AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Unbelievable.
I glared at him, my eyes burning holes in the side of his face. When he lifted his gaze to mine, something went through me.
It was very unnerving. But then, he unnerved me. He was too arrogant.
Too everything.
He and Mom launched into a conversation about the upcoming hockey season while I absentmindedly scrolled through social media. It wasn’t like I was stalking Josh’s socials. They were right there.
But the second I clicked on his profile and scrolled down, I instantly regretted it.
Making new friends, the photo caption read. He’d been tagged in it last night by some girl. I assumed she was the one with her hands all over him. They were both laughing, their attention on each other, not the camera, as if they were sharing a private joke.
“Dayna Bug, what is it? What’s wrong?”
“I…” Hurt spread through me as I tried to vocalize what I was feeling. “J-Josh, he—” I couldn’t say it. Couldn’t bear the thought of people knowing that Josh liked to get up close and personal with girls who were not his girlfriend.
“Sweetheart?”
Aiden frowned; leaning over the breakfast counter, he snatched my phone out of my hand and studied the screen.
“Hey,” I protested, embarrassment flooding my cheeks.
“What a douchebag.” He slid my cell back across the counter to me. I grabbed it, silently fuming at him.
“Oh, sweetheart.” Mom’s expression dropped as she leaned over to get a look. “I’m sorry.”
“What? It doesn’t mean anything.” The words caught on the lump in my throat. “She could be his work colleague or his roommate’s girlfriend. She could be anyone.”
They both stared at me, a mix of pity and sympathy swirling in their eyes.
“He doesn’t deserve you, Dayna Bug.”
“Come on, Mom,” I tried to laugh it off. “It’s one photo.” I looked down at my phone, only to realize it wasn’t one photo. It was a whole album of them.
“Your mom is right,” Aiden said. “He doesn’t deserve you.”
The intensity in his gaze seared me to the bone. I glanced away first, too disarmed by the way he looked at me. I wasn’t interesting or puck-bunny beautiful. I was as plain-Jane, average as they came.
Yet when he looked at me, I felt it.
For those few brief seconds, I knew what it felt like to be the center of somebody’s world.
But Aiden Dumfries was the bad boy of college hockey. He didn’t date. He didn’t have a different girlfriend every week. He had conquests—endless notches on his bedposts.
Something I had no intention of ever becoming.
CHAPTER8
DAYNA
Josh: I can explain.
Josh: I know it looks bad, but it isn’t what you think. Ellie is a friend of a friend. She was just… Look, Dayna, it was nothing. I promise.
Josh: I love you. You. Call me and we can talk about it. xo
But I didn’t call. I didn’t know what to say. He’d said we needed space to figure out what we both wanted, and three days later, there were photos of another woman all over him.
