Page 6 of Combust (Everyday Heroes 2)
“The heart’s blind. It’s the head that causes all the trouble.”
Her body pauses for the briefest of seconds, an internal struggle waging a silent war across her expression. “Sometimes both are stupid,” she murmurs, shifting her gaze from mine so she can stab a piece of pancake with her fork and eat it.
“So, is this the whole distance makes the heart grow fonder thing?”
“What do you mean?”
“Obviously, you still like the guy or else you wouldn’t appear so miserable—”
“I am not miserable.”
“Just like you’re not hungry.” She stops mid-chew and rolls her eyes at me.
“What’s your point, Grady?”
“Is this one of those situations where you leave so he sees what he’s missing? Then in a few months, you go back with a new haircut, a careless attitude, and your cleavage and curves on display so he falls madly in love with you all over again.” I get the death glare from her. Guess that means I’m closer to the truth than she wants to admit. Either that or she’s pissed I’m even suggesting such a thing.
And she takes another bite.
Hell, if I piss her off enough, she might forget she isn’t hungry and eat the rest of the food.
“I highly doubt that will h
appen.”
“You didn’t say no.”
“Let’s just say the woman riding him in my bed told me that even if I showed up buck naked with a portable stripper pole, he wouldn’t give a second glance my way.”
“Well, shit.” Not much I can say to ease the assholery he did to her.
“Pretty much.” She draws the words out.
“And yet you still love him?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to.” The hurt in her eyes said it all for her.
“Being with someone for almost two years doesn’t make it easy to turn off the feelings, no matter how much he screwed me over.”
“Literally.”
Her eyes, storm clouds of emotion, flash up from where she’s pouring syrup on her pancakes. For a minute, I think she’s going to cry, but then she surprises me when she throws her head back and laughs.
“I walked right into that one, didn’t I?”
“Yep.” I take a sip of my coffee and watch her. She’s pretty. No, not just pretty, but sexy. There is a difference between the two. And not in the classic sense, but there is definitely something about her that would make any man look twice. The bitch riding her ex was completely wrong. “So . . . the project you’re finishing . . . is it his?”
“It’s the label’s, but yeah, it’s with him.”
“That must suck, having to write music for someone you hate.”
She shrugs. “To put it mildly, but that’s the problem, we write good music together. And even if we didn’t, we’re bound by contract to get twenty songs turned in over the next four months.”
“Twenty? Christ. Why so many?”
“Labels like variety. They like to decide what song is the best fit for the current musical climate. In the end, they’re the ones who have the ultimate say over what songs make the album.”
