Page 52 of Hart Breaker

I open my eyes, and she’s holding up her hand.

“I gave him back his ring last night. Today was my sister’s whole mess the dress idea. I owed her this because I should have never …” She shrugs.

Nodding like a fucking bobblehead, all hopeful and shit, I ask, “Yeah?”

“But you and me?” She shakes her head. “I want to be single for a while; I want to heal my relationship with my mom and Lo; and …” She shrugs. “I’m not ready to just jump back into?—”

“Like I said,” I cut her off from drowning in her words, not wanting to make her feel like shit, “you deserve better than him, and you know that. It’s all worked out now.”

Fuck this … rejection? It feels like … complete and total shit, but it is what it is. I’ll have to take comfort in having a hand in putting Riley Mae Brooks on a figurative shelf.

I open the door. “Beth, we’re all set here.”

I watch her walk toward the car and keep my focus on her because, yeah … what the fuck is this feeling?

When she slides in, Riley asks to take her back to the fountain so she can rejoin her group.

When we pull up to drop her off, I clear my throat. “Congratulations on your not-wedding day.”

She smiles softly. “I appreciate it. See you soon, Hart.” She shuts the door behind her, and I fall back against the seat.

“I know I’m asking a lot, but can you take me to my hotel?”

Beth and I stop so she can get gas. I, of course, pay for it, and I use the ATM to withdraw whatever the max they allow to pay her for her time, and she gives me her digits so I can send her the virtual tickets when I score them.

Before she pulls away from the curb, Beth rolls down the window. “Can I offer you some advice?”

“You sure can.”

“Don’t relent. Give her a couple of days, but then you go hard after her. She’s into you, kid, but she’s probably terrified of dating a player.”

When I walk into the lobby, Logan is waiting for me. “How’s your IBS now? Is it better?”

I thought Boone told them I had the shits, not an entire fucking disease. “I’m good.”

“Team’s up on the tenth, chilling before dinner. I’ll head up with you.”

“Thanks.”

I notice there are even more Knoxville Knights shitheads gathered behind the security guards this time.

When we enter the elevator and the doors close, Logan shakes his head. “Guessing that’s why our CFO is Daddy Links now?”

Logan chuckles. “You’re guessing right. Just keep it under wraps; we don’t want them fucking with the team’s morale.”

“Why grown-ass people don’t have anything better to do than be assholes is beyond me.”

“The more fans you gain, the more haters follow,” he says, leaning against the wall.

“Which is why I stay off social media,” I admit. “If I see one person fuck with my people, I’d end up getting canceled.”

He looks me over. “You good, Hart?”

“Fuck yeah. Ready to win tomorrow.”

“Your head’s in the game?”

“The world could be coming to an end. Alien ships hovering above the field, and I could turn it all off and focus on the game, the win.” It hits me like a helmet to the nuts that he knows something, so I ask, “You good?”

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