“Pidge?” Parker asked.
“It’s uh … short for Pigeon. It’s just a nickname, I don’t even know where he came up with it,” I said. It was the first time I’d felt awkward about the name Travis had bestowed on me the night we met.
“You’re going to have to fill me in when you find out. Sounds like a good story,” Parker smiled. “Night, Abby.”
“Don’t you mean good morning?” I said, watching him trot down the stairs.
“That too,” he called back with a sweet smile.
Travis slammed the door, and I had to jerk my head back before it caught me in the face. “What?” I snapped.
Travis shook his head and walked to his bedroom. I followed him, and then hopped on one foot to pull off my heel. “He’s nice, Trav.”
He sighed and walked over to me. “You’re gonna hurt yourself,” he said, hooking his arm around my waist with one hand, and pulling off my heels with the other. He tossed them into the closet, and then pulled off his shirt, making his way to the bed.
I unzipped my dress and shimmied it over my hips, kicking it into the corner. I yanked a T-shirt over my head and then unsnapped my bra, pulling it through the sleeve of my shirt. When I wrapped my hair into a bun on top of my head, I noticed him staring.
“I’m sure there’s nothing I have that you haven’t seen before,” I said, rolling my eyes. I slid under the covers and settled against my pillow, curling into a ball. He unbuckled his belt and pulled his jeans down, stepping out of them.
I waited while he stood quietly for a moment. I had my back to him, so I wondered what he was doing, standing beside the bed in silence. The bed concaved when he finally crawled onto the mattress beside me, and I stiffened when his hand rested on my hip.
“I missed a fight tonight,” he said. “Adam called. I didn’t go.”
“Why?” I said, turning to face him.
“I wanted to make sure you got home.”
I wrinkled my nose. “You didn’t have to babysit me.”
He traced the length of my arm with his finger, sending shivers up my spine. “I know. I guess I still feel bad about the other night.”
“I told you I didn’t care.”
He sat up on his elbow, a dubious frown on his face. “Is that why you slept on the recliner? Because you didn’t care?”
“I couldn’t fall asleep after your … friends left.”
“You slept just fine in the recliner. Why couldn’t you sleep with me?”
“You mean next to a guy who still smelled like the pair of barflies he had just sent home? I don’t know! How selfish of me!”
Travis winced. “I said I was sorry.”
“And I said I didn’t care. Good night,” I said, turning over.
Several moments of silence passed. He slid his hand across the top of my pillow, resting his hand on mine. He caressed the delicate pieces of skin between my fingers, and then he pressed his lips against my hair. “As worried as I was that you’d never speak to me again … I think it’s worse that you’re indifferent.”
My eyes closed. “What do you want from me, Travis? You don’t want me to be upset about what you did, but you want me to care. You tell America that you don’t want to date me, but you get so pissed off when I say the same thing, that you storm out and get ridiculously drunk. You don’t make any sense.”
“Is that why you said those things to America? Because I said I wouldn’t date you?”
My teeth clenched. He had just insinuated that I was playing games with him. I formed the most direct answer I could think of. “No, I meant what I said. I just didn’t mean it as an insult.”
“I just said that because,” he scratched his short hair nervously, “I don’t want to ruin anything. I wouldn’t even know how to go about being who you deserve. I was just trying to get it worked out in my head.”
“Whatever that means. I have to get some sleep. I have a date tonight.”
“With Parker?” he asked, anger seeping through his tone.