Her green eyes locked with his and her smile slowly faded away. “What’s happening here?”
“We’re getting the bees settled.”
“Dane...” She sighed. “This. Me and You.” She pointed between them.
His fingertips ran along the side of her face. “I never imagined this.”
“No.” She shook her head, her breath husky as she said, “Me neither.” A crease settled between her brows and she stepped back. “You don’t think this is weird?”
“Weird?” He ran a hand along the back of his neck. “Might be a bit of an understatement.”
“Exactly.” She stood there, staring at him—her features shifting like waves on the ocean. It was a struggle for her to get out what she said next. “I keep expecting a boom box and a Peter Gabriel CD to appear. Are you waiting for—”
“You to laugh at me and walk off?” There was a slight snap to his words. “Yeah, I am.”
Tansy went rigid, her eyes narrowing. “What did you expect me to do?” Her voice was shaking again—but this time it was all anger. “You tried to humiliateme.”
That brought him up short. “How?” He stepped forward. “By going full John Cusack to ask you to prom? In case you didn’t notice I made an ass of myself in front of a whole hell of a lot of people at that pep rally—”
“People who’d all have front row seats for your prank.” She stepped forward, holding up her hand. “You know what—this is stupid.”
“What prank?” She wasn’t making any sense. He was the one who’d had his pride hurt and his heart broken, not her.
“Dane, don’t.” She looked—and sounded—disappointed. “Leave it alone. Let’s drop it.”
“No.” She had no right to look at him like that. “You think I wronged you somehow. I have a right to know what I did. Supposedly.”
“Supposedly?” Her right eye twitched. “You know.”
Like hell I do. “Humor me.” He took a deep breath and added, “Please.”
She stared at the new hive box for a long time, her lips pressed tight and her jaw clenched. “I was tipped off. You’d planned a big surprise to humiliate me. The when and where were unknown but they didn’t want me to get hurt. They said it would be a big production.” Tansy’s tone was clipped and aloof. “And then you asked me to prom and I had visions ofCarrieand pig’s blood and things went downhill from there.”
“I’d have used honey. No pigs.” It was a poor attempt at a joke, and Tansy wasn’t amused. “Who told you this?” It was hard to keep the edge out of his voice.
“Frances Yanez and some of her friends.” The look on her face gutted him.
“That group included Kate Owens. My father’s most recent ex? That Kate? The woman that started a rumor that she and I were sleeping together while they were married? That Leif’s on drugs? And Dad’s an alcoholic?” He took a deep breath. “That Kate?”
She frowned. “That’s Kate now, not Kate ten years ago.”
“She wasn’t as obvious, maybe.” Kate had always been bad news. That’s why he avoided her—then and now.
Tansy stared at him. “Frances said it—”
“Frances didn’t want to get on Kate’s bad side—hell, she’s still scared of Kate.” All this time, this is what Tansy thought? “Why did you believe them?”
“I-it made sense.” She sniffed, wrapping her arms around her waist. “Why else would you ask me to prom? In the middle of a pep rally? In front of everyone?”
“I thought things were changing between us.”Might as well get it all out there. “Say Anythingwas your favorite movie. I knew it was special to you. I saw the look on your face when we watched it instead of working on our economics presentation. Both times.” He cleared his throat. “I wanted you to look at me that way.”
She didn’t blink or move—was she breathing?
“I didn’t do any of that because I wanted to hurt you or uphold some stupid family grudge, Tansy.” He broke off, swallowing hard. “I did it because I wanted you. To impress you. Go to prom with you.”
She stayed quiet for so long, he began to worry. “You did?” It was the softest whisper.
“I did.” He nodded. “Now that we’ve got that straight...” He wasn’t sure how to feel. On the one hand, she hadn’t flat-out rejected him. On the other hand, she’d believed him capable of something pretty damn heartless. “It’s getting pretty dark.”
