it,” I said defensively. “But do it from there.”
He glanced back toward the garage. “Let me take you somewhere. A nice restaurant. Where we can sit down and discuss things.”
I scoffed. “I’m not going anywhere with you. You have two minutes. Say what you came to say and get out.”
His jaw flexed. “Kris, I’m not leaving until we talk, and it’s going to take a lot longer than two minutes for me to say what I came to say. So unless you plan on having him throw me out”—he nodded to the garage—“then let’s go somewhere private.”
The set of his mouth told me he meant it. He wasn’t leaving until I let him talk. I thought of Josh, of him walking in and out of the house while Tyler and I had what was probably going to be a really shitty conversation.
I rolled my eyes. “Fine.” I grabbed my purse off the coffee table. “Let’s go.”
He looked over my outfit. I was in shorts, flip-flops, I had a sweater tied around my waist, and I wore a T-shirt that read THE MORE I MEET PEOPLE, THE MORE I LIKE MY DOG.
Tyler liked expensive restaurants. The food on deployment was terrible, so when he came home, he wanted to treat himself. We’d probably end up at some fancy fusion place or something. I’d be epically underdressed, and I didn’t give a shit.
“You’re not going to get changed?” he asked.
“Nope.” I marched past him to the front door. “You’ll just have to make my excuses to the maître d’.” I stomped outside.
He ran around me to the passenger side of his SUV and held my door open. I got in grouchily and stared into the garage as Tyler slipped into the driver’s seat.
Josh stood over a staircase holding a nail gun with Stuntman leashed by his feet. Josh looked at me for a flicker of a second before he turned back to his project, his jaw tight. I wondered what he thought of all this.
Stuntman barked and strained against his leash as we pulled out of the driveway, and I couldn’t shake the super weird feeling I was leaving my family behind.
Tyler’s sandalwood cologne was more concentrated in the closed SUV. It blasted my face through the AC, familiar and new at the same time, stirring feelings of nostalgia in my heart.
“I missed you,” he said. He reached for my hand, but I yanked it away.
The heavy-duty door that I’d stashed Tyler behind rattled and shook and then it burst open. A tornado of emotions rotated around me, and I couldn’t process any of them. All I knew was that the general consensus was that I was pissed.
I felt indignant about him making his choice without the courtesy of even speaking to me first.
There was guilt that he was no longer the last man I’d slept with. That I’d jumped on Josh literally within minutes of us breaking up without so much as a twinge of regret.
Hurt that he seemed hurt.
Confusion as to why he was even here.
Surprise that seeing him made me wonder why I’d been so nervous about us moving in together.
Anger that he didn’t have more of an effect on me when we were still together so Josh might have had less.
Outrage that he hadn’t kept his promises so I would have to keep mine.
Pissed.
That was the muddied summary of how I felt. I was just pissed.
I glanced at Tyler. He seemed to be upset that I hadn’t let him hold my hand. His face had darkened. “Are you sleeping with him?”
We both knew who he was talking about. There was no reason to act coy.
“That is none of your business,” I snapped.
“Were you sleeping with him when we were together?” He didn’t look at me, but his knuckles were white on the wheel.
I fumed. “You know what? Stop the car. Let me out.” I unbuckled myself.
“Kris—”
“Fuck you, Tyler. I was faithful to you. And I didn’t do this shit to our relationship. You did it. If you didn’t want me sleeping with other people, you shouldn’t have broken up with me. You gave up the privilege to be butt hurt the second you left me that voicemail.”
He didn’t stop the car.
“Okay,” he said after a moment. “Okay, I apologize. I know you wouldn’t do that. I just…seeing how he was about you, I…I’m sorry.”
How was he about me? What the fuck happened in the garage? I wasn’t going to ask, but what the hell?
We drove in silence for