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“I don’t have your number anymore.”
“You do.”
She pinches one eye shut. “You never changed your number after going pro? That’s the first thing Logan did.”
“Well, I kept mine.”
She shakes her head. “You must have had a million and one nutters and stalker fans on the line.”
“Yup.” I think of all the times it was a total pain. I think of the headaches I had with Chloe when she wouldn’t believe the puck bunny begging to suck my dick was some ‘friend of a friend’ from high school who I’d never even met.Pain didn’t begin to describe it. But, keeping the number all seemed part of a promise I intended to honor.
Genuine confusion paints her features. “Why didn’t you just change it?”
I lean in farther, and for some strange reason, I feel like kissing her cheek goodnight but I ruffle her hair instead. “In case you needed it.”
I ease the car door shut, but she slams her hand against it.
“Wait. Seriously?”
“I promised I’d always be there for you. How was I supposed to help if you couldn’t get a hold of me?”
“You could have sent me your new number.”
That would have been the logical thing. But it hadn’t taken long after being with Chloe that her incredibly jealous nature was apparent. I figured I would deal with the unsolicited calls or deal with Chloe’s drama. She would have gone ballistic if I went out of my way to make sure Jolie Hunter, a woman from my past, who Chloe always seemed to hate hearing about, just had to have my new number.
But Jolie doesn’t need to know all that, so I let her think I’m an idiot and shrug.
She’s in disbelief. “Are you serious?” She narrows her eyes, still thinking it’s some prank.
“I promised you I’d always be there, didn’t I?” Bringing up the night she asked me to take her virginity sends waves of memories crashing through me. I wonder if I would have had the willpower to say no to the woman in front of me now.
She chews the inside of her lip, thinking, nostalgia ablaze in her eyes. That prom night promise isn’t any farther from her mind than it is from mine. She nods.
“All right then.” I let go of her car door and step backward. “You drop me that text when you’re home.”
“Okay.”
She starts the car, but the door is still open, and I get the impression she still hasn’t recuperated from my confession. The pause is an opportunity for me to drive it home how much I still care.
“Joey?”
“Yeah?” She glances up.
“I’m happy to pretend the last ten years didn’t happen, but if you ever want to talk about it, I’m all ears.”
As if I melted something heavy on her shoulders, liquid tension rolls down her arms, and her body relaxes.What is Jolie hiding?
“Thanks.” She closes the door.
I walk away backwards, away from the old feelings and the new. Saying all that out loud, that I saved my nuisance of a high school cell phone number all this time just to keep a promise I made in college… I wonder if it sounded like more than it is.
I wonder if itismore than it is.
Because to my mind, keeping that number protected a girl. But now, it protects a woman.
Jolie’s house, Bird’s Eye, is closer to town than mine is. So only a few minutes after stepping through my front door, my cell buzzes.
UNKNOWN NUMBER
