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“I don’t know,” I said seriously “I was in firefighter mode Plus, the kids were there Then at the party, Chip was introducing us, and Luna shouts out, ‘We know her! We saw her bum!’ And the whole place went dead silent”

Justin’s eyes ide “What did she do?”

“She handled it fine, but I felt bad Then Luna had an allergic reaction to soot a chance to talk to her Later, when I saw her come out to her patio, I went over to say sorry and we ended up having a beer together and talking for a while” Exhaling, I let my shoulders slump “And then I fucked up”

Justin leaned back against a cabinet full of cleaning supplies and cocked his brow “What did you do, keep her out past curfew?”

I shookkissed her”

“And you feel guilty about it because she’s young?”

“Yeah I o any farther, but it easily could have Then I saw her yesterday at the pool—the girls went and dragged her out to sith the at her or thinking about her naked, and it was pissing me off So I basically announced out of nowhere that I wasn’t interested in her That kissing her had been a stupid mistake”

“Smooth”

“Fuck off”

He grinned “So what did she say?”

“Nothing She just grabbed her stuff and left” I ran a hand through ht with Naomi”

“You’re really on a roll omen, aren’t you?”

“Naomi’s used to my bullshit, plus she sort of deserved it,” I said defensively, “but this girl, Winnie, she didn’t”

“So tell her you’re sorry”

“I thought about it, butdo I have to? It was the truth—I’ her That’s all I meant”

“Okay, but you didn’t need to say that out loud”

“I thought I was doing her a favor,” I argued “I didn’t want her to get the wrong idea after the night before”

“Which was totally your doing You kissed her, right? Not the other way around?”

I didn’t answer

“It’s like you took a bite of her dessert without being offered a taste, and then told her you didn’t really like it anyway” Justin shook his head “Dick move”

“I did like it,” Iold for it”