“I put my rep on the line to ensure it.” His voice was quiet. Too quiet for my liking. As if he’d risked more than just his reputation to guarantee Mia’s safety.
“Why would you do that?”
His jaw worked as he pushed a hand through his dense dark hair. “Carly,” he said simply.
“Carly.” I tipped my head against the headrest and stared at the ceiling of the truck. “She’s not for you.”
“I know that.” He slammed the side of his hand against the steering wheel. “You think I don’t know that?”
The banked rage behind his question fed my own and I slammed my fist against the dashboard, pleased to see a spiderweb crack form beneath my hand.
“You’re going to pay for that,” he said.
I shrugged. “Worth it.”
“You have the money.”
“You’re one to talk.”
We fell into silence. It wasn’t companionable, but it wasn’t as fraught as it had been until I’d released some of my frustration on his dashboard. “If she doesn’t fight—” I began.
“You don’t want to test them.”
Shutting my eyes, I hissed out a breath. No matter what I agreed to or didn’t agree to, Mia was very much her own woman. No one made decisions for her, least of all me. “She may say no.”
“Then you find the way to make her say yes.”
11
Mia
I went to work that day as if everything was normal. As if I hadn’t cracked in two and glued the seams back together. Or better yet, as if Tray hadn’t fused me back together until the glue set. How long it would hold this time before it gave way again was something I didn’t want to think about.
Tray tiptoed around me, his worry evident in every line of his face. But he didn’t question if I was okay to go to work. Didn’t question me at all. I was evasive about our plans for that night, wanting to make sure he’d be home for our trip to the fancy hotel I’d booked the night before. I had a surprise, I told him, and he viewed that statement with more trepidation than interest.
All things considered, I really couldn’t blame him.
He followed that up with his own announcement that we needed to talk tonight, that it was important. Since I figured it likely related to my needing a double dose of therapy ASAP, I swallowed my usual complaints and nodded.
I seriously doubted therapy could help patch me up, but I didn’t have many options left.
Or…none.
When I got back from my shift at Vinnie’s, I found the apartment empty. Tray had left a note on the fridge.
At the gym with a client. Back as soon as I can.
Carly didn’t appear to be around either, but I figured she probably had to work tonight. Or maybe she’d had a date with her salad dude. He might be a nice guy. Either way, I wasn’t going to hassle her about it again. I wanted her to have a social life and besides, a guy from the Salad Hut was definitely the lesser of two evils when compared to Costas.
Who hadn’t been such a dick last night—or this morning—but still.
Since I was alone, I decided to take a quick shower and pack a bag for that night’s hotel sojourn. If Tray even wanted to go. He might tell me that now really wasn’t the time for romance. Of course he was right. But I’d booked the damn hotel yesterday before I’d lost my mind.
Sometimes you couldn’t schedule breakdowns. It sucked, but that was life.
I debated packing the lone teddy I had buried in the bottom of my underwear drawer, finally deciding to hide it in my bag under the boy shorts and tank I usually wore to bed. We’d see if it was a teddy night. It might just be a stay-fully-dressed-and-watch-TV-on-top-of-the-covers deal. I didn’t really relish paying for a hotel room to do that when we could do it at home for free, but I was trying to go with the flow.
This night of supposed romance was for Tray anyway. He could set the tone.