Her jaw dropped. “What does Josh have to do with this?”
Everything. Thinking of her with Josh was the reason he wasn’t sleeping. “All I’m saying is that if you can’t look a guy in the eyes when he’s wearing a towel, you’re not ready to have a night of emotionless sex.”
“It won’t be emotionless. I like Josh.”
Tyler resisted the urge to punch a hole through the wall. “He is not the right guy for you.”
“How do you know? Unlike you, I don’t have a type.”
“I don’t have a type, either.”
“Yes, you do. Why are we talking about this? I came up here to talk about the awards. You should put th
ose crystal globes on display, Tyler. You won them!”
“I know I won them. I don’t need to look at the stupid things every day to know I won them.”
“But you’re making it hard for Jess to learn to talk about things that hurt, because you don’t do it yourself. You’re teaching her to keep things bottled up, and that’s not good.”
Knocked off balance, Tyler stared at her. “Am I missing something here? What does me keeping those awards hidden away have to do with Jess?” He leaned against the door frame and saw her take a step backward. He remembered a time when they’d been comfortable with each other, but that time was long gone. It was like trying to dance when he didn’t know the steps. “Brenna?”
“You need to encourage her to talk to you.”
“Generally or about something specific? A few clues would help.”
“There are plenty of clues, Tyler.” She was still staring at the wall, and he felt a rush of frustration.
“Damn it, Bren, would you look at me when we’re talking?”
“All I’m saying is that you need to foster an atmosphere of open communication, that’s all.”
Tyler gave a disbelieving laugh. “That sounds like something straight out of a self-help manual. And it loses impact coming from someone currently staring at the wall.”
Color streaked down her cheeks. “I’m trying to help.” She snapped the words, and he looked at her mouth, wondering how it had suddenly got so hard to be around her and not touch her.
“Open communication. I guess I can give that a try. How about we have a little open communication here, too, and you tell me the real reason you’re dating Josh.”
“Are you going to stop hiding those balls?”
Tyler tried not to smile and failed. “Anyone else would have thought twice before phrasing a question that particular way, but not you. This is why you’re not ready for emotionless sex.”
“Oh, stop it! For five minutes of your life you could stop thinking about sex.” She sent him a furious look. “And put some clothes on! There’s three feet of snow outside. You shouldn’t be walking around naked.”
He opened his mouth to point out that so far the snow hadn’t entered his bedroom, but she’d walked off.
* * *
THE EVENING’S CONVERSATION stayed with him and the next morning, he decided to drop Jess at school himself instead of letting her take the bus.
She stared moodily ahead, not talking to him.
About at his limit with moods and unwilling to play twenty questions, Tyler took the direct approach. “What’s up with you?”
“You were mean to Brenna!”
Genuinely astonished, Tyler glanced at her. “Mean? I’m never mean to Brenna.”
“You were horrid. She put the crystal globe out on the shelf because she was so proud of you, and you gave her one of your cold looks.”