“Nah. I would’ve told you to stop trying to preempt people’s rejection of you.”

With a short laugh, he bumped his shoulder against mine. “Way to call me out.”

“I tell people what they need to hear. It’s why it works so often.”

We reached his car, and he unlocked it to throw his backpack in the passenger seat. Then he shut the door and leaned his back against it, facing me in a lazy, languid pose. “There’s only one issue.”

“What’s that?”

He cocked his head. “Well, Winona and I aren’t officially back together, yet. So, it’s too early to call it a perfect win. It was just good enough for the sake of our agreement, I figured.”

God, anything to be contrary, right? It just killed him to let an argument go by unexplored. I gave him an exasperated look. “Come on. You obviously think she wants you to ask her back out.”

He swallowed. “But what if I didn’t?”

What did that mean? I blinked at him, uncomprehending. Was this more of Brougham just trying to be a pain in the ass? Surely not. No way would a person as smitten as he was jeopardize his reunion just to win an imaginary point against me. “I’m not following.”

“What if I didn’t get back with Winona? Would you consider it a failed venture?”

Seriously? How could he look at me so innocently, with those unfairly blue eyes, with his funny little half-smile, and threaten me? And for what? If he thought I was the one who stood to lose more in this situation, he had another think coming, stat. “Uh, I think I’d survive, somehow. You’d lose a lot more than I would.”

He pushed himself away from his car, and toward me, with one foot. “You know? I don’t think so.”

And once again, I felt like we were having two conversations. The one we were having, and the one he thought we were having, where I inexplicably understood what cryptic nonsense he was hinting at. “You’re going to have to be a bit clearer with me.”

He dropped his voice to a murmur, even though we were the only ones in sight, making me lean forward to hear him. “You want me to spell it out?”

“Yes, please. Spell it out.”