I slapped him. It was not a moment I would ever be proud of. The sound of my palm cracking across his face echoed through the night. The black ball cap on his head slid sideways, letting me see his eyes fully for the first time. Barely controlled rage and contempt darkened them.
“I don’t belong to you, I don’t belong to Devin, I don’t belong to anyone but myself and you can all kiss my ass. I belong to me.”
I smacked the hat the rest of the way off his head as I fumed. There was a small twinge of disappointment when he didn’t flinch as I reached for him.
I had plenty of reasons to be afraid of Jordan in that moment, of any man really. His self-control had given me a false sense of security where big scary guys were concerned. For a moment, I recalled the pain that could be caused by that false sense of security, a newfound fear slid in place of my indignation. It was the flaring of his nostrils, the way his eyes lit with anger that was directed at me.
I’d seen that look before, but not from Jordan. I’d seen that look in my dreams.
I was accomplished at hiding that part of myself, but he’d seen it before. I’d run from what he saw in me last night.
Slowly, he bent to retrieve his hat from the ground. “No Raelynn, you don’t.”
I knew the exact moment he saw my fear. He balked with a visible flinch and spun away from me, away from the fight. I was too angry for guilt. It was obvious he thought he’d scared me. I knew him well enough to know what that would do to him. For a moment, one selfish moment, I was glad he had a taste of that. I wanted him to hurt, payback for the way his rejection had hurt me that night years ago.
I spun and stalked back to the crowd that had gathered behind us.
“You okay, Rae?”
I looked up at Hunter, there was genuine concern on his face. I fisted my hands on my hips and changed my mind about his offer.
“Better than okay, give me a few minutes to change and you’ve got your date.”
He was grinning when I spun back to where my sister waited by the truck.
“Hey, Breanna, I need your shorts.”
****
“You slapped, Slater?” Breanna’s rhetorical question held a touch of awe.
“He deserved it.”
“I want to point out that you haven’t even been back a full week and already the drama abounds.” She mused between the crunching of candy.
“I’m not in the mood, Bree.” I jerked her denim shorts up over my hips. It was a tight fit, but they would work.
I pulled my hair down and finger combed it. It wasn’t the best I’d ever looked, but I’d looked worse.
“Impressive.” She whistled when I did a turn in the too tight shorts that accentuated my ass.
Seconds later, I was walking around the truck toward Hunter’s rig. I wasn’t surprised to see Devin jogging up, his face lacking its usual bashful smile.
“Are you really leaving with him?”
“Yup.” I was angry enough I didn’t care if I hurt his feelings.
“Look, Jordan’s looking out for you, he doesn’t—” “I don’t want to hear all the reasons Jordan has for doing what Jordan does, Devin. Because he only does what he wants to do. He doesn’t give two shits about
anyone but himself.”
“He—” He broke off at the look I cut him. “We want to make sure you’re okay. Maybe Hunter is, ya know, trying to use you to get to us?”
He sounded so sincere that I might have put some thought into his theory. Then the heat of the flush rising in my cheeks reminded me of the anger inside me. “If he was, it worked, didn’t it?”
“Please don’t go, come back with us. We’ve missed you.” He was almost whining, which only made my temper worse.
I stopped at the back of the trailer and forced a tight smile. “I’ve missed you too, Devin, but I’m not going anywhere near him for a while.” He opened his mouth to protest and I waved him off. “I can’t, Devin…not now. I’ll talk to you later.”
I looked back once as I was getting into Hunter’s truck. I was angry, but what I’d said about Jordan hadn’t been totally true. When he’d stalked off from me, he’d thought he’d scared me. I’d let him think that. Devin still waited and perked up hopefully when I turned back. “Don’t let Jordan do anything stupid, okay?”
His brows knit together. “Okay? I guess, I mean I’m sure it’s not the first time he’s been slapped by a girl.”
I gentled my voice. “It’s not that. Don’t let him beat himself up too much.”
I could make out Jordan’s silhouette near his trailer. Large and intimidating, he blocked out the orange glow from the streetlight behind him. All I’d ever wanted was for him to love me. I jumped into Hunter’s truck before I could change my mind.