Page 96 of Scored

Sara grins. Then sobers. “Distracted,” she agrees softly. “But also…sometimes it’s easier to avoid something you know is going to hurt.”

I mock scowl. “How the fuck did you get into my head?”

She bumps her shoulder with mine. “I’ve harnessed my Brit Mind Reading Powers.”

I nudge her back, heart a little less heavy. “Truthfully, I’ve been going around and around with this in my brain—thinking about all the mistakes I’ve made, hating Stefan for what he did, hurting because we’ve missed out on so much and put Rox through the wringer and—” I exhale. “I guess it’s nice to get it out of my own head.”

“So,” Mandy teases, “just to be clear, you’re thanking us for being nosy bitches?”

“I don’t believe I used those exact words,” I grumble. “But I do appreciate it.”

Mandy laughs, squeezes me again then drops her arm. “So, what are you going to do?”

“What I should have from the beginning,” I say.

She lifts her brows.

“Fight for him.”

Thirty-Three

Stefan

I’m sitting in the kitchen with a beer, waiting for my woman to walk in the door.

My. Woman.

Something I promised myself I wouldn’t think over the last year.

And yet, I’m right back here anyway.

Sitting in this stool, waiting for the sound of the garage door to rumble open, for Brit to come in through the mudroom, to walk down the hall and appear in the kitchen.

Stupid.

But…

I fucking can’t.

I was delusional to think it might even be possible to keep away from her.

It’s like living without the other half of my soul.

I was trying to protect her—but instead I hurt her.

So now, no matter the hour, no matter the outcome, no matter that every instinct in me is saying to avoid this conversation, to retreat, to protect her from the truth…

I have to tell her everything.

I saw her on the ice, saw her face when she was watching Dan and Rox, the yearning and pain—and not from making a killer play between the pipes.

And it wasn’t pain I’d caused for once.

It was the pain one feels when they know a chapter of their life is coming to a close.

I know.

Because I was there not all that long ago.

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