“Sorry,” she called phlegmatically in the direction of the pile of glass, and then turned her face back toward his. “Oh look. Sorry didn’t put that bottle back together, did it?”
“No, it didn’t.” Brennan rubbed his forehead and then interlaced his fingers. “And I don’t think I’m going out on a limb when I assume that other people have said they were sorry for awful things they’ve done to you. Sorry didn’t fix that either, did it?”
Skye turned her head away and closed her eyes. “Nobody ever said sorry. Your shitty opinions of me are nowhere near as bad as what they did. I don’t care. I’m just trying to have a good time. I’d like to just pretend none of that happened.”
“Those are not my opinions of you, Skye. You walked in on the tail-end of a conversation about a bunch of shit that I’m dealing with right now. A bunch of really bad shit that I put myself in. They were harping on all these pain points that I have. What you heard was just me reacting to the fact that my friends are a living, breathing reminder of all this stuff that’s constantly under my skin. It really wasn’t about you, sweetheart. It was about getting them to shut up, and I was wrong for bringing you into that. That was cheap and shitty. You didn’t deserve that. I know what I said made you feel awful about yourself. And because of the very few things I know about you, I realize that was the worst thing I could’ve done to you. I know I hurt you more than I can probably even understand because I haven’t been in your shoes.”
She turned her chin low.
Why can’t you just shut up already?
He was still apologizing. It was causing a pain in her chest, and now a stupid lump was swelling up her throat. “I don’t care, Brennan.”
There was a quaver in the back of her throat, and she internally cursed at it.
“You do, honey.” Brennan nodded at the pile of glass. “I know that’s exactly what you feel like right now. I know nothing I say is going to put you back together. I hate that I can’t unsay what I said. I hate that all I can do is offer an apology that I’m sure sounds hollow to you. I’m sorry for that, too. I’m sorry for the treatment you’ve endured that makes you feel like apologies are meaningless. You deserve better than that. This morning, I swore to myself that I was going to make sure your time here was nothing but good treatment you deserve. It didn’t even take a whole day before I failed at that.” He exhaled a long breath of air and clutched the bridge of his nose for a second before meeting her eyes again. “I told you last night I’m pretty much a black sheep. All of this is a perfect example of why. I wish I could’ve proved to you that I’m a better person than everyone seems to believe, but I guess I’m just not.”
Skye groaned. “Jeez.” Why was he was still dragging this out? “Would you just let it go already?” She twirled her fingers flippantly in a circle around her face. “Do you think what you said hurt anywhere near as badly as this? You’re delusional. Get over it. Words don’t do any real damage.”
“They do, Skye.” Brennan looked at her stoically. “And I think it was probably words that hurt you enough that you now believe the worst thing a person can do is hurt you physically. Words can be just as harmful. Maybe even more so. A bruise will fade and heal. Someone demeaning you can stick in your head for so long that you believe it, and then it never goes away. That’s what I did. And as far as I’m concerned, I’m not any better than the person who put those marks on you.”
She blinked and then scoffed. “You’re crazy.”
He shrugged. “Probably. That’s still not an excuse.”
A callous laugh forced its way out of her throat. “I don’t understand you, Brennan. I don’t understand you at all. And I refuse to play into your delusions that your shitty words, no matter how true they probably are, are as bad as—”
Her words screeched to a halt. She was precariously tiptoeing a line that might cause her to tell him too much. Brennan couldn’t know those things. If he caught wind of those things, he would probably slap her face and then refuse to allow her to return home with him, and then he wouldn’t drive her out of town the next day. And what she needed more than anything was that ride out of town.
Fortunately, Brennan was still stuck on his delusions and didn’t pry about what she almost said. “My shitty words were not true, but I still shouldn’t have said them.”
“Okay, fine.” She held up her palms in front of her. “I don’t care. I’m over it. Liza had a lot of good things to say about you and, truthfully, I believe her more than I believe you, so can we just drop this already?”
He made a face, the meaning of which she couldn’t decipher, and dropped his gaze to the concrete. “She and Connor are my closest friends. They’re obligated to say good things about me as much as they’re insistent upon giving me shit.”
“Well, it must be nice to havefriends,” Skye said nonchalantly as she stood up. “Your pity party is annoying. You’ve got a really good life, so stop complaining about it.”
Brennan stood up as well. He looked like he was about to interrogate her again, and she waved her hand to preemptively shut him up as she started walking away. “What else is there to do in this city? Wanna go with me to peruse the kitschy souvenir shops? Should we go to Bourbon Street and show people our boobies for beads?”
He chuckled heartily as he followed her. “I mean, if you really want to show people your boobies, I’ll happily flash right alongside you. Though I’m sure the folks throwing beads won’t even notice me.”
“Yeah right. Shirtless you is way more impressive than shirtless me.”
He joined her at her side and placed his all-too-affectionate hand on the base of her spine. “I beg to differ.”
“That’s because you’re still sucking up to me about our awkward brunch.”
Brennan took a step around her and stopped right in front of her. He cupped her cheeks, thumbs tracing the line of her jaw. “I’m not trying to suck up, darlin’. I’m also not trying to be annoying by repeatedly apologizing when I know it can’t take away the shitty things I said, but Skye. There’s something you should know.”
He said it with such somber reverence that her chin drew back in alarm. “What, pray-tell, might that be?”
Brennan swept his hands down the column of her neck before drawing them back up and threading his fingers through her hair. He tilted her chin upward and hovered his lips just over hers, and her mind cleared of the whole incident.
Brennan was a drug. She was hooked. After she left the following day, it would probably take Skye a lifetime to detox from him.
“You need to know the truth, sweetheart,” he murmured, lazily stroking his bottom lip against hers.
Aching heat instantly flooded her lady parts. “The truth about what?”
