“Hello, Mr. Hanley, it’s nice to see you.”
“How is that rainy place you moved to treating you?”
“It’s nice, but it’s not New York.”
“Nothing ever is.” Mr. Hanley gives me another hug and then goes to help a customer.
I linger near the front and wait for Dalton, looking at the odds and ends of Mr. Hanley stocks. When the door opens, I don’t look to see who it is. I figure if I avoid eye contact, no one will want to talk to me.
“No way.”
It’s been years since I’ve seen Tanner Pritchard. After our freshman year in college, he went on a road trip and never returned. He got to Texas and never left. That was the end of our three-year relationship.
I turn slowly and smile when our eyes meet. “Hey, Tanner.”
“Wow, it is my Kelsey.” We hug and it feels familiar. I didn’t expect this feeling. We haven’t seen each other in years. “I heard you’re dating some pro football player?”
“Nah,” I say, playing it off. “He’s a client and took pity on me and showed me around Portland.” This is easier than telling my old ex that my current ex broke my heart into a thousand pieces, and I could’ve prevented all of it by rebuffing his advances. He also doesn’t need to know why Alex broke my heart.
“Well, I’ll have to send him a thank you card for taking care of my girl.”
I am so not your girl anymore.
“So, what’s new?” I ask.
“Well, I got married, had a kid, and now I’m divorced. I moved to Rochester over the summer so my daughter can be closer to my parents. Her mom . . .” Tanner trails off.
I put my hand on his arm. “It’s okay, you don’t need to fill me in. I’m just happy to hear you’re doing well.”
“We should grab dinner while you’re here. Maybe I can convince you to stay.”
“Sure.” Although, I’m not positive I want to grab dinner. Nothing against Tanner, but the last thing I want to do is fall back into old habits. They were hard to kick the first time around.
“Are you staying with your parents?”
I nod. Where else would I be?
“Let me see your cell phone. I’ll give you my number.”
I reach for my back pocket, only to realize my phone isn’t in it. “Oh crap, I think I must’ve left it in Dalton’s car or it’s at the house. I just got in this morning, I’m a little out of sorts, and actually tired now that I think about it.”
“No worries, I’ll text your brother.” Tanner puts his phone away. “I don’t mean to pry but did someone hurt you?” he motions toward my arm.
I hold my cast up. “Nope. I tripped and fell. It’s a small fracture, but enough of a nuisance that I came home to get help from my mom.”
Dalton comes up to us with a bag of supplies. He and Tanner shake hands, and then Tanner tells him he’s going to text him later to make plans with his sister. They laugh, thinking it’s funny, when it’s not. They did this kind of shit when we were in high school. Dalton and my other brother Davy think they can decide who I date.
Not that I plan to date Tanner.
We finally part and I head back to the car. I get in and sigh heavily and then groan. Dalton’s laughing.
“Why don’t you tell him no?”
“It’s not that easy,” I tell him. “If you had a high school romance resurface, it would be the same for you.”
Dalton scoffs. “She pops up all the time.”
“Really?”
He nods. “Sophie’s in Buffalo. She’s single and I see her all the time.”
“Are you guys back together?”
He chuckles. “Hell no. But she has an itch, so I scratch it. It’s a safety thing. We have a good time together, we have zero expectations of each other, and we’re good in bed. It’s easy.”
“Dalton, that’s horrible. She probably wants more.”
Dalton side eyes me. “Or I want something more and she doesn’t. Sophie went through a bad divorce. She has two kids and splits custody. I still haven’t met her kids but want to. Her ex, he’s not a good guy.”
“Great,” I mumble. My brother is going to end up being on some episode on Dateline because his girlfriend’s ex went crazy. “Does Mom know?”
“Nope, and I’d like to keep it that way.”
We don’t talk much until we pull into the driveway. “Looks like Tanner has something else to say.”
“Why do you . . .” I turn around and see his truck parked behind us. “Great.”
Dalton giggles. “I bet he called, and Mom invited him over.”
“Shoot me, now.”
Tanner gets out of his truck and runs to open the door for me. “I didn’t want to wait to see you again.”
I’m at a loss for words. I smile and ignore his offered hand to help me out of the car. The last thing I want to do is be rude, but I also have no intentions of rekindling a college romance that ended when I was nineteen.
TWENTY-FOUR
ALEX
I hate my reflection. The man staring back at me is a man I don’t want to know or even be. I’m angry, sad, and frustrated. And I blame Maggie. I’ve never been so mad at someone in my life, until now. The level of agitation I feel for her is nothing I’ve ever experienced before. The mere mention of her name or even seeing her name on my phone display, sends me into a downward spiral.
Before, when she left for London, I had hope. I thought we’d end up back together. Yeah, I secretly wished her job wouldn’t work out. Was it wrong of me? Sure. But at the time she had broken my heart, and I missed her. When she came back for a visit, I turned on the charm. I wanted her to stay. Looking back, falling back into bed with her was a mistake. Obviously, hindsight and all that shit. Deep down, I knew she had no intentions of returning.
Until now.
Seeing her at my front door ruined my life.
It took meeting and falling for Kelsey to realize my relationship with Maggie wasn’t real. I can’t be me when I’m with her. She wants me to be her picture-perfect man, with perfectly coiffed hair, wearing a suit and tie everywhere we go, and always ready for a photo-op. She used me, for whatever that’s worth. Which makes zero sense to me. Why not go after Julius or Cameron, someone who is always the talk of the media? Not the center, whose sole purpose is to put the ball into the quarterback’s hands. I am not popular in the realm of other position players. Hell, until Maggie, no one even knew what I looked like.
She changed me.
“She turned you into a charity project,” I say to my reflection as I set the barbell down. I shouldn’t lift weights if my mind isn’t clear. This is how people get hurt.
My teammates linger around me. Some run on the treadmill while others lift. A few of the guys are working on their core with a yoga instructor. I tried that shit once, but she went so fast for a “beginners” class I gave up. It’s still on my list of things to add to my off-season workout though.
Noah walks behind me and makes a funny face in the mirror to get me to laugh. He knows what’s going on since he was my emergency, I’m too drunk to drive, phone call. Instead of taking me home, he sat with me for another couple of hours while I spilled my guts. He’d been in a similar situation with his ex. She knew he was in love with Peyton and told Noah she was pregnant. He stayed with her, breaking his and Peyton’s heart in the process, only to find out his ex had told people she’d slept with Noah’s dad, and he was the father of her baby. This mess almost cost Noah his career, and he might have quit if it wasn’t for Peyton.