“I remember. I thought you wanted to be friends with me.” Sadness washed over her.
“I did.” My chest tightened. “I liked you. You were a breath of fresh air, always standing up to Jason and refusing to take his shit. I admired you.”
“What changed?” she said coolly, the bite in her voice turning my blood to ice.
“Jason started to get jealous. He never said anything, but I realized the more I talked to you,”—and I’d talked to her a lot—“the more he taunted you. Right before summer, I called him out on it, and he told me I had to choose. Him or you.”
Hurt flashed over her face. “And you chose him.”
“I know it doesn’t make any sense, Hailee, but I didn’t choose him, I chose you. I saw the way Jason looked at you. He hated you. It was messed up, and I didn’t really understand it, but I knew how cruel he could be. I knew he’d never leave you alone if I admitted the truth.”
“The truth?”
“I liked you. Even back then, when I was too young to understand girls or any of that stuff. I knew you were different. You were the first girl I’d ever wanted to be around, to get to know.”
“You made my life miserable that summer.”
“I know.” Guilt knotted my stomach as the memories washed over me.
We’d spent an entire summer taunting her, playing pranks, stealing her stuff, and making her life a misery. It was like Jason was testing me; making me prove my loyalty. And I’d gone along with it because I hoped if I played his games, he’d eventually back off and leave her alone. But he didn’t. And by the time I realized he wasn’t going to; it was too late. A line had been drawn between us. Hailee one side; Jason, me, and Asher the other. As the years went on, I told myself it was for the best, that admitting how I felt about her would only add fuel to the fire. So I stayed away. I played Jase’s games and somewhere along the way, I even grew to enjoy them. Because provoking her, pushing her to retaliate, was my chance to get a rise out of her, to give me attention.
It was the only way I got to keep a piece of Hailee Raine in my life.
“Am I really supposed to believe, that all this time, you went along with his stupid games because you… liked me?” The doubt in Hailee’s eyes was enough to slay me, but I looked her dead in the eye as I nodded.
“It makes no sense—”
“You’re damn right it doesn’t,” she spat. “We’re not kids, Cameron. This isn’t junior high anymore. This is my life. And it’s all been some big game to you. I’ve been a big game—”
“What?” Panic clawed up my throat. “It hasn’t… that’s not…”
“I need to go.” She turned on her heel and made a beeline for the door, but I rushed over to her, snagging her wrist. “Wait,” I choked out. “We need to talk about this—”
There was too much left unsaid. Too much I needed to try to explain. But when Hailee met my wild gaze again, I saw the defeat in her eyes.
“You know,” she said softly, her flat tone cracking my chest wide open. “I always knew I was right about you. I can’t trust you.” She shrugged me off and fled the room, taking a piece of my broken, bloodied heart with her.
Earlier had been one of the best moments of my life. It hadn’t felt like a betrayal or a game. It had felt real.
Right.
It had felt like a long fucking time coming.
But now, in the harsh light of day, everything had gone to shit. And I couldn’t help but think, I only had myself to blame.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Hailee
“Hailee, sweetheart, is everything okay?” Mom’s voice drifted through the crack in the door, but I ignored her, the same as I had the previous three times she’d come to check on me.
After overhearing Jason and Cameron’s argument, I’d fled Asher’s house and holed up in my bedroom. Everything I thought I knew was a lie. Mom and Kent hadn’t met after he and Jason’s mom separated, at all. Mom was the other woman. And all this time, Jason knew.
He knew and he’d never breathed a word of it.
It wasn’t any wonder he hated my mom, or me, for that fact. I’d always been so judgmental about him and the Raiders. Scarred by my own experiences of growing up without a father because of football. Gary Broker had been a rising star in the NCAA. He didn’t have time to raise a baby, to play happy families with the girl he accidentally knocked up. He had better things to be doing with his time—the endless cycle of girls and parties and attention—and all I had was a couple of grainy photos of him and not a single good memory. Even after I was born, he still wanted nothing to do with me. There had been a handful of awkward meetings when I was a kid, but those didn’t last past my seventh birthday when he finally grew up and settled down with his other family—the one he actually gave a shit about.
Mom had spent years drilling it into me; telling me that guys like him couldn’t be trusted. Athletes. Jocks. Guys who were more focused on their careers than girls. But it was all a lie. Because we’d moved to Rixon and she’d managed to sniff out Kent Ford. Local football hero and legend in the making, if it hadn’t been for his career-ending accident.
God, I was so naive.
All this time, I’d hated on Jason when Mom hadn’t only betrayed him, she’d betrayed me too.
“Hailee,” her voice pulled me from my thoughts. “I’m coming in, baby.” She appeared around the door, giving me a concerned smile. “You’ve been up here hours; you missed dinner.”
“I don’t feel like eating right now.”
“Did something happen… with Jason?” Her lips pursed as if it was a forgone conclusion. “He’s acting more grouchy than usual.”
Of course she’d assume it was him. Because for years she’d stood on the sidelines as we duked it out, and never once had she tried to fix the mess.
The mess she’d created.
“Were you ever going to tell me?” The words spilled out.
“Tell you?” she said, perching on the edge of my bed. “What on earth are you talking about?”
“How did you meet Kent, Mom?”
Her expression faltered but she quickly recovered. “You know this story, baby. We moved to Rixon and Kent was good enough to help me out with a flat tire and the rest as they say is history.”
“I know.”
“Know?” She inclined her head. “Hailee, I’m not sure—”
“Jason told me.” She inhaled sharply, the noise puncturing the air, and my heart. But she didn’t say anything. Didn’t try to tell me I was wrong, that she had no idea what I was referring to. “You knew, he knew?”
I’d heard Jason tell Cameron he didn’t think his dad knew so I’d assumed she was just as clueless.
“I suspected he knew something, yes.” Mom lowered her eyes, but I saw the regret there, the shame coloring her cheeks.
“So, it is true? You had an affair?”
“Baby.” She reached for me, but I snatched my hand back. “Matters of the heart are never that straightforward.” Mom gave a little sigh.