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Hailey could spare me this one cruelty and give me something authentic after everything.
“What are you doing here?” I don’t bother shifting my focus or raising my voice past normal. If she wants to be here, then she can deal with the noise.
I’m trying to do the same with her news, or is it ours now?
I have a child—correction—wehave a child, but then again, she’s known that for three years, hasn’t she?
“Not sure how anyone could sleep with you blaring music out here like this. Do you realize what time it is?”
This comment has my neck nearly snapping in half when my head rises so quickly. How dare she, after everythingshe’sdone?
A flash of apology shines past her wince, but that’s all I get by way of a “sorry.”
I keep my face stonelike.
She crosses her arms in her sweatshirt. As her weight shifts, I settle back into my routine.
They’re oversized, her clothes, her top matching the bagginess of her sweatpants. It’s not something she’d wear, and I knew she’d snagged it from Rory’s closet the moment I saw it.
A growl rips at my throat.Stop thinking about her. She doesn’t deserve room in your thoughts.
I reach for another ball from the rack, distancing myself the best I can from her intrusive gaze. Mentally, I go through my checklist, and the ball flies. Once again, I’m left disappointed. I try another and fail more miserably than the first time.
At least the previous onetouchedthe rim.
“You’re lacking confidence,” she shouts over the music and fans. “That’s why you keep missing the shot.”
I want to tell her off. Yell right back that it’s like she hasn’t even met me. Doing that, though, would require me to acknowledge she’s here and I’ve already done too much of that today.
I choke down my snort. Try again, Williams.
Willing to prove her wrong, I go again, wanting to demonstrate I have enough backbone to fill an entire arena.
I snarl, my nails scraping as they dig, catching the ball midair after it bounces off the backboard. I push the damp strands of brown hair from my eyes. No way she’s right.
My lip curls when she takes a step through the opening, letting herself into my prison. I never asked for a cellmate.
Grabbing her own from my stand, she rotates the orange sphere between her hands.
My blood curdles. “You think you know better than me? Candobetter?”
Innocence may be floating in those eyes of hers, but I know they are anything but. Hailey is the definition of untrustworthy.
She moves forward and I wonder if she’s coming closer in my direction, but then at the last second, she fools me. Sideswiping me instead, she goes for a layup. Hers swishes in the net beautifully.
My left eye twitches. “Why are you here? Shouldn’t you be at your dad’s?”
Her mouth parts, like she hadn’t been expecting the question, let alone me attempting to make conversation.
That makes two of us.
“Rory suggested it. She thought it might be better for tonight after”—her throat bobs—“everything.”
So, where’s our supposed kid then? I assume he’s staying back with her dad at his house.
I’m in the mood to be a dick, so I am. “You shouldn’t have.” Stayed the nightorcome back. I let her decide which.
Her mouth dips as the muscles in her neck work with nervous energy.
