Page 21 of Playing With Temptation

She wouldn’t. Rainy was going to bolt as soon as she could. And that was familiar, too.

Ironically, the last time I saw Rainy was in a bar two years after we’d broken up. I was having drinks with a friend and his sister, who was visiting from California. My friend had picked up a girl and left about ten minutes before Rainy showed up. I knew by the way Rainy was staring at Sally that she thought we were hooking up. I could’ve cleared the air, but the immature, pissed-off at her for being jealous when she had no right part of me stopped me from explaining.

I would feel the brunt of that decision from that day on.

“So, Juni,” Rainy started, and hearing her say my daughter’s name like a wall between us pissed me right the fuck off. “Lucas⁠—”

“Seriously, Rae. Fifteen years, nothing. Last week I see you in the pickup line and you don’t stop and now you wanna talk about our kids?”

“Well…” she trailed off, looking anywhere but at me.

“Is your husband meeting you here?” I asked.

“What?”

“You keep looking around like you’re looking for someone,” I told her. “Is he here?”

I braced for her answer, knowing if she said yes, I’d be leaving—immediately.

I was too raw to be civilized.

“No. And your wife? Is she here?”

I didn’t miss the way the muscle in her cheek jumped.

“Divorced,” I told her.

“Oh. Um. I’m sorry to hear that.”

“Are you?”

Rainy’s head cocked to the side. “Am I what?”

“Sorry to hear I’m divorced.”

This time when Rainy answered me, she held my gaze.

She looked like she was on the verge of calling me out for being a dick.

But her expression cleared. And when she sucked in a breath to get her temper under control, I was almost disappointed.

When I met Rainy, she was a shy fourteen-year-old girl. Over the years her confidence grew. By the time she graduated high school, she was popular, outspoken, and had no problem putting me or anyone else in their place if they said or did something she didn’t like.

It was one of the many things that bonded me to her. I’d witnessed her evolution. I’d watched her transformation from pretty freshman to gorgeous senior. I’d been with her when she toured college campuses. I’d been the one who listened to her wax poetic about the pros and cons of each school. I’d helped her move into her first college dorm room. And she’d done the same for me—except for the list of pros and cons. The only pro on my list that mattered to me was that whichever college I picked had to be close enough I could drive home to see her.

“Yes, Jase, I’m sorry to hear you’re divorced. Especially sorry because of Juni.”

She’d mentioned my daughter twice, but not my son.

“I have two,” I told her. “Colson’s twelve.”

I didn’t understand her flinch. Or maybe I did. I’d spent a week mulling over the idea that Rainy was back in Hollow Point—and not just back but with her family in tow. My first inclination was to track her down and see her—demand answers. But the painful knowledge she had a family had stopped me. The hypocrisy wasn’t lost on me.

I should’ve wanted her to be happily married. I should’ve been happy she’d moved on and found something better. I should’ve been a lot of things, but I wasn’t. It made me a selfish prick, but somewhere in the back of my mind, I’d always hoped she still thought about me like I did her.

“Colson,” she whispered. “You always liked that name.”

Fuck.