Even the Score(80)

My eyes danced around his face while I took a second to ingest everything he’d just said. One thing I didn’t understand, though. I pulled my brows in together and tilted my head slightly. “Okay, but what made you even fall in love with her in the first place? She doesn’t sound like she was ever very lovable.”

“We started dating in college. Back then, she had a zest for life and talked about all these things she was going to do after graduation. She wanted to start a clothing line and be a high-end fashion designer. I was enamored with her, or with who I thought she was going to be. I couldn’t wait to see what she was going to do with her future . . .” He trailed off.

“And . . . ?” I wasn’t letting him off the hook that easy.

“And . . .” He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Then right before graduation, she told me she was pregnant.”

My eyes bulged and my mouth fell open. “Whoa! I had no idea.”

“Most people don’t.” He shook his head, dropping his gaze down toward his lap. “Her filthy-rich parents freaked out and basically told us we had to get married. At the time I loved her enough, so we did.”

“Wow,” I mumbled incredulously.

“Coincidentally, the week after the wedding, she lost the baby.”

“Holy shit.” I stared at him in disbelief. “You sound skeptical?”

“I was. I am. She’s never actually admitted it, but the timing was suspicious to say the least.” He lifted his eyes to mine and licked his lips. “Brody was being scouted every single game by two to three new agents and getting offers at least once a week. It was obvious he was going to the pros. She was my girlfriend, so of course I shared that with her.”

I nodded my head slowly as it all started to sink in. “And naturally once you became Brody’s agent and he started making crazy good money, you would, too.”

“Yep. Her parents forced us to have the most over-the-top shotgun wedding ever, so she wasn’t pregnant very long, but she never showed me a test or anything. And the one time she was supposedly going to a doctor appointment, I asked her if I could come with, and she freaked. Accused me of not believing her and smothering her. I told her that wasn’t at all what I was doing, that I was just curious and wanted to go with, but she picked the fight anyway and stopped talking to me . . . until after the appointment.”

My mind drifted to my first encounter with Blaire. I had only met her the one time in Andy’s kitchen, but with that meeting plus everything Ellie had told me, I wasn’t at all surprised that she was manipulative, I just had no idea she could be that manipulative. It sounded like she’d made making Andy’s life miserable her main hobby, and that made me sad for him. Sadder for Becca and Logan. “Wow. I’m so sorry you had to deal with all of that. Did you ever have good times?”

Andy pulled his brows in tight and looked down at the couch. “In the beginning things weren’t all bad. Our first official date was at this little restaurant called Storybook Productions. It was a café that sold sandwiches, soups, salad, things like that, and every evening they had local authors come in and read parts of their books. Sometimes it was romance, sometimes crime dramas, sometimes science fiction. It was so easy to get lost in their stories. I always wound up buying the books after, except romance, that wasn’t my thing.” We both chuckled, and he continued, “In the beginning we went often, then slowed to once a month, and eventually we stopped altogether except for our anniversaries. Even once we were married, we always went there for dinner. On our third wedding anniversary, we went there like usual. The whole time, she was on her phone or staring off into space. At one point, she actually started filing her nails. She was so rude and I was embarrassed. After we left, she was pissed off and told me never to bring her there again. It was no longer good enough for her.”

“Yikes.” She really was a monster.

“Yeah, and I was bummed because while we could afford to have dinner wherever we wanted, that was our place. Money didn’t matter in there, at least not to me.”

It was no secret that I liked to keep my emotions tucked away, safe from everyone else’s judgment, but I couldn’t imagine being as cold and uncaring as Blaire was. I thought once you got married and had kids, you were supposed to love them more than you did yourself? That you should put their needs and happiness above your own? Not only did Blaire not do those things, she actually took happiness away from the people she loved. She was some sick, well-dressed burglar of happiness.