“I’m sorry, Jack. I just need to talk about this, or I’ll bury it inside me and eventually explode.”
He looked at me, a small, rueful smile on his face. “No, you’re right. You deserve answers.”
“Do we have time? I mean, do you have to go the field today?” After all, he was a professional baseball player, and the season was in full swing.
“The team’s on the road. They flew me here to get settled instead of flying me there. I have to report in tomorrow morning at ten.”
“OK. So, we can talk about this now then?” My pulse raced as nerves filled my body. Jack was here, with me, in my bed. He loved me, and he’d never stopped. So, why was I so nervous?
“What happened after I left for New York?”
“Do you want a play-by-play for the entire six months? I might end up boring you back to sleep.”
I rolled my eyes, and he frowned. “Just tell me the good parts.”
“If this were a story filled with good parts, Kitten, I would have been here a long time ago,” he teased, reaching out to caress my cheek with his thumb.
I leaned into his hand and closed my eyes, lost in the comfort his touch provided. “I meant the parts that made you take so long. Give me the CliffsNotes version,” I asked softly, unsure of what words would follow.
Jack snuggled me against him, and began to tell me the story.
And just like that, she was gone. But not before saying the two fucking words that plagued my nightmares. This girl always asked me to “prove it,” to prove my love and devotion for her. I deserved it after everything I put her through. She didn’t trust me anymore.
I wouldn’t trust me either.
It’s ironic though, right? That I was the one left standing all alone in a parking lot that time. I swear if my heart could have leaped out of my chest and into my hands, it would have. I imagined that for a moment… the blood trickling through my fingertips, splashing onto the concrete below as I watched it slowly pound out its last beats before stopping altogether.
Fuck.
My life does not make sense without this girl. And now she’s gone.
Again.
How is it that I’m always losing her?
I unbuttoned my game jersey and let it fall around the top of my uniform’s sliding pants. I glanced behind me toward the apartment door at the top of the stairs and slowly started to make my way there, my cleats clanging loudly on the pavement with each step. I wasn’t ready to go back to the hotel with my team. Not right then. They’d be celebrating the night’s win, and I needed to grieve the night’s loss.
The vision of Cassie disappearing from view in that taxi played over and over again in my mind. I closed my eyes, willing the hateful image to disappear. The sound of feminine laughter and my brother’s familiar voice woke me from my Cassie-filled daze.
“Oh shit. Jack?” Melissa’s sympathy came through loud and clear, both in her eyes and in her tone.
I glanced up at Cassie’s best friend standing on the stairs with my little brother. Dean was only a couple years younger than I was, but he’d always be little to me, even if he did almost match my height. My eyes were heavy, my head pounded, and I simply nodded.
“Come on, bro, let’s get you inside.” Dean wrapped an arm around my back and propelled me up the cement staircase as Melissa unlocked the front door to her apartment and stepped inside.
“Did you see her?” she asked, tossing all her crap on top of the kitchen table.
“I saw her,” I responded coolly, adding my hat to the mess as I dropped into a chair at the table.
“Well, what the hell happened? What did she say?” she demanded, gesturing wildly.
“She left.” I shrugged. “She’s moving to New York.”
“Well, of course she’s moving to New York,” she said, her voice turning cold.
Dean placed a hand on my shoulder, before explaining, “Melissa just means that Cassie has to start living her life for herself. She has to make decisions that have nothing to do with you.”
The words hurt like hell. I jerked my head up, glaring at my little brother. “I know that. You think I don’t know that?”
“Do you? Do you really, or did you think she’d just leap into your arms and you’d live happily ever after?” Dean shot back, his voice filled with accusation.
A quick huff ripped from my lips, and I smiled sheepishly. “I thought there might be some leaping,” I admitted, shrugging one shoulder.
Melissa’s usually sweet mouth twisted into a snarl. “That’s bullshit, Jack. You expect her to give up her career because you asked her to?”
“I didn’t ask her to give up her career. I just figured she’d at least talk to me. Postpone her flight. Give me a fucking chance.”