Page 66 of Heartsmashed
“—but Iamgoing to say this.” His voice softened a bit, and that made me stop pretending I wasn’t listening. “Don’t let Peter fuck with your head.”
I started to refute that, but I had the curse of wearing my emotions all over my face.Another reason I’d left the room.
I ran my hand through my hair and stared at the lake. “It’s not like that.”
“What’s it like?”
“It’s…it’s weird, okay? Seeing him with someone else. Watching him sit there like he didn’t just blow up my life and then show up here with Alec like it’s no big deal.”
“Yeah,” Rome said. “I figured. But you’re here with Beckett and you two got almost all of your answers right. In front of Peter. I’d say you’re winning.”
“I know, I know. And it’s not that I want Peter back. At all. That’s not what this is. I know it looks pathetic?—”
“Stop.” Rome’s expression had changed, all teasing gone as he turned to face me. “It doesn’t look pathetic. It looks like someone you loved hurt you and now you’re having to watch him pretend he didn’t. That’s different. And fucked up.”
I swallowed and looked away again. “He knew Alec’s answer. That’s all. It’s stupid.”
“It’s not stupid.”
“It is, though. One answer in a dumb game and I’m ready to launch myself off this terrace.”
“No. It’s proof that he’s capable of paying attention when he feels like it, and that hurts like a bitch because you spent two years wishing he’d do that with you.”
God, I hated when Rome was perceptive. I much preferred when he was oblivious.
“Yeah,” I said, nodding. “Maybe so.”
He went quiet awhile, but then bumped me with his shoulder. “You know what else I saw tonight, though?”
“Your reflection in every window?”
“Besides that. Though the lighting is fantastic in there.” He grinned and waited until I looked at him before nodding at the rec room. “I saw you with Beckett.”
Just hearing his name sent a thrill through my body that came out as a shiver. I crossed my arms, playing it off like it was from the cold. “Whataboutme with Beckett?”
“You looked happy.”
I let out a breath and looked through the glass, where Beckett stood near the snack table talking to Mom as they both loaded up little plates. He was listening to whatever she was saying, nodding and replying, and damn, he looked good there.Toogood. Like he fit in with my family in all the right ways.
“He’s easy to be around,” I said, because that felt safer than anything else I could think of.
Rome snorted. “No offense, but you haven’t been looking at him like he’s ‘safe.’”
“Yes, I have.”
“Sure, if safe means you want to climb him and trust him with your social security number. Safe works.”
“And everyone says you’re just a pretty face,” I said, giving him a playful slap on the cheek. “You’re also kinda funny.”
“Oh, I have a lot more going for me, but that’s nothing you need to know about.”
“I could’ve lived my whole life without that sentence.”
Rome grinned and looked back at the rec room. “Mom seems to like him.”
“She does.”
“And he’s good with you.”
