Page 16 of Always on My Mind

“No,” Jamie shook her head. “I’m not.”

“Then there’s no point to this! I told you then and I’m telling you now, I won’t run around and hide in the dark like a criminal with you! I don’t know what you thought would happen by coming here and telling me something I already know!”

Jamie blinked. “You know how much I miss you?”

“Of course I do,” Tessa replied, blinking back tears. “Because I miss you too.”

Jamie stepped forward and reached for Tessa’s hand, but she yanked it away.

“It doesn’t change anything, though,” she said. “So. . . why? Why would you leave Man City like this?”

“I couldn’t stay,” Jamie told her. “I missed you so much, I couldn’t take it anymore. And then. . . ” she trailed off. “It wasn’t working.”

“How d’you mean?”

“One of the coaches, we. . . didn’t see eye to eye.”

“So they let you out of your contract?”

“I actually initiated the transfer.”

Tessa searched Jamie’s face, finding her jaw tighter and her lips drawn in. When she folded her arms over herself, Tessa saw it even clearer. Discomfort. And a little bit of shame.

“Jamie,” she said softly. “Did something happen?”

“No!” Jamie snapped. She took a deep breath and softened. “Nothing happened.”

“You’re lying.”

“Tessa, please don’t push me on this.”

“So, somethingdidhappen.”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

Tessa groaned and stamped her foot. “It’s always secrets with you! Never trust, never faith! Everything must be kept close to your chest because God forbid you believe that anyone else cares enough about you to keep you safe!”

“I know that you do, and you have by keeping my secret all this time, but this is not something I’m ready to talk about.”

Tessa sucked in a sharp breath and leaned against the wall. Several beats passed, the silence between them thick and murky as mud. If someone at Manchester City had harmed Jamie, Tessa was fully prepared to. . . to what? What right did she have any more to knowledge of Jamie’s welfare? And why, when she was the one who refused to give them another shot, was she heartbroken at the idea? She’d drawn the line herself, hadn’t she? She needed to stick to her guns.

“Fine. Makes no difference to me, anyway.”

“Tessa. . . I. . . ” Jamie trailed off, chewing her lip. “I don’t know what I expected. All I knew was that I had to see you again. And maybe, I dunno. . . bury the hatchet.”

“The hatchet’s long buried, Jamie,” Tessa said. “I just remember where.”

Jamie looked at the ground, wounded. “Got it.”

“We can be friendly,” Tessa went on. “For Niamh’s sake. Even if she did know our history, which she won’t, it wouldn’t be fair to put her in the middle.”

“Yeah. Agreed.”

Another beat passed. Tessa wondered if there was something else Jamie wanted to say based on the way she kept shifting her weight and squaring her shoulders. In the end, she didn’t let it out. No surprises there.

“We should get inside,” Tessa said. “Get back to the party.”

“Sure.”

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