“Whatever. You only wanted to go on because Chelsea and her bitches were in line.” Meg’s smile faded, the sparkle extinguished.
The mention of my soon-to-be-ex-wife was like being dunked in ice water. There was a tense silence, which Lena filled with uncomfortable giggling. Dad was completely oblivious, his face in his phone checking the baseball scores.
“Okay, so you went on the Gravitron…” Lena prompted.
“And my belt broke, end of the story,” I said shortly, finished with this particular walk down memory lane.
“Okay…” Lena sighed, looking disappointed.
Meg looked as though she were gnashing her teeth together.
I surreptitiously checked the time on my phone. Crap, I had at least an hour to go before I could get away with excusing myself and heading home.
Meg was also looking at her phone, probably thinking the same thing I was. Feeling my eyes on her, she glanced in my direction.
All ice and cold.
“I’m going to go get the meat and start grilling,” Dad announced, putting his phone in his pocket and getting to his feet.
“Do you need any help?” I asked a little desperately, standing up. The last thing I wanted was to be left with Meghan and Lena. My sister was proving to be a shitty buffer.
Dad held out his hand. “No, you stay here and keep our girls company.” He smiled dotingly down at his daughter and Meg.
Lena made vapid observations about the weather—“We’re in the middle of a heatwave…”—“And the new stoplight on Maple Drive—it’s an accident waiting to happen.”
Meg seemed to be barely listening, and I was in danger of slipping into a coma out of sheer awkwardness and boredom.
“So, what are your plans now that you’re back in Southport?” I asked Meg, interrupting Lena’s diatribe about the best way to get stains out of car upholstery.
Meg lifted her shoulders in a shrug, her expression slightly hostile. “I don’t know. I just got here.”
“You must have a plan. You can’t just hang around your mom’s house all day. That sounds boring as shit. You’re an artist, right? You gonna paint something?” I prodded. I was a little boy poking a snake waiting for it to rear back and bite me. I was getting off on the thrill.
Meg’s green eyes were icy. “What’s it to you, Adam? Why are you so interested in what I’ve got going on? Why don’t you worry about yourself?” She practically spat the words out of her mouth.
“Oh, you should check out the gallery in Montgomery, Meggie. It just opened up. There’s some really great stuff—” Lena began hastily, but I cut her off.
“I can’t ask you questions? Am I supposed to sit here mute? Pretend I don’t have things to say? You’d like that wouldn’t you,” I demanded, my voice rising as my irritation grew. So much for playing it cool.
Meg raised an eyebrow, frustratingly blasé. “Mute is probably your best look.”
I felt my blood pressure rise. “I don’t know what your problem is, Meghan, but if you have something to say to me, then just fucking say it already.” I had never called her Meghan. Not once in our twenty-seven-year history. I was making a point by using it now. I was putting distance between her and me. There was no intimate familiarity, not any longer. But I wasn’t going to sit by idly while she treated me like her personal whipping boy. No one got away with treating me like that.
No one.
“Guys, come on. You two need to chill the hell out,” Lena tried to intercede. She should have known better.
Meg slammed her hands down on the table, causing our glasses to shake. “Are you that stupid, Adam? Do I need to spell it out for you?” she seethed.
I purposefully rolled my eyes, knowing it was like throwing lighter fluid on a raging fire. I could practically hear her growl. “If this is about Chelsea, that’s old news. You might need to find something else to hold against me until I die.”
“You are such an asshole. Do you know that? I can’t believe I ever thought you were worth my time. You’re selfish. You’re insensitive. You’re—”
“Incredibly good looking? Your secret fantasy?” I goaded. Poke, poke, poke.
“You’re such a narcissist. As if I would think about you at all.” She was breathing heavily, and I felt a stirring in my groin.
She was gorgeous when she was worked up. Her pale skin was splashed with color; her full lips were parted as she panted with fury, her wide green