She turns on her heel, swishing that glorious ass that calls for my attention on her way to the bedroom. I have to literally shake my head to snap out of my daze, and I stagger like I’m drunk on the way out the door, pulling my T-shirt back on as I go. Everything feels off balance, yet exactly right, but I have no idea why.
When I get outside, Dale is propped up on my car that I left in the driveway. His silver Rolls-Royce Phantom is parked beside my black Audi R8 Spyder.
“You can wipe that dopey look off your face if you don’t want me gagging in your car,” Dale says with an amused grin.
I shake my head again, still trying to get my head around what’s wrong with me. All she did was offer to pack my shit. It shouldn’t have triggered anything this weird.
He gets in on the passenger side while I climb in on the driver’s side, my mind still fuzzy. I go through the motions of cranking the car and pulling out onto the road, driving without focus.
“Dane said you’re leaving for New York tomorrow. Taking Tria with you?”
“Yeah,” I mumble, still neither here nor there.
He laughs as though something is funny. “I know that look.”
“What look?” I ask, though it’s merely a reflex. No true coherent thought is forming right now. Did I drink vodka instead of water earlier? No. It was water. Why the fuck do I feel drunk?
“It’s called a sucker punch,” he says randomly.
“A what?” I hate it when people try to confuse me.
“It’s when your life makes perfect sense one day, then suddenly you’re knocked on your ass. Everything you thought you knew becomes irrelevant and nothing makes a damn bit of sense anymore because your life is uprooted and shifted on its axis. A sucker punch. Some people call it love.”
If this is a sucker punch, I’d hate to know what a knockout feels like. Damn her.
“I wouldn’t say love,” I grumble, shifting in my seat uncomfortably and earning another mocking snicker from the jerk. “We haven’t even been on a real date yet.”
“Have to say, Kode, never thought you’d take the time to realize Tria had a thing for you, considering you were too wrapped up in Rain.”
That has me swivel my head so fast that I almost run off the road.
“Christ!” Dale gasps, clutching the door and seat like he’s scared shitless. I quickly regain control as he relaxes a little.
“What the hell does that mean?” I ask, trying to pay attention to the road. Maybe he should be driving.
“I mean you always looked at Rai—”
“Not the part about Rain,” I interrupt, impatient and annoyed. “I meant about realizing Tria had a thing for me. She fucking hated my guts—like most people.”
He laughs that condescending laugh he has, and I give him a sideways glare, half watching the road while silently prompting him to elaborate.
“Tria was into you when we were kids. You just got too stuck on Rain to see it. You always griped about everyone looking around you to see Dane, but you never noticed Tria looking around Dane to see you. How else do you think you could have gotten her after all the shit you’ve done to her in the past? That girl has had a thing for you that probably had her questioning her sanity. I know I always wondered why she was into you.”
My stomach clenches as my mind tries to pull forth any memory that would backup his ridiculous theory. But I can’t think of anything, because I’m a blind, stupid jackass.
“But I didn’t see her because I was too busy looking around her to see Rain,” I grumble, losing the euphoric high I had only moments ago.
“It’s a bitch, isn’t it?”
“What? Irony? The fact that I did to her what I hated to have done to me?”
Yeah, it’s a bitch.
“Well, yeah, but I meant hindsight. Could have saved everyone a lot of trouble if you had just realized which Noles sister was really meant for you instead of chasing the wrong one all these years.”
His words are like a knife twisting in my gut. For the first time since everyone found out about what I did to Rain and Dane, I feel a sickening amount of regret. Bile rises in my throat when I see things from a whole new perspective. Dane should
have hit me harder. He held back when he came at me. I sure as hell wouldn’t have.