Page 20 of Playing With Temptation

“You were at the Hope Center last Friday?” I asked, needing clarification that she was the woman I saw with Sophie and Josie.

“Um.” A barely there whisper, and those sea-blue eyes of hers darted away.

Anger overrode the shock of seeing her up close and personal.

“And you didn’t say hello?” I probed sharply.

A little too sharply, if her eyes narrowing were anything to go by.

Not stopping while she had her son in the car and a line of cars behind her, I could almost understand. Almost, in the sense I got why she didn’t jump out of her car right then and there to say hello.

But the Hope Center? No kids. No cars waiting. That just pissed me off.

“I didn’t see you,” she told me, and hearing her voice for the first time in fifteen years felt like a kick to my balls.

“But you saw me at the school,” I accused.

If I’d thought hearing her voice was painful, watching the familiar fire spark to life in her baby blues felt like someone had reached into my chest and twisted my heart.

“What should I have done, Jase? Blocked traffic so we could have a reunion?” she rapped out sarcastically.

I gave her an alternate scenario, the one I’d thought she was going for last Friday until I watched her pull out of the school lot. “I don’t know, Rae, you could’ve pulled into a parking spot and said hello.”

If I hadn’t heard her swift inhale, I would’ve thought she was wholly unaffected by my presence.

“Yeah, so, I think I’m missing something,” Sophie started.

I stared at Rainy, waiting for her to explain to her new friend how we knew each other.

“I, um…we…um knew each other,” Rainy stammered out, but offered no more.

I barely contained my grunt.

We knew each other? Knew each other, like our five-year relationship meant nothing. Like she hadn’t gifted me with her virginity. Like I hadn’t worshipped every inch of her. Like we hadn’t shared our hopes and dreams and confessed our biggest fears.

Just a bland, ‘We knew each other’.

“I’d say we more than knew each other,” I pushed.

Sophie’s gaze was ping-ponging back and forth between me and Rainy. Valentine, however, had already pegged the situation.

“Soph baby, let’s go say hi to Echo and Jackie and let Jase and Rainy catch up.”

Horror hit Rainy’s face.

What the actual fuck?

“Maybe—”

Valentine interrupted Sophie before she could voice her protest. “Trust me, Soph.”

“Will you be okay?” Sophie asked.

Rainy plastered on a smile that she used when she was uncomfortable but didn’t want to inconvenience someone else, so she pretended she was okay.

I both loved and hated I could still read her.

“Yeah,” Rainy chirped. “Of course. Go say hi to your friends. I’ll catch up with you.”