Page 143 of Interference

Finally, he pushed himself off the door and stood straight, meeting my gaze. “You’ve made your decision. So I guess all I can really do is make peace with it.”

I bit back a retort that he’d made the decision. If he needed to blame this on me, then… God, fine. Whatever it took to put it all to bed. “Okay. So we just do our thing in front of the cameras and our teammates, and the rest of the time…”

“I guess, so, yeah.” He stepped away from the door, leaving me a clear path out of the apartment. “Was there anything else?”

“No.” I took a step toward the door, but hesitated. “I do want you to be happy, you know.”

Simon didn’t speak. He wouldn’t even look at me.

What else could I do but go?

I left his apartment and walked down to my car. After I’d started the engine, I sat there for a moment, gazing up at Simon’s place.

I wouldn’t call any of this closure. I wasn’t even sure we’d settled anything, honestly. All I could hope for was that he really could make peace with this—with the arrangement he’d wanted—and we could get to the end of this hockey season without killing each other.

Sighing, I backed out of the space and headed back to the home we’d once shared in Medina.

Chapter 40

Wyatt

“So?” I studied Anthony as he took off his jacket. “How’d it go?”

“Well, it’s done.” He hung his jacket on the back of a barstool. “Can’t say it was the most fun thing I ever experienced, but it’s over.”

“That’s good. And it went… as well as it could have?”

He nodded and went around the island. As he pulled a glass down from the cabinet and moved to the fridge’s water dispenser, he said, “Rooming with him is still going to suck, but at least we’ve settled things as much as we ever will.” After he’d filled his glass, he took a deep swallow of water. “You want to hear some bullshit?”

I raised my eyebrows. “Am I right in assuming it’s bullshit that came out of his mouth?”

Anthony laughed dryly. “Ooh, yeah.”

I leaned my hip against the island and hooked my thumbs in my pockets. “Well, now I’m definitely curious.”

He took another drink, and as he put the glass down on the counter, he rolled his eyes. “He got mad because he thought you interfered with his plan.”

I straightened. “What plan? And I interfered? How?”

“I guess he thought that after he broke up with me, I’d fall all over myself to win him back. He’s convinced that I didn’t do that because I wanted you instead.” He paused. Then his humor faded, and he met my gaze. “Now that I think about it, he might be at least partly right.”

“How so?”

“I wasn’t going to come crawling back to him.” He paused. “I hope I wouldn’t have. Anyway.” He shook himself. “The part he’s right about is that by the time he realized I wasn’t trying to win him back, I was focused on you. He didn’t have a chance with me after he ended things, but he’s absolutely right that something better came along and made me realize how much I’d been missing with him.”

I had no idea how to respond to that.

“I know we’ve only been doing this for a little while.” Anthony came closer and rested a hand on my waist. “But I like this. What we’re doing. And, yeah, being with you definitely made me see that I don’t have to settle for him.”

I blinked. “Oh. Really?”

“Yes.” He leaned in to kiss me softly. “I like this. I like how I feel when I’m with you, and not just because you’re the lesser of two evils. To be honest…” He held my gaze for a couple of long seconds. “You’re everything I thought I had with him.”

I was so caught off-guard, I didn’t know what to say. I’d expected him to be all up in his feelings when he came back from confronting Simon, but this? Pouring his heart out to me? Holy shit.

And the more I thought about it, the more my heart sank, because while I might’ve been more appealing next to Simon, I was a package deal.

“I like what we’re doing, too,” I whispered. “This is—all of it, it’s been amazing. But… Being with me is…” I swallowed hard, then blurted out, “What do I even bring to the table?”

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