Katie had intended to usher him inside, but she stood frozen. “Oh my God, what happened to you?”
“Um,” Brendan said sheepishly. “Got in a fight. Sort of.”
Katie’s concern shifted to suspicion at Brendan’s hedging. He didn’t usually avoid questions. He also never got into fights. What the hell was he thinking?
“Sort of a fight?” She reached out to touch the bruise, but Brendan flinched back.
“Hey, ow!” He lifted his hand to ward off any further attempts at contact.
“He tried to hit Tyler,” Natalya provided helpfully. “He failed. Tyler did not.”
“You did what?!”
“He was talking s**t about you,” Brendan muttered.
“So you hit him?” Katie asked. Her stomach sank. What had Tyler been saying? But no. That was not the point. Any freakout about what other people thought of her — and how tha
