my mouth to explain just that when I remember what I promised.
That I wouldn’t share her secret.
“Abby?”
“I can’t do this.”
“Are you okay?” His brow creases in concern and he drops his arms completely away from me, as though trying to give me space. “I’m sorry. We can just—”
“No,” I interrupt. “I meanwecan’t do this. This is a mistake.”
“I don’t… a mistake?” His frown deepens as my words register. “Are you serious?”
I don’t answer, desperately trying to think of the right thing to say.
“You’re serious. You—” He breaks off, lips pressed into a thin line. “Could you move?”
I hadn’t realized I was still clutching him to me. I immediately let go and start climbing off, only for Luke to grunt when my knee lands somewhere it really, really shouldn’t have.
“I’m sorry,” I gasp. “I’m sorry. Are you okay?”
“No,” he chokes out.
“Oh my God. Let me—”
“Could you just get off me?”
“Right. Right. I’m sorry.” I scramble over to my side of the car and think briefly about continuing straight through the door and disappearing into the fields never to be seen again but settle for keeping as far away from him as I can. I’m pretty sure it’s what he wants anyway going by how he is resolutely not looking at me at all, but instead, turned toward the opposite window as he covers himself with one hand.
My body feels cold without him against me, my breath erratic no matter how much I try to steady it.
Eventually, he turns back around. “You’re the one who started—”
“I know.”
His jaw is tight. “Could you just tell me… are you…”
He thinks I’m a tease. Worse. He thinks I’m playing with him, deliberately. He thinks I’m a liar. First Tyler and now this.
“It was a mistake,” I say, the words a whisper as I think of Beth. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that.”
“The kiss or the injury?”
“Both.”
Something almost like hurt flashes flickers in his eyes and for a second I see it, the boy I once knew. The little kid on the playground. But it’s blink and you’ll miss it, vanishing as quickly as it came.
He doesn’t say anything for a long moment and then he nods, turning the ignition, and I know I need to say something, to make this right but I don’t know how to without betraying Beth.
He doesn’t speak to me again. He doesn’t even look at me and the next thirty minutes are driven in utter, miserable silence as he brings me home.
16
The whole thing is a mess and over the next few weeks all the progress I made with Luke goes right back to zero as he starts avoiding me again. It’s like our happy day at the beach never happened, and as Rory goes and another round of job rejections come in, April turns to May and it’s like nothing’s changed at all.
