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She was frowning and I wanted to lighten the mood. “Well, my mouth works when we’re naked. I thought I just proved that.”
I smirked when her eyes shot to mine. Her left eyebrow shot up in challenge. Teagan couldn’t help but smile as she threw my pants at me. “Hmmm, my blouse is destroyed.” She put it on and tried to tie it shut at the bottom but it left a wide expanse of skin showing at her waist and plunging between her breasts. I couldn’t help appreciating the view it afforded.
I’d thrown on my pants and walked into the other room to grab one of my white T-shirts from one of the dresser drawers. I realized, with more guilt, that Bronwyn had unpacked my suitcase and put the few pieces away. “I like the way that looks, but this might be better when we go back to the hospital.”
I walked to her and bent to kiss her mouth softly, tilting her chin up with the crook of my index finger. I had a hard time not touching her. Teagan’s hands settled on both sides of my bare waist as my lips ghosted over hers intent on another kiss.
“Chase,” she said, tensing. “I thought we were going to talk.”
She was right. We did need to talk. Her reaction just now when I mentioned Jensen nagged at me. I threw on my shirt and left it unbuttoned over my bare chest, padding into the kitchen to get the food. The small three-room apartment was sparsely furnished with a bed, a couch and chair, and a small kitchen table with two chairs. There were also a few utensils, pots, pans and dishes. I opened three drawers before I found the forks but then closed it without taking them out, realizing we weren’t going to talk about our relationship and future over crappy Chinese food.
I turned back into the living room. Teagan was sitting on the couch, and dressed in the T-shirt and her shorts; she looked so young with her love-tousled hair. I went to sit beside her and took her hand in mine. “So, talk.”
“I’ve told you a lot of it, but what you don’t know is that despite my father, I was going to drop out of Clemson and come to London. All of this happened before Jensen took it upon himself to approach my father.”
Her words were soft but held the weight of a sledgehammer. My eyes widened in surprise. “What?”
“After I found out I was pregnant, I was scared you’d give up Arsenal and I panicked. I didn’t tell you in Pennsylvania because you were so excited about the offer, and I couldn’t ruin it. But, after you left, I was so sad and I knew you’d want to know.”
“Then why, Teagan—?” I wanted to tell her that when I left I had no intentions of a life without her. Ever.
“No, let me finish. I was a total mess without you already, and my father refused to pay my tuition anywhere but Clemson for the last year, and worse, he swore to ruin your career if I followed you, until Jensen took the heat. He’s your friend, Chase. He really thought he was helping us both. He told my dad Remi was his, all on his own. I never asked him to do it, and I didn’t know until it was done.”
“You have to know that Jensen has always been in love with you, Teag. If you think he married you for any other reason, you’re kidding yourself. And you gave your dad way too much power. He couldn’t have done shit to my career. Rumors go away.”
“Maybe. I don’t know.” She pulled her hand free and a scowl settled on her face. “I’m trying to take responsibility, Chase. I’m not excusing what we did, and I’m not trying to paint Jensen a saint, but he was trying to save me from being left alone and took care of me.”
I ran an exasperated hand through my hair. “Why would you be alone? You knew how much I loved you. It was me who should have taken care of you.” Anger started to well up inside, despite my intention to remain calm. “You had to know in your heart that I’d want Remi.”
“No, I didn’t.”
I huffed indignantly. “Why in the hell would you doubt me?”
She inhaled sharply. “Because. I was going to surprise you in London, but when I called you the night before my scheduled flight, a woman answered your cell phone! It was the middle of the night there, Chase. Bronwyn admitted to me in the cafeteria, this morning; it was her.”
“What the hell are you saying? You’re accusing me of cheating?”
“It broke my heart and it broke— me. It hurt so badly I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t care if I lived or died. I was pregnant, my world was about to implode and you were apparently taking the first chance you had to be with someone else.” She threw her hands in the air and let them drop into her lap, her eyes leaving mine to stare at her hands.
I stood and reeled on her accusingly. “How could you believe I’d do that?”
“I was in so much pain, maybe I wasn’t thinking straight. Jensen was the closest friend I had and I called him crying my heart out. He stayed with me and I told him about the phone call and the baby. He wanted to confront you, but I begged him not to. The next day, he went to my dad and said the baby was his.”
“That’s tied up pretty neat, except I wasn’t sleeping with Bronwyn, Teagan! She was one of the trainers. She was constantly with the team. The whole team!”
“I know that now, but I didn’t then.”
“I didn’t start dating her until this year, for Christ’s sake!” Her eyes widened and I started to pace back and forth in the small space as pain and fury exploded inside me. Both hands clenched into fists at my sides. My expression had to be twisted with agony and flushed because I could feel the heat rising under my skin. “You should have called me! You should have trusted me!” I accused. “Jensen should have known better, too! Neither one of you trusted me enough or thought enough of me to fucking ask me for the truth?”
Tears welled in her eyes. “We should have, you’re right, but after the first call, I was terrified to go through that again. I couldn’t deal with hearing you say you didn’t want me, to hear that it was true from your own mouth. So… I let you go.”
I stopped and faced her, stunned by those four words. “You let me go,” I repeated her statement and it was laced with misery. Tears overflowed my eyes and helplessly ran down my face. I brushed them away in frustrated anger; pissed that I was incapable of hiding how I felt. She let me go. Just like that.
“You think you fucking let me go? That was the farthest thing from the truth!” I railed at her; yelling at the top of my lungs. My heart was exploding inside my chest and I felt like an iron band was constricting my chest. “You killed me! You let me think you and Jensen were fucking behind my back for God knows how long!”
She scrambled off the couch and came to me crying. Her fingers wrapped around my forearms as she pleaded with me. “Chase, please listen! I didn’t know that’s what you believed, or I would have made sure you knew the truth. I thought you were happy in your new life and that it wouldn’t matter to you about us! I had no reason to think otherwise. I watched you play and…”
“How could you know anything? We weren’t talking! You weren’t taking my calls. Neither of you did. Do you know how it feels to be completely cut off from the two people you trusted and loved the most?”
