Page 34 of Fierce-Matt

She didn’t believe for one minute it bothered him that much.

He smiled this time. “I wouldn’t say that. Let’s say the past few days I’ve had my ass handed to me.”

“Oh, bad court days?”

“No,” he said. “Bad parent days.”

She put her tongue between her teeth to stop from giggling. “Did you get grounded for not playing nice in the office?”

He laughed. “See. Now you’re making a joke at my expense.”

Her partial grin dropped. He was right. “Sorry. That was wrong of me.”

“No,” he said. “It wasn’t. It just proved it’s hard not to cross that line. As a kid it’s even harder when you don’t know the line you’re even crossing. Or you’re doing it to get attention because you like someone more than they might like you.”

Her jaw dropped as he said that. They’d gotten outside and no one was around to hear it.

No one that knew her or Matt.

“What?”

“You heard me. I thought you were cute. It’s not unheard of to have a crush on your sister’s best friend.”

“That’s why you did it?” she asked. Talk about getting a kick to the ass.

“I’m being honest. I enjoyed making people laugh. I had fun. I targeted you more than the rest and for that I’m sorry. But that is my reason.”

Could it have been that all along?

She wasn’t buying it.

“I don’t know. It sounds off to me.”

“It’s the truth. I’ve never lied to you. You want to trust me, so I’m being honest. I’m not sure what more I can do.”

“I don’t know why you’re trying so hard,” she said.

“Because it matters,” he said. “And maybe too many things in my life that mattered I threw away.”

He turned and walked to his car.

“Wait,” she said going after him. “You know how to make someone feel like shit.”

“Exactly what I didn’t want to do. You said I did that enough when you were a kid.”

“This is different. This is more like guilt.”

“I know that feeling well,” he said. He had his hands in his pockets, his shoulders not as straight as they normally were.

She didn’t know why she was doing this. Why was she setting herself up for frustration?

“How about dinner? We can talk more about it. I’m not promising anything else.”

He stood up to his full height. “I’d like that.”

She pointed her finger. “That smirk right there makes me think you won. Or you think you won.”

He reached for her finger and held it in his. Softly. Gently. Tenderly.