Opposites Attract

at being shanghaied, but I’m not going to hate you.”
    “Just listen,” she started. Staring straight ahead, she began.
    At first, Ty paid little attention. She was hopping back to the summer he had first been with Asher. He started once to interrupt, not wanting to be reminded. Jess shook her head fiercely and silenced him. With strained patience Ty sat back and watched the passing scenery.
    When Jess told him that she had gone to see Asher, his brows lowered. His concentration focused. Listening to her pouring out the things she had said—
Ty’s tired of you. . . . He doesn’t know exactly how to end things without hurting you
—his rage built swiftly. Jess felt the fury swirling, and barely paused for breath.
    “She seemed to have no reaction to anything I said. She was very cool, totally in control of herself. It just seemed to reinforce what I thought of her.” Stopping for a light, Jess swallowed quickly. “I didn’t understand how anyone could have strong feelings and not express them, not then. After I met Mac I realized . . .” When the light changed she gunned the motor with a jerk of her foot, then stalled the engine. On a frustrated oath she started the car again as Ty remained silent.
    “When I look back on it,” Jess continued after a shaky breath, “I remember how pale she got, how quiet. It wasn’t indifference, but shock. She listened to everything I said, never raising her voice or shedding a tear. I must have hurt her terribly.”
    Her voice broke and she waited for him to speak, but there was nothing but thick, vibrant silence. “I had no right, Ty,” Jess continued quickly. “I know that. I wanted—I wanted to help, to pay you back somehow for everything you’d done for me. At the time, I thought I was telling her the things you couldn’t bring yourself to. I’d convinced myself . . . Oh, I don’t know.” Jess made a quick gesture with her hand before she gripped the gearshift. “Maybe I was even jealous, but I didn’t think you loved her and I was so sure she didn’t love you. Especially when she married so quickly.”
    Because tears were forming, she pulled over to the side of the road. “Ty, to tell you I’m sorry isn’t enough, but I don’t have anything else.”
    The silence in the car vibrated for the space of three heartbeats. “What made you think you could play God with my life?” Ty demanded in a sudden burst that had her jolting. “Who the hell put you in charge?”
    Forcing herself to meet his eyes, Jess spoke quietly. “There’s nothing you can say to me I haven’t said to myself, but you’re entitled.”
    “Do you have any idea what you did to my life?”
    She shuddered involuntarily. “Yes.”
    “I was going to ask Asher to marry me that night, the night I got back and found you in our room. The night you told me she’d gone off with Wickerton.”
    “Oh, God, Ty.” Choking back a sob, Jess laid her head on the steering wheel. “I never thought . . . I never realized she meant that much to you.”
    “She was everything I wanted, don’t you understand? Everything! I was half crazy because I wasn’t sure she’d say yes.” He drummed his fist against the dash. “And, God, I’m still not sure. I’ll never be sure.” The anguish in his voice made Jess straighten.
    “Ty, if you’d go see her. If you’d—”
    “No.” He thought again of the child. His child. “There are other reasons now.”
    “I’ll go,” Jess began. “I can—”
    “No!” The word whipped out at her, causing Jess to swallow the rest of the sentence. “Stay away from her.”
    “All right,” she agreed unsteadily. “If that’s the way you want it.”
    “That’s the way I want it.”
    “You still love her?” Jess asked.
    Ty turned his head so that his eyes met his sister’s. “Yes, I love her. That isn’t always enough, Jess. I don’t think I’d ever be able to forget . . .”
    “Forget?” she prompted when he trailed off. “Forget what?”
    “Something she took from me . . .” Angry energy built up again, grinding at his nerves. “I’ve got to walk.”
    “Ty.” Jess stopped him with a tentative hand on the arm as he jerked open the door of the car. “Do you want me to go away—back to California? I can make up an excuse, even leave Pete and Mac here for the rest of the tournament. I won’t stay for the finals if it upsets you.”
    “Do what you want,” he told her shortly. He started to slam the door of the