like the way we left things either, but maybe we need to take a minute—”
“No. We’ve had since junior high hormones kicked in and you got breasts and things got a little uncomfortable between us to figure this out.”
She couldn’t help the smile that tugged at her lips. “We’re not kids anymore. We’re not talking about puppy love and crushes. We’re talking about wanting marriage and family.” She thought that would put things into perspective for him.
Guys usually balked at commitments like that.
“Damnit, Liz, you feel like family.”
She didn’t expect that answer.
Tate stuffed his hands in his front pockets, vulnerability in his blue gaze.
“I know that, Tate. I feel the same way about you. But you’ve ignored my feelings for you all through the stages of our lives. I can’t help the way I feel. I can’t shut my feelings off. I can’t make you feel something you don’t.”
Frustration lit his eyes. “You don’t know how I feel.”
“And you admitted you’re confused about how you feel now when you’ve always maintained our friendship status and I’ve been clear about how I feel.”
Clint came to a jarring stop inches from Tate’s truck bumper, got out, and slammed his car door. “What the hell is going on?”
Liz caught her breath at the fury in his words.
Tate stepped in front of her. “We’re having a private conversation.”
Clint closed in, standing nearly chest to chest with Tate, who had a couple inches on Clint. “She’s my girlfriend. You don’t like it, fine, but that’s how things are now.”
“Did you tell your girlfriend about the woman you were dancing and drinking with at the bar after she went home?”
Clint’s eyes narrowed. “So she can have you as a friend, but I can’t have any women friends.” Liz didn’t like the satisfied grin Clint shot Tate for turning the tables on him.
When she left the bar and saw him go back inside, she suspected he might be doing something she wouldn’t like, but she hadn’t cared enough to stop him.
Blinded by flowers and pretty words. Damn. She’d been so pleased by them, she’d completely dismissed his behavior.
Tate glanced back at her. “Are you buying this?”
Not really, but Clint had a point. They were seeing each other, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t talk to other women. But she got how irritated it made him when she did so with Tate.
She tugged on Tate’s shoulder to get him to move aside. “Stop. Both of you.” She raked her fingers through her hair and focused on Clint. “What are you doing here? Our date isn’t for another half hour.”
Tate put his arm across her middle and pushed her back a step in a protective move she didn’t think necessary. “He was waiting down the street for you to come home.”
Clint reached for her hand and held it in his. “I couldn’t wait to see you, so I came by early, but you weren’t here. Then you wouldn’t answer my texts and I got worried, so I stayed and waited for you to get home.”
It sounded good, but the string of texts touched a nerve. The impatience and insistence in his texts showed a possessiveness that didn’t sit well with her.
“I told you I was running an errand and on my way home. I couldn’t text you back while I was driving.”
Clint dropped her hand. “You mean you went to see”—he pointed his thumb at Tate—“him.”
“Yes. I did. Because we’ve been friends since we were kids and I wanted to clear the air between us so that we can both move on with our lives.” She didn’t feel like she needed to justify her actions but she did owe him an explanation.
“So you told him you want to be with me and to leave you alone.”
“Tate isn’t trying to take me away from you. He never was.”
Tate jumped in again. “We’re not done talking. I’ve still got things to say to you.”
She turned to Tate. “We can go round and round on this, but it still comes back to the way we left it.”
He stepped closer, making it so easy to see the sincerity in his eyes. “No, it doesn’t.”
“Look, man, she doesn’t want you.”
Tate’s gaze never left hers. “You don’t know what she wants. I do. I’ve always known. And it’s her choice.”
Clint didn’t back down. “She chose me. You turned your back on her all this time. She’s done with you. She wants someone who really wants her, not some pity date.”