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Wick lifted his face, wrinkled his nose in disagreement, and shook his head insistently. “Who in their right mind would want to be me? I’m not the suave, smooth-talking charmer. He is. I bottle up and close down around women. He can get anyone he’s ever wanted. What is there to be jealous of?”
“You’re a better ballplayer,” Cannon said simply.
“But he got the spot he wanted. He’s the big bad quarterback. He won that too. Why—”
“The fuck if he won that. You gave it up after what happened. You could’ve always taken it back if you really wanted it. And he knew that. But, no, you opted to stick with a less popular position just to keep from butting heads with him, and you ended up still so damn good at that you became the football star he always wanted to be, the one the scouts talked about, the one the media put pictures of in their newspapers. You’re the man. And he wants that.”
Jerking to his feet, Wick began to pace the floor again, more agitated than ever. “Well, he could’ve fucking been the man himself if he’d just stopped wasting so much time on figuring out ways to fuck me over and just worked at it as hard as I did. I mean, what the hell, Cannon? He makes no goddamn sense. And his stupid, revengeful behavior hasn’t just hurt me; he hurt all those women. He fucking hurt Haven.”
Wick backed against the wall before gripping his head and sliding down to sit on the floor. “He hurt Haven.”
Cannon mournfully commiserated, “I know, man. I know.”
“He hurt her the most. Why did he have to hurt her the most?”
“Because you liked her the most,” Cannon said simply.
I stopped breathing, dropped Bingley to my waist, and squinted, not quite understanding that sentiment.
On the floor, Wick squeezed his eyes shut and pressed his head back against the wall. “But how did he know that? I understood at the beginning. I talked about her constantly. It was obvious. But later—”
In the hallway, I shook my head.
Wick talked about me...in the beginning?
The beginning of what?
“It was still obvious,” Cannon answered softly. “It didn’t matter how much time passed, you made it so fucking obvious. All he had to do was watch your expression whenever he walked by with her. It killed you. Every time.”
Wait, so… Wick had liked me before we’d met that night outside Izzy’s room?
Before we’d ever even spoken a single word to each other?
My lips parted.
Why had I never known this?
How was it even possible?
In the bedroom, Wick opened his eyes and blew out a hard breath. His face was beet red and his eyes looked suspiciously moist. “But I tried to hide it,” he said, his voice cracking. “I tried to stop it.”
Oh my God, Wick had liked me before I’d ever even talked to him! What the hell was happening right now?
“Yeah, you did,” Cannon agreed. “I still knew, though. So I’m sure he did too. Why do you think he kept dating her for so long?”
“What? No. That’s crazy,” Wick rasped, shaking his head forcefully. “That’s fucking insane. You can’t tell me he kept her on the line for three years just to drive me crazy. So I couldn’t have her? You can’t…no. He had to have some kind of feelings for her. She deserved to be with someone who actually loved her, who… Fuck. Please tell me this isn’t happening.” He shuddered and began to rock himself, tears spilling down his cheeks. “He never would’ve even known she existed if I hadn’t—”
“Web, seriously. Don’t do this to yourself,” Cannon warned softly. “You’re going to hurt your wound.”
“Do what to myself?” Wick cried, forgetting to keep his voice low. “Finally open my damn eyes and realize all this heartbreak and misery and hell she’s been going through is my fault? Because it is. He wouldn’t have walked over there and introduced himself to her that night if it weren’t for me. He wouldn’t have kept her around if it weren’t for me. He wouldn’t have completely destroyed her life the way he did if it weren’t for—”
“Webster, dammit. Listen to me.”
“No. This is on me. I was too chicken shit to approach her first. Fuck, I couldn’t even learn her name. If I’d just… I should’ve listened to you. I should’ve grown some balls and talked to her. Even if she had completely rejected me, she never would’ve been put through all this. I would’ve stopped talking about her after that and eventually moved on. But I couldn’t, so the obsession grew, and he just… He destroyed her because of it. Because of me. How the fuck am I supposed to live with that?”
My heart split open. Tears spilled down my cheeks. Unable to listen to him blame himself a second longer, I stepped into the room.
Wick zipped his attention to me. “Oh shit.”
