Page 9 of One Wild Night
She turned around and glared at him. “I don’t remember the song, Scott. Please stop pesteringme.”
“Pestering?” he laughed. “Babydoll,come on.” That was what he used to call her when they were together because she’d reminded him of one of Margo’s dolls she used to play with when she was younger. Petite, beautiful, and delicate with creamy, smooth skin which always glistened in the sun. “I haven’t seen you in all of six years, and you think I’m pestering you? Look how nice I’ve been,too.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Scott, considering what happened at our last meeting, I wonder what you could have expected,” she retorted with coldsarcasm.
“God, what happened?” He clutched his chest. “It sounds serious. Baby, was I drunk? You know better than to talk to me when I’ve had a few.” He was trying, really going all out to feign innocence, but she wasn’t buying it. He was teasing her, anyway, still trying to get her to loosenup.
“I’m not going to even answer that. If you think me breaking up with you is something to joke about, then that’s says everything.” The critical tone in her voice wasevident.
Okay maybe joking about it wasn’t the best thing. “I don’t think it was ajoke.”
“You could certainly fool me.” She met him with accusingeyes.
“I just want you to talk to me. Without the scowl.” He chuckled as she scowled even more. “I missedyou.”
She turned back to the window, but he did see the slight hint of pink flush her cheeks on hearing hiswords.
“Did you missme?”
“No.” She bit the inside of her lip and tossed her hair over her shoulder casually as if she really didn’t care atall.
“Ouch. Don’t lie. I missed our Saturday walks in the park, and date nights when you’d make me a Mexican feast if we didn’t go out. I miss you laughing anytime someone said the word ‘rat.’Hey, remember that time when you nearly died laughing when you saw a host of rats escaping from a sciencelab?”
“Not so much.” Her dark brows slanted in afrown.
This was fruitless. He was going in for the general everyday stuff, but she wasn’t budging. What he missed most about her was how she made him feel. He could be comfortable around her, and he never had to try to impress her. He also missed her body. To annoy her, he rested his hand on her thigh and she smacked him, swatting himaway.
“Abi, come on.” He smiled and playfully leaned in to kiss her when he stopped at another trafficlight.
Now she slapped him in his face. “What is wrong withyou?”
“Ouch! Damn, I just wanted a kiss,” he said, poking her in the waist where she wasticklish.
She tried not to laugh and scowled at himagain.
“You are soweird.”
“Okay, so would you rather we sit in silence for the whole journey?” The journey would have taken up to ten hours, depending on traffic. Scott wasn’t sure if he could stand it, especially since he was used to her being bubbly and a lot livelier thanthis.
“Did you have something else you needed to talk about?” Her tone was very businesslike. It was the kind of tone you’d expect to hear when you called a customer servicesdepartment.
“How are you?” He kept his gaze onher.
He knew she’d made a lot of changes to her life with her move to New York. Margo had told him that Abi was doing really well with her work in advertising. It didn’t surprise him because she was always good at whatever she put her mindto.
“I’m fine. Really good.You?”
Well, at least sheasked.
“Good. I’m good. Andwork?”
“Fantastic. Going to New York was the best thing I everdid.”
There was undoubtedly a double-edged meaning to that answer. He was certain she included leaving him in that mix too.H
e couldn’t blame her. Scott was an asshole. Most of the guys on the team were; being on the team seemed to come with the personality. He should have never been with a sweet girl like Abi, but it was her sweetness that drove him to her in the first place -- like a damn predator to prey. But he wasn’t the kind of guy who should have had agirlfriend.
Scott had wanted to cheat on her so many times that he’d lost count. For a majority of the time they were together, he saw her as a hindrance more than his girlfriend. As much as he’d wanted to cheat, though, he could never bring himself to do it. Instead, he treated her like she was some kind of burden on him -- a damn drag that stopped him from having sex with the host of women who congregated to worshiphim.
