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All day Thursday,Hannah thought about Conner—the feel of his mouth and hands on her mostly, but also how impossible the situation was between them. He’d said he would track down Mariah, and she believed him, but she had no faith in that selfish woman telling the truth. In college, she always found Mariah to be a snob and almost rude to her brother. Why he even dated her was a mystery to her. They’d grown up in a working-class neighborhood, and Mariah made it clear she was accustomed to only the finest things.
Conner and Parker were due to spar in less than twenty-four hours to a sold-out crowd, and despite the excitement for the event, she had a feeling something was going to go wrong. She’d picked up tacos on her dinner break and stopped by the firehouse to force Parker to speak to her. He’d been dodging her calls ever since he found her with Conner the night that kid almost drowned, and she needed to make sure he wasn’t going to back out of the fight night.
“Stop worrying. I’m not going to kill your little crush-boy. I’m just going to give him a pair of matching black eyes,” Parker said, chuckling to himself.
She was relieved to know he was still going to participate in the sparring match, but she worried that Parker might be overconfident going up against Conner. And now, as he sat across from her, she wondered why they’d never questioned Mariah’s motives in the first place.
“Hey, can I ask you something without you biting my head off?”
His gaze popped up, and he studied her before he took another bite of his taco.
“Go ahead. Clearly, something is bothering you if you brought me dinner and you’re not even hungry.” He eyed her still-wrapped meal.
She hadn’t touched the burrito, and he knew it was her favorite.
“How do you know Mariah was telling the truth, about that night, I mean?”
As expected, his body tensed. Setting down his taco, he sat back in his chair but didn’t immediately respond. Wiping his hand on a napkin, he took a gulp of his drink.
“Let’s see, she was naked in Conner’s bed, and from what I could see, he was too. Not much to figure out.”
“Did Mariah apologize or even try to explain what happened? Maybe she was so drunk she wandered into the wrong room.”
Parker shook his head, his forehead bunched, and it was clear he hated to recall that night. “No, she didn’t give me any bullshit excuse like that. She wasn’t even sorry.”
“You mean she didn’t even try to beg for forgiveness?” she asked with a sinking feeling.
He scoffed and pushed away his meal. “If anything, she seemed pleased with herself. Like she’d accomplished some task to mark off her list.” His gaze dodged hers as he looked off into the empty kitchen. “She said I was insane if I thought she was going to settle down with someone like me. Then she kissed Conner’s cheek, and told him to call her before she grabbed her clothes, got dressed, and left. I saw red and attacked Conner. He fought back for a little bit but then admitted he was at fault. I was basically already packed up, so I just left.”
“What did she mean, settle down? Had you been talking about staying together after college?”
Parker’s face broke into a forced grin. “Worse. I was going to ask her to marry me. I even had the ring.”
“What? Did Conner know that?”
“No one knew. I only figured it out the last week of school. I thought I needed to make a big gesture to get her to commit to a long-distance relationship or convince her to move back to D.C. with me.”
“But you said yourself she wasn’t a nice person. Why would you want a future with someone like that? She was always acting like she was too good for you.”
“I think the more she treated me like I was unworthy the more I wanted to prove her wrong. Not very healthy, I know. I’ve probably got some commitment phobia stemming from Mom’s death, so I choose relationships that won’t last, right?”
“Parker, you’re more than worthy of love and respect in a relationship. But maybe you should explore why you don’t believe that. With, like, a therapist.”
He laughed and took another gulp of his drink.
“Probably. It didn’t help that my best friend was the one holding the knife when I got stabbed in the back. If Conner is trying to convince you he isn’t the guilty party, then he’s a bigger scumbag than I thought.”
“It just seems so out of character after almost two decades of being by your side. Why would he blow it all for one night with a mean, vindictive person like Mariah?”
“You should know after growing up in a house with three brothers, we don’t make every decision with our brains. For all I know, they’d been sleeping together for a while.” He scooted his chair back and moved to toss out the remnants of his meal. “Listen, I know you always had a thing for Conner, but he’s not who we thought he was. If he’s trying to hook up with you now, it’s likely just to pour salt in the wound of our dead friendship. I don’t want you to get hurt too.”
She was surprised her usually private brother told her his version of what happened. She had no idea he’d been so invested in his relationship with Mariah. No doubt he was ready for a change of subject. She sure was. She hated his assessment that Conner couldn’t have any real interest in her.
“Well, I guess you have enough inspiration for your match tomorrow. Be there by seven p.m. if you want to see the other fights.”
“I’ll be there.” He leaned back against the counter, eyeing her as she stood to leave.
“You didn’t even touch your dinner. Something else on your mind?”
