leading me to the front door, he took me through the kitchen and down a long hall. He opened a door at the end of it, and we walked out onto a patio lit by strings of fairy lights. Amazingly, no one was out here. Well, maybe not so amazing, since it had gotten damn cold in the last hour.
Planting myself on the edge of the patio, I wished I could cross my arms over my chest without dropping my crutches. My hoodie wasn’t cutting it. “Say whatever you need to say.”
Hayle brushed his hair off his forehead. “You can be really difficult to talk to sometimes, you know that?”
“Yes.” I was past the point of patience with him, and we both knew it. There was no reason to deny it.
“You walked away from me yesterday—”
“I wonder why.”
He sighed. “Jesus, you didn’t even let me finish. I was trying to say that you walked away before I could explain.”
“I really don’t see what there is to explain.”
“Yeah, because you won’t even let me try.” He took two jerky steps toward me. “Damn it, Thea. Just give me five minutes. And then you can leave and continue being as pissed with me as you want.”
Unable to ignore the pleading in his voice, I nodded. I could give him that much. “Five minutes.”
“After Dad and I dropped Mom off at the rehabilitation center, he tried to talk me into convincing you to stay quiet about everything. I agreed, because of the reasons I told you before. My mom is ill, and I need to protect her, even if that means she gets away with shit.” He crossed his arms over his chest, clearly going into defensive mode. “I’m sorry for that part, but I’m not sorry about the deal I made with my dad.”
Deal? That sounded familiar. It hadn’t been that long since Vincent had dragged me into a deal that was a hell of a lot more like blackmail.
I swallowed past the unease crawling up my throat. “What deal?”
“I told him I would agree to talk to you if he promised to leave me, Tristin, and Leo alone. To let us live our lives the way we want to.” He took another step toward me and placed a hand over one of mine. “I did it for you.”
“What do you mean?”
“So you can be with whoever you want to without having to worry about Dad’s interference. Whether that’s Leo or Tristin or both of them, he can’t get involved without breaking our deal. And I really don’t think he wants to do that.”
“Both of them?” Had one of my boyfriends already told Hayle about our new arrangement?
He rolled his eyes. “Don’t bother pretending that there’s nothing going on with Tristin. Someone already posted a photo of you two cozying up at the game tonight.”
All-righty, then. “Why would you bother making that deal? How does it benefit you?”
Pain crossed his face. “Is that what you think of me? That I only do things to benefit myself?”
I slumped against my crutches, suddenly exhausted. I didn’t want to fight with him anymore. “In all honesty, I have no idea what I think. Every time I’m certain I can trust you, you turn around and prove me wrong. You take Vincent’s side over mine, and you take your mom’s. What am I supposed to do with that?”
“I don’t know, but you’re not supposed to believe the worst of me. You don’t do that with Leo or Tristin.”
I sputtered out a laugh. “Are you kidding me? I’ve absolutely done that with both of them.”
“Then, why are you with them while I’m out in the cold, yet again?”
I stared at him, wondering if he’d changed topics halfway through his sentence, because I didn’t understand how he could even ask that question. Tristin and Leo had both been there for me every step of the way since Thanksgiving. Meanwhile, the only time Hayle had shown his face was to manipulate me.
“If you’re out in the cold, you wandered there all by yourself.”
“I know I keep fucking up.” He walked a few steps away from me before turning and coming back. “But doesn’t it matter to you that I made a deal with my father to protect you?”
“To protect me? Was that really what you were doing?” Anger rose in my chest and practically spewed from my mouth. “Or were you protecting your mother, your father, and yourself, and you just made the deal so you would feel better