AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I raise my voice and shout, “Get out of here!” I’m heated. And though I’ve never hit a woman, I have punched Logan before, and this is exactly how I felt before I did it. “Never come back here. You hear me?”
“Oh, I’ll leave, just after I call the cops, you stupid bitch. I’m not scared of you…” But she keeps her eyes on me while she opens the passenger door to grab her cell off the seat.
I step closer, and she cowers against the car.
“You’re a blackmailing, slanderous, greedy woman. Get in your car and leave. You’re in the wrong place to make threats, Chloe. Nobody is on your side here. Least of all the sheriff.”
“Let me guess? You’re related. You’re all fucking inbred.”
I stride one step closer to where she stands, and she tries not to, but she flinches.
My voice is low. “Maybe I should tell the press whatyoureally did? Hmm?” I pull my cell from my back pocket. “I recorded this whole conversation.”
She tilts her head and narrows her eyes. “You didn’t.”
I wish I had.
“You wouldn’t. You know I still have your boyfriend’s little secret in my pocket. And that truth doesn’t change nomatter what happened here today. Don’t treat me like I’m stupid.” She heads over to her driver’s-side door. “But I’ll leave. I’ll leave because you’re not worth talking to anymore. I didn’t come here to see you anyway.”
“Youdidcome to see me. But don’t even think about waiting around town for Ashton. You’re leaving now. And I mean now. I will make sure no hotel takes you in, no restaurant serves you food. Your next stop is the airport… or you’re sleeping in your car tonight at the town border, and I’ll be around to wake you up in the morning with this stick.”
She mumbles something that sounds likecuntand drives off, tires skidding, broken shards of headlight plastic crunching against the gravel. Catching my breath, I watch the dust settle then, one heavy foot in front of the other, make my way to my house. Once the door is closed and I’m safe inside, the hockey stick falls from my hand and onto the floor with a deafening smack. I breathe sharply through my nose and drag my feet like I’m having an out-of-body experience. At the couch, I allow my body to crumble into the cushions. Diving face-first into a pillow, I can’t help it. I scream.
I scream because that woman still has control over Ashton.
I scream because I let myself believe he was mine.
I scream because I’m fucking helpless to get what I want.
And then the tears flow. I hate the warm, wet heat sliding down my cheeks. I hate it because she doesn’t deserve my tears but I can’t help it. A painful stab of despair thrashes through my chest like nothing matters anymore. I cry out my frustration, wailing loud into the empty space.
Eventually, my sobs become sniffles, and sniffles become a clog in my throat and a tension headacheof heartache. I sit up and try to pull myself together. What the hell just happened? Was what Chloe said true? Why wouldn’t Ashton have told me? He told this woman, someone he supposedly didn’t even love and didn’t even know his family well about his secret, and he never told me? Doesn’t he trust me?
My phone beeps in my back pocket.
MOM: WE MISS YOU TONIGHT AT THE GAME! BUZZER JUST WENT. I’LL KEEP YOU POSTED WITH THE SCORE.
Staring at her message, I wish I never had to come home tonight. I think about Ashton on the ice. How just last night he put himself on the line to defend my honor all over Eric Larose’s face. While he’s off there, Chloe was here, waiting for me. Waiting to rip my world to shreds. I swipe through my phone to my missed calls to check again if Ashton left me a voicemail.
None.
I read his text again.
PUP
JOEY—I WILL ALWAYS PUT YOU FIRST.
Instantly, my eyes brim with tears. He didn’t put me first. He lied. I never thought he’d lie to me. He had to have known this was coming. He wasn’t honest with me, and being caught off guard, letting Chloe rip into me totally unprepared was humiliating. He’s never let me down before, and I can hardly even swallow or breathe thinking of how finally, after all these years, Ashton proved he is, in fact, only human. Only a man who makes stupid man mistakes.
I can’t talk to him because he’s at the game. I can’t eat. I can’t watch TV. All I can do is cry until my eyes are swollenand I can’t even breathe through my nose anymore. He’ll be back tonight. I try to stay up until he gets here, but the sheer exhaustion of hopelessness gets the better of me, and I drift off on the couch with reruns ofGilmore Girlsflashing in the darkness.
Chapter Twenty-One
I’d normally betired after a long day of hockey, but the insane worry over the conversation I need to have with Joey wins the round. That night, I pull up in front of her house that night, and the white stream from my headlights glint on something on the gravel. I turn off my car, step outside, and use my cell to illuminate the debris.
Broken shards of plastic? I scan my cell in the darkness, looking for something broken in the area, but don’t see anything. Walking up the front door, I see allthe lights in Jolie’s house are off, but through the living room window, I notice a flicker from her TV. Is she still awake?
Regret at not having talked to Joey before leaving snakes through me. I didn’t want to make her worry all night. When I open the door, she’s curled up in the fetal position, her Starlight Vets scrubs still on and her tied-back hair falling out around her face in tendrils. I smooth one off her forehead and kiss it.
