Raven jerked to a stop. “What the f**k are you talking about?”

Bingo. That was it. “Erin loves you. You’re her friend. I’m not taking that from you. She and I are friends, sure, but that doesn’t diminish what you have with her. And Brody still cares about you. Make no mistake here, you can’t have him. He’s mine, and as long as that’s true, I’m holding on tight. But I wouldn’t stop him from being friends with you. I’m not trying to push you out. You’re part of their family.”

Raven stared at her until the elevator opened up and she got on, leaving without another word.

“Jeez,” Elise mumbled before going back to the pool deck.

“Everything all right?” Adrian asked when she sat back down.

“I don’t know. I’m sorry for making a scene.”

“You didn’t. She did. She was out of line, Elise. She shouldn’t have been like that at all, but especially in front of the kids. But she’s always been a spoiled bitch. Sometimes it’s amusing, other times not. She’s not all bad, she’s been good to Erin and Brody both. But there’s something inside her that drives her to make bad choices.” He shook his head, but all Elise could hear was that Brody had kissed Raven.

“I don’t think she’s all bad. Clearly Erin and Brody care about her, and that means something. But I’m no one’s whipping boy and I won’t bring my kid around her. That’s a lot of negative emotion. Rennie has had enough negative outbursts in her life.”

Adrian nodded. “That’s totally fair. She didn’t notice much, not that I saw. Brody kept her and Nina entertained.”

She shrugged. While she was willing to try and see another side of Raven, while she’d actually seen part of that today in the hall near the elevators, she wouldn’t expose Rennie to Raven again anytime soon. In fact, dealing with that kind of angry irrationalism made her stomach hurt. Reminded her an awful lot of what it had been like with Matty at times.

They all had their past wounds to get over. Raven was just as human as Elise was, she knew that. But she also knew she wasn’t lining up to be abused again. Not ever.

“Are you all right?” Brody asked as they sat out on Erin’s very large deck later on.

“I was just hungry. And agitated.”

“Raven? I’m sorry. I didn’t expect her to flip out. Ben said she got pretty mean. I don’t know where this is coming from.”

“You don’t? Really? Because you’ve lived under a rock for the last umpteen years? You don’t know why a woman you once dated would flip out on the one you were currently dating?”

“Okay. Okay, that’s probably part of it. Although she’s never been like this before.”

“Did you kiss her?” she blurted.

He sighed. “Sort of.”

She raised her brows. “Sort of? Which means what?” He laughed and then stopped, putting his hands up in surrender. “Don’t hurt me. We had this heated discussion at the shop. Like two months ago. She threw herself at me, literally like jumped into my arms—you can ask Adrian, he saw it—and kissed me. I extricated myself. For like two seconds I kissed her, but it was more automatic than an actual romantic kiss.”

She frowned and narrowed her eyes at him. “I told her that even if she wanted you, she couldn’t have you.”

He grinned. “You’re right.”

“But she doesn’t. Want you. I mean, gah, that sounds mean even when, hello, you did not tell me about this kiss and that sort of makes me mad. I think she’s afraid of losing you and Erin. Of being displaced by me. I know it sounds very pop-psych, but she was halfway nice to me at the very beginning. The longer we’ve been together, the worse she’s gotten. I don’t need everyone to like me, but I don’t want to have this drama. I have enough drama. In the future, I’m going to have to not attend any events with Rennie if Raven will be there.”

“Come on, Elise, she’s not going to hurt anyone. She’s just upset. And totally out of line, yes, let me be clear. I’ll talk to her.”

“Why don’t I line up to have my kid exposed to some random woman’s crazy, hostile behavior? Is that a serious question? If so, you know where you can cram it. My kid had a father who would flip out on the drop of a dime for no apparent reason if it suited him. I won’t have her around that sort of instability. I don’t want to be around it either. I dealt with it enough for ten lifetimes and I won’t do it again. She’s something to you, but she’s nothing to me and she doesn’t want to be, so fine. But don’t ever imagine that I’d put my child at risk, because I won’t.”

His jaw unclenched and he sighed again. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think of it like that. I’m also sorry I didn’t tell you about the kiss. You just had a lot on your plate and I didn’t want to add to it with something that didn’t mean anything. I’m not interested. You know I wouldn’t . . . that I have no desire to be with anyone but you. Right?”

“I don’t like that you didn’t tell me. I don’t like that it was used to hurt me. I want to understand why you and Erin care about her so much. I respect you both, so I’m clearly missing something when I deal with her and want to smack her upside her head. I’m not saying you can’t be friends with her, I don’t have that right, and frankly, I think that’s what she expects me to do.”