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My eyes cut to her. What is she talking about? “My mom?”
“That’s why you went after him. It reminded you of your mom and dad. How your mom was so afraid of your dad cheating on her that she’d show up at road games and surprise him. There you were on the road and saw the guy I’m dating dancing with another woman.”
“Fuck.” I run my hand through my hair. I never even thought of it that way before. Never put those things together.
“I’m not your mom,” she whispers.
“I know that.”
“Do you?” Wetness fills her eyes.
I pause before I respond. “I had my suspicions about how the league worked from stories my dad told me. The women everywhere throwing themselves at you. I never wanted someone I cared about to have to deal with that or feel insecure about it.” I stop, the realization gutting me. “I think I tried to be content with us staying in the best friend zone to prevent you from ever feeling that pain I saw my mom live through all those years, but…”
“Someone else did it anyway. You tried to save me from it, but someone else did it. Or so you thought.”
“Shit, Elle.” I scoot closer to her. “You’re right. That’s why I’m so mad about it. All this time, I’ve kept my feelings hidden to keep you safe.”
“You were forgetting one thing, Cooper.”
“What?”
She places her hand on my stubbled cheek. “I’d only ever hurt like that if you did it to me. I never cared about Bradley, not in that way. And even if I had, it would never measure up to how much I care about you.”
“Are you saying what I think you are?”
She gives me a coy smile. “That depends. Do you have something to tell me?”
I freeze, stuck in my fear again. I’ve already pretty much told her without saying the words, but as soon as the words come out of my mouth, they’re there, lying between us, never to be taken back.
Can I break the promise I made to her eight years ago? I’m not sure.
Chapter 16
Ellery
Senior Year of College
Bryce and I were meeting Cooper at a party. Unfortunately, he hadn’t won the Player of the Year award that year, even though he’d won it the previous year, but he wasn’t upset. His eyes were on the future, with the draft only months away. With the help of the coaches and his dad’s friends, he found an agent he really connected with.
Things were going well. Although sometimes I saw the grief of missing his dad seep in, most of the time, he was the same old Cooper.
“Do I look okay?” Bryce asked while we walked down the sidewalk toward the party.
It wasn’t hard to find the house with the noise flowing down to the street. She was wearing a short skirt and a tight T-shirt that showed off her body. She’d recently broken up with Ian and was searching for a rebound.
“You look great.”
She hooked her arm in mine as we walked. “You know, Cooper seems different lately.”
“How so?”
“I think he might be ready to be more than friends. Now that some time has passed since his dad died.”
Some people filed down onto the sidewalk with drunken swaggers as we grew closer to the house.
“I’m not sure about that.”
There had been more than one time when I’d thought that maybe we’d both had enough of just friendship. Late nights of studying where we woke up cuddled on the couch. Or watching movies with our legs or arms touching, causing electricity to shoot up my arm. Sometimes I felt like I was the only one who felt that way. But last week, he cornered me in the galley kitchen and tickled me until I screamed mercy. It ended with me bending back on the counter and him right above me, chest to chest. Our eyes locked, and in that instant, I knew that I wasn’t the only one thinking about what it would be like if we were more than friends.
