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Cooper steps up to me, but I don’t back down. We are currently toe to toe, and even with our height difference, our bodies press against each other with the rise and fall of our chests.
“He’s always wanted what’s mine.” This time, his tone is a little softer as his eyes dip down to my mouth.
Those five words feel like a backhanded slap to the face. The force of that one sentence causes me to back up as if he had pushed me with his hands.
“What’s yours?” I question venomously. My head is spinning. “I’m yours all of a sudden?”
“Riley, you’ve always been mine.” He attempts to close the distance once again, but I hold my hand up to stop him. Of course, he doesn’t listen and keeps walking until my palm presses against his chest. I can feel how erratic his heart is beating—it matches mine.
“Don’t you dare pull that bullshit.”
He places his hand over mine, holding it to his chest.
“What shit? It’s true, and you know it.”
Yanking my hand back, I spin and run into the house, rushing up the stairs and straight to my closet. I grab the box I keep up on the high shelf with such force a few items fall down to the floor. I ignore them and rush out the door. By the time I make it back outside, Cooper is almost back to his truck. I guess he thought I was done with this conversation.
Since Cooper has his back to me, I could easily turn around and go back inside, but I’m tired of this same song and fucking dance. It’s time we have this out here and now.
“I was always yours, huh?” I scream at him. He turns around, tilting his head to the side in confusion.
My heart beats loudly in my ears. I toss the lid of the box to the ground. “Was I yours every time you had whores on your arm?” I reach into the box of clippings from my closet and throw them in his direction. From the tabloids, magazines, newspaper articles—they’re all there. Every time I saw a new one, I tortured myself by keeping it. “Did you think of me every time you slid into one of them? Did you think of me every time one of them had their lips wrapped around your cock?”
The contents of my stomach threaten to come back up, but I try to swallow it back down. I don’t need to look at the images now spread out all over the front lawn. They’re all tattooed in my mind. Every beautiful memory we had, tainted by these images. I know somewhere in that pile is a tabloid article about him getting caught in the locker room with the assistant coach’s daughter.
“Do you think because I live in a small-fucking-town USA that I wouldn’t keep up with you? You didn’t just break my heart—you shattered me. But just because I was something for you to just throw away didn’t mean that I didn’t follow you. I may have been nothing to you, but to me, you were everything.”
Fueled by rage and years of pent-up feelings, I chuck the entire box in his direction. With his quick reflexes, he just narrowly misses being hit with it. The rest of the articles spill at his feet.
“So, here, have it back.”
“Riles, stop! I—” he finally speaks, but I stop him. The time for talking was years ago.
Did he think I would have stopped him from going?It was always our plan to follow our dreams but still be together. Did he not love me enough to stay?
“I don’t want to fucking hear it. Save it for someone who cares or matters to you because I clearly don’t. I finally think I figured it out—it’s not me you want; it’s just that you don’t want anyone else to have me either. Well, fuck you, Cooper Graham, fuck you!”
My body is shaking as I storm back inside the house, leaving him there with his mouth agape and tears in his eyes. I slam the door so hard the walls inside vibrate and a frame comes crashing to the ground.Of fucking course.The satire of reliving my heart being obliterated into a million pieces yet again.
I lock the door to keep him from following me inside, not that I honestly think he would. He’s never chased after me before—why start now?
A bloodcurdling and ear-piercing scream leaves my lips as I drop to my knees in the entryway. I lose myself in the oblivion of pain caused by Cooper Graham all over again, knowing damn well I barely survived the first time.
Chapter 16
Cooper
Beep.
Beep.
Beep.
The sounds of the heart monitor were the only sounds filling the hospital room. At least there was a heartbeat.
Two days ago, I woke up in the hospital room with my parents by my side. It took hours before I could see Riley. Because of the accident, she needed to have reconstruction surgery on her right knee, and her left wrist was broken. They heavily sedated her for the pain, but now, everything was just on her to wake up. The wait had been excruciating.
The doctors fought me tooth and nail that I needed to rest, but I wasn’t leaving her side once I was allowed in her room. Being the hometown hero I guess had its perks because they eventually caved and told me they would be in to monitor my concussion.
