“This was after I won state sophomore year.” She traces my face with her index finger. “We look so happy.”
“We were.” I drop a kiss to her shoulder. “This was before the fighting, before shit got heavy with our parents and the team. This is who we were when it was just the two of us.”
“We were so young.” She grins so wide her eyes narrow to slits. “Look at your baby face.”
“I still have a baby face.” I scrub my palms along my jaw. “I’m just sexier now.”
“You are definitely sexier.” She laughs, and sets the picture frame on the nightstand. “Thank you, Landon. For this, for everything with the house. For forcing me to forgive you, and helping me grow.”
I cup her face, and pull her lips against mine. “Thank you for forgiving me, and letting me into your heart.”
Her eyes bounce between mine, sincerity shining from her gaze. She doesn’t say it, but she doesn’t have to.
I know it’s true.
I know I’m in her heart, whether or not she’s ready to admit it.
“What’s that?” Ainsley asks, staring down at the envelope still in my hand.
“I want you to read this.” I open the flap and tug the folded letter out of the envelope.
And then I hand it to her.
Chapter 36
Landon
High School Graduation Day
Today feels morelike a funeral than a graduation.
This should be the happiest day of my life. I’m finally getting away from my father, finally getting out of that suffocating house. I got a full ride to UC Berkeley and will be able to play lacrosse there. Everything is still going according to plan, despite the fact that it won’t be at UCLA.
But all I can think about isher.
Ainsley knew what that game meant to me. She knew more than anyone how badly I needed to get away from my father. All she had to do was let me play. Keep my secret a little longer. Have my back. Stand by my side. Trust me. But she couldn’t do that. She needed to be the best, the only. She needed to have all eyes on her. She sabotaged my dream.
And for what? She won’t be playing another lacrosse game ever again. She didn’t need scouts or scholarships.
Idid.
What’s worse, I was foolish enough to think she cared about me.
Now, we can’t even be in the same room together. I can’t look at her without resentment fighting its way up my throat, the betrayal like a bitter bile I can’t wash out of my mouth.
The football field is lined with folding chairs. Teachers make speeches about the future. Students make plans for parties tonight. I should be smiling for pictures, reminiscing with classmates. Instead, there’s a constant simmering anger under my skin.
Ainsley sits to the right of the middle aisle. I had hoped she’d be somewhere behind me with the order of our last names, but M through Z is on the right half of the field, making her directly in my line of view for the entire ceremony. Now and again, she’ll laugh with the people around her, as if everything is fine. Maybe it is. Maybe she doesn’t feel this hole in her chest, this twisting in her gut.
Of course, she doesn’t.
Ainsley Morgan only cares about herself.
Mom dabs at the corner of her eye with a tissue as I push through the crowd to get to her after the ceremony. “I’m so proud of you, baby. I can’t believe you’ll be off to college soon.”
I wrap my arms around her and hold her tight, breathing in her flowery scent. She’s the only thing I’ll miss from this place.
“Take a picture with your father.” She gestures to the piece of shit standing off to the side.
