I needed to make sure. “You don’t have a problem with it?” I asked him.
He appraised me carefully. “You guys are dating, like a couple dating?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. We’re just going with the flow for now.”
“Would you want to date her in that way?”
I shrugged. “I like what we’re doing. We’re not thinking. We just are, right now. That’s enough for me. We’re still getting started.”
“Then that’s enough for me. Who gives a shit what I think?”
If anyone should’ve been bothered, it was Mason. Taylor’s dad was his coach, and though Coach didn’t seem to be the best father to Taylor, he was a damn good coach to the team.
I nodded my thanks, and Mason turned to Nate. “And why should we give a shit what you think?”
Nate didn’t say anything.
And I blew up. “What the fuck, Nate? Or is that it? You want to fuck her or something?” Enough with the bullshit. I wanted to hear his problem.
“No.” His jaw clenched as he watched the road. His hands were tight on the wheel.
He was going to play the silent card? I didn’t think so. “Nate, come on.”
Mason folded his arms over his chest. “It’s truth time, Nate. If you have a problem, you should speak now.”
“Or what?” He glared at Mason through the rearview mirror.
“Or stop dropping little baits. You’ve tried it before, too, but Logan blew that up in your face.”
“When?”
“The juicer.”
Mason was right. I remembered that morning. “You tried teasing me like I was a little bitch. No way am I letting that happen. If I like a chick, I’m going to bang her. When the hell have any of us needed permission to get it in?”
“Is that what you think she is? Some piece of ass?” Nate’s voice was like gravel.
His response was quick, too quick to have been a random thought he threw out. I straightened in my seat and shared a look with my brother. That was it. That was what was eating Nate.
“Is that what you think? I’m not valuing her enough?”
Nate didn’t reply. He only jerked up a shoulder.
I was floored. “When have you ever cared about a girl I was seeing?”
“So, you are seeing her?” He threw me a side look.
“No—I don’t know. I don’t know. I just went over this. Maybe.” I looked from him to Mason, and spared Sam a glance in the back. She was lying down, so I could only see her feet. “I’ve never gotten so much grief about a girl. Sam got in my face the other day about her, too.”
“Look,” Nate started. “I don’t know what Sam said, but I’m just bringing it up because this girl is different.”
“Because she’s Mason’s coach’s daughter?”
“No.” He rolled his eyes, his jaw tightening again. “Because she’s not like other girls. She’s different. You had her programmed in your phone as Hot Girl before.”
“Nate.”
He added, “Now she’s programmed in as Firecracker. You have your own nickname for her, and it’s not like others. She’s not Girl from Grocery Store, or Call After 2, or even Could Be Stalker.”
“I don’t use girls. You’re making it sound like that.”
“No.” He shook his head. “You don’t, but you don’t smile when you text them, like you do when you’re texting her. Logan, I—”
I was growing tired of the questioning. “You better be real careful about where you go with this.”
“Loga—”
“Real. Careful.” My hand jerked, forming a fist on my leg.
Nate glanced at me out of the corner of his eye. He looked back to the road and sighed. His shoulders relaxed a bit. “I’m not trying to be a nosy pain in the ass, but this girl is hurting. And if I can see it, I know you can, too.”
“You think I’m going to hurt her more?”
“No. I’m wondering if you’re falling for her because she’s hurting.”
Huh? I cocked my head to the side. “Say again?”
“Oh, boy.” Nate adjusted his hold on the wheel and rolled his shoulders back. He looked in the rearview mirror at Mason for a moment. He spoke as his gaze returned forward. “You fall for girls that are hurting. Tate—”
I interrupted, “—wasn’t hurting.”
“Yeah, she was. She had that thing going on with her parents. She was hurting back then, and so was Kris.”
“Kris.” I frowned. She hadn’t acted like it, but he was right. She’d been messed up because of her parents, too. “Okay, I’ll give you Kris.”
“And…” Nate softened his voice. “Sam.”
Oh, fuck. He went there. I shook my head. “There was a