Page 6 of She is the Darke
“From your dad. Or any one of your brothers other than you.”
He scratched his throat, and then gripped her elbow and led her away from the crowd.
“Unhand me,” she whisper-screamed, yanking away from him.
He threw his hands up in surrender. “Look, I’m not here to piss you off, woman.”
“Don’t call me woman.”
“Fine. I’m not here to piss you off,girl.”
“Don’t call me that either. In fact, don’t call me anything. I’m not even here.” She turned and stormed off, cursing Rachel for not giving her a better heads-up. She’d said Tyler wasn’t coming back! And now he was definitely here, annoying her as always. Why was she still holding this twenty-dollar bill? She turned and threw it, and it flew right into his chest, which he caught.
“Why are you following me?”
“Why are you throwing money at me? I haven’t even danced for you yet.”
“Oh, great. Just make it into a joke. You haven’t changed a bit—”
“You look frazzled—”
“Who even says frazzled?” she asked, rounding on him. “And why are you still following me!”
“Because you haven’t given me an answer on the quote.” He threw it at her chest, and she caught it just like he’d caught her twenty. Ooooh, that pissed her off. She ripped it in half. “I would rather piss on an electric fence than work with you!”
“Beer?” Rachel asked, approaching with two full drinks clutched in her fists.
“I’m working!” both Demi and Tyler blurted out simultaneously.
“Okay,” Rachel said, doing an about-face and walking the other direction.
“What are you so angry about?” he demanded, and ooooh, as he said that, he did something unforgivable. Unforgivable! That dumb boy took his hat off, and put it on backwards. Backwards!
She could see his effort at seduction from a mile away, and she was not falling for it. She yanked his hat off and threw it in the dirt. “Won’t work on me, Tyler. Go do your backwards-hat move on some other hoochie who doesn’t know what you’re about.”
He looked utterly shocked. “And what am I about, Demi? Since you know me so well from sixteen years ago.”
She narrowed her eyes at him, and stood on her tiptoes to elongate her five-foot-four frame to better match his ridiculous six-foot-four inch—at least—frame. “You can’t change a tiger’s stripes. You are what you are.”
“Is this about the kiss?” he growled low.
A quick glance at Rachel, and thankfully she was far enough away that she didn’t hear him. “Shhhh! What kiss?”
“You know what kiss. You got so fuckin’ weird about it—”
“Because it’s not something either one of us wanted! Clearly. It ruined everything, and I don’t want Rachel knowing. You swore you wouldn’t tell her.”
He glared at her. “Hey, Rachel?”
“No!” Demi grabbed for his arm, but he yanked it away and strode for Rachel.
“I have something to tell you,” he called to his sister.
“Great,” Rachel said sarcastically. “Because I definitely want to be part of whatever weirdness y’all are conjuring up.”
In desperation, Demi lost her damn mind. She snaked her foot out and tripped him.
Tyler yelled a curse, and barely caught himself before he hit the ground.