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I sigh. “Okay.”
“Okay.” He grins against my neck before kissing it. I wish he’d grow a beard.
While everyone is putting stuff in the truck, I head into my room for a breather. I sit on my bed and then fall back, exhaling heavily. I can’t believe Josie is marrying Denis. I’m not hurt or upset, but I do find it pretty funny. I wonder if she liked him the whole time he was with me? I wonder if that’s why she was always saying something about my weight, because the guy she liked picked me. The biggest one of the three of us. With thoughts of Josie and Denis come thoughts of Dart. A grin pulls at my mouth, remembering the way he looked at Lindy and Josie, like he was about to step between us to protect me from them in the lobby.
Ugh, I miss him.
I sit up and walk over to my dresser. I open the top drawer, where the photo of Dart and me sits in a frame from the dollar store. I figured if I bought the frame there, it wouldn’t be a big deal that I’d framed the photo. But I had been keeping it on the bedside table, just so it’d prompt good dreams before I went to sleep. When I decided to move on with Troy, I felt I needed to put the picture away. But I still see it every morning since it hides in my underwear drawer.
I run my finger along Dart’s lips, and the way he smiles takes my breath away still to this moment. Something inside me urges me to text him, tell him I’m coming to North Carolina. But I know that’s still too far away for us to see what could happen.
And what about Troy?
Chills run through me at my loss, and the regret burns deep in my chest.
“Is that him?”
I practically jump out of my skin when my mom’s voice comes from my left. “Jesus, Mom,” I say, pressing the photo to my chest. “What is wrong with you?”
“I called you like six times.”
“I wasn’t listening!”
“Obviously,” she says, setting me with a look before she pulls the frame from my hand. I watch as her brow furrows, and her lips tip up at the side. “Well, lordy me,” she whispers. “Look at you two.”
Emotion squeezes my throat in a way I wish were Dart’s hand instead. “He’s a looker, huh?”
“Devastatingly handsome,” she says, studying the photo closer. “But it’s the two of you together that is breathtaking.”
My heart constricts in my chest. “It was the best night of my life.”
She leans into me. “Have you talked to him?”
“No, not at all,” I whisper, sighing deeply. “Is it pathetic I miss him?”
She laughs. “Baby, I don’t even know him, and I wish I did.” She gathers my hair in her hand, twisting it gently. “I don’t think this thing with Troy will work out.”
“It could,” I say softly. “It should.”
She gives me a very motherly look, and I know I’m not about to like what she has to say. “Oh, my sweet girl,” she says, wrapping her arms around my neck. “It won’t as long as this man has your heart.”
My heart burns in my chest as I close my eyes because I know she’s right.
“What am I going to do?”
“Tennie, my baby, I don’t even know—”
“Tennessee!” My eyes fly open at the sound of Troy’s voice, and I stuff the photo back into the drawer as I look toward the door he’s standing in. “Baby, did you see the email?”
I bring in my brows, moving out of my mom’s arms and picking up my phone. I open the email from my boss and read it quickly.
My whole body goes cold as I read the name of the last of the three professional sports teams we’re contracted with.
IceCats.
I look up at Troy, and he’s obviously excited. “I thought we were contracted for North Carolina?”
He shakes his head. “No, South. They made a change, also secured different apartments.”
Mom looks at me, confused. “Well lordy, Tennie, how long is this drive gonna be!”
But I can’t process the drive. Or even the other two teams.
Because all I see is the IceCats.
The very team D’Artagnan Miklas plays for.
My gaze whips to Troy’s excited one, but I don’t feel his enthusiasm.
No. For me, it’s pure fear as I realize that not only is karma not playing around when it comes to the upcoming nuptials of Josie and Denis, but now fate wants to join in by bringing me not only to the same state, but the same arena, as D’Artagnan.
And I’m involved with someone.
Who is not D’Artagnan.
That’s cool. Totally fine.
I’m totally fucking fine.
Chapter Thirteen
Dart
“Did you hook up with Jean?”
I take a deep breath in as I hold myself up, rolling my hip out on the foam roller. I don’t spare Owen a look as I answer, “I’m not telling you shit. You’ve got a big mouth.”
