“Oh. Was she at the spa?”
“No. She’s actually working for Gavin. She was at the mansion today.”
“Yeah?” Elliot leans against the doorframe. “Was she in the same crowd as that other guy? What was his name again?”
My mouth dries. Is this my chance to discuss Dennis? After all, Elliot is bringing him up. “Dennis? We used to hang out together, so yeah, she knows him too.” I tap my skin a few times. “You don’t like Dennis, do you?”
“No,” he answers slowly. “Not really a fan.”
Was Dennis right then? Did Elliot talk to Gavin to create problems for my ex? I didn’t really think it was possible at first, but now I’ve seen how close they are. Gavin would take Elliot’s suggestion seriously. “Why not?”
“Do you want me to be a fan?”
The abrupt question gives me a pause. “No,” I answer honestly. “But I’m curious why you don’t like him.” I reach for the jar cap.
“He’s a liar.”
My hand jerks and the cap drops, rolling on the tiled floor. It stops at the tip of Elliot’s left foot, and he bends down to pick it up. I stare at Elliot. Does he somehow know everything about Dennis—how his father and mine were tangled in a bloody, fatal mess and more?
He approaches until we’re only hairsbreadth away from each other. “Here.”
I wrap my hand around the piece of pale pink plastic. “Thank you.” My voice is barely audible. I clear my throat. “Why do you say he’s a liar?”
“He lied about knowing you.”
Turning away, I concentrate on screwing the cap on the jar. “But he could’ve been too stunned to gather himself. Like I said, we don’t have a good past.”
“Why are you making excuses for him?” Elliot rests his big palm against the edge of the vanity. “I thought you weren’t crazy about him yourself.”
“I’m not…but that doesn’t mean I want to hurt him. Whatever happened between us shouldn’t still affect him. It was two years ago, anyway.”
“What did happen?”
“Nothing that interesting.”
“Belle.” Cold authority puts steel behind that one word, and I can’t ignore the command in the tone no matter how much I wish I could.
I tug at the towel around my hair. “It’s really stupid and boring. Do you want to hear it right now?”
“You know I do.”
Damn, damn, damn. I don’t want to talk about it. The nasty stuff I was able to talk about after the mess of a dinner was due to my heightened emotional state. This is different.
At the same time, if I don’t…Elliot will probably take action. And Dennis’s threat to talk to Nonny was genuine enough. Frankly, I don’t know what he’s planning to say to her, but just seeing him will bring back painful memories. It is imperative that I keep her untouched by the ugliness as much as possible.
“Well… He always made it clear he was interested in me,” I say, careful not to give out too many details. They’re embarrassingly bad, full of teenage angst and drama. “I wasn’t sure, so I put him off. Then the incident happened.”
Elliot’s jaw clenches. He knows the horrible details of my drunken foolishness.
“When he asked me out again, after that…I said yes.”
“What was different?” His eyes are narrowed. “I’d think you wouldn’t want to date anyone after that.”
I towel dry my hair. “Does it really matter, Elliot? It’s all in the past.”
He doesn’t answer, but his stance doesn’t soften either. His chin tilts up stubbornly, and the hard glint in his eyes says he isn’t going to just let me be.
Dragging in a shaky breath, I say, “Dennis was rough with me when he asked that time. No hesitation. No embarrassed blushing. He just grabbed me and basically demanded that I date him. If he’d done that a week earlier, I would’ve told him to go to hell and rot, but… I couldn’t. Maybe I wanted someone to look at me like I was some kind of trash and treat me with that bite of viciousness.” Humiliation scorches me until I can’t stand still. Wrapping my arms around myself, I start pacing. “I was young and stupid back then. I thought if I had a boy treat me badly, maybe I would find some kind of redemption for what happened when I was too drunk.”