Page 80 of Breakaway Hearts

She sighs again, this time like she’s dreading that.

“I’m sorry I interrupted your celebration. I never would have knocked if I’d⁠—”

“You’re always welcome,” I assure her, getting an eye roll that makes me smile. “And…I know, I won’t do this again, but…” I try to hand her the book.

“No, don’t,” she stops me.

“It’s just that it’s signed, with a dedication, so I can’t actually return it anywhere, other than finding another Madison who’s studying law…”

She looks up at me with a confusion that tells me she probably stopped at the post-it with my name on it, without reading the actual dedication. She debates it a little longer before accepting the package. “I can’t believe you know Peterson.” She shakes her head. “That your dad is a fucking Time Hunter.”

“He’s just my dad,” I argue. I know it’s not that simple, but also…it is.

“Tell me everything,” Mom says when I get back inside.

“I’m sure Tab already filled you in.”

My sister doesn’t look the least bit guilty. Neither does Katie, who definitely recognized her, but Mike and Colt aren’t meeting my eye.

“I want to hear it from you. Who is she?”

“No shrinking,” I warn Rachel and Sarah, my two sisters with experience in psychology, but I have no power over Katie.

“We would never.” Rachel puts her hand on her heart, causing her husband to shake his head, all of us fully aware she’s lying.

I’m very grateful there hasn’t been a game since we hooked up, and that the guys didn’t seem to notice anything off when I got back to them last night.

“She’s my teammate’s best friend.”

Everyone groans at my answer, but Tab huffs and levels me with a stare. “That’s the least exciting way to introduce her. Unless you’re referring to the book trope.”

“We met at the Commons,” I try again.

“After she turned me down,” Colt specifies.

“Why would she do that?” My mom looks from him to me, and the asshole grins.

“Because she hates athletes,” he shares.

“I’m sure she doesn’t hate—” Mom starts, but I don’t even try to deny it. “You just said her best friend’s on the team.”

Colt is grinning, waiting for me to explain why she likes Jason and not me.

“She doesn’t date athletes,” I amend, but regret it instantly, because Mom doesn’t hear the negative, she just jumps onto the possibility of me dating again.

“Did you ask her out? No, wait, she sounded upset.” She gives me the look that had me confessing to absolutely anything I did wrong growing up.

I could explain that technically, she said she doesn’t do athletes, but she did me last night, and I’m not sure what exactly I was asking for, other than I want more of her.

Chapter Thirty-Three

Madison

Power to hurt me

“What’s bothering you?” Dr. Kapoor asks after we’ve been siting for twenty minutes. I’ve spent most of it trying to figure out how to tell him what’s going on. It’s not like he’s a gal pal I want to share all the details with. I’d honestly rather not bring it up, ever…but I haven’t been able to get Owen off my mind. And it’s not even like I can escape into a book, because while I devoured the new Time Hunters book in less than forty-eight hours, to the detriment of my plans of getting ahead on an ethics paper, now that entire series makes me think of him.

“I slept with one of Jason’s teammates,” I admit, which feels more like a church confession than confiding in my shrink.