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He doesn’t mean ‘us.’

“I don’t know what you’re saying,” she said huffily.

He stepped forward, leaning over her. “I mean that I’m in charge, Little girl. And you do what I say. Not the other way around.”

“Is this because I climbed you like a tree this morning?” she whispered.

Little girl?

She wasn’t a Little. At least . . . that’s what she told herself.

Only, she was starting to believe that less and less.

Idiot.

The way she’d acted around him earlier this morning . . . yeah, it had been embarrassing. It had also shown her how much she actually trusted him. Because even though she couldn’t help being zombie-like, she’d also never tried to climb her father like a tree.

Just Jenner.

And now Tobias.

And she wasn’t going to read too much into that. Because she didn’t really have the headspace for it right now.

“Nope.”

Again with the nope. She huffed out a breath. “Are you going to elaborate?”

“This isn’t due to anything you did this morning. But you don’t get to just tell me where we’re going. You ask. Where do you want to go?”

“You’re just going to say no.” Her shoulders slumped. “It’s fine. Let’s just go down and get coffee or something.”

Shit.

Tobias immediately felt like an asshole.

It wasn’t that he wanted to tell her no. He didn’t want to disappoint her. But he also couldn’t commit to taking her somewhere when he didn’t know where they were supposed to be going.

Stepping further into the room, he let the door shut behind him and leaned back against it.

Then he watched her for a moment. She looked so . . . dejected.

“What’s going on, Immy?”

“Nothing.”

“Immy,” he said in a low, warning voice. “Think we’re beyond lies, aren’t we?”

She turned to look at him and there was such sadness in those big blue eyes that it killed him.

“What’s going on, sweetness?” he asked gently.

“I don’t know . . . everything just feels weird. Like I have no idea what’s going on. Everyone else has something they need to do, except me.”

What did she mean? “Aren’t you here to help Jenner?”

“With what?” she cried, throwing her arms up into the air. “Jenner isn’t replying to my messages. Sampson literally just told me to stay here because they don’t need me. I can’t get hold of Abe. Isaiah said he’s barely seen him and I’m so worried about him. What am I doing here?”

“You want to go home?” he asked her immediately.