Page 90 of The Wrong Quarterback

“Please, Casey.” His voice softened, searching. “Remember how it used to be? All those good times we had? You were the one I turned to for everything. And I was that for you too. Don’t you remember?”

My pulse quickened, but I pushed the memories back, steeling myself against the way his words tried to dig under my skin.

He took a step forward, his voice barely a murmur. “I can be that person again. The one you needed, the one who’s knownyou since the beginning. I haven’t had a drink since that night. Iwon’thave a drink. I’m going to do everything to get you back.”

“Gray, I need you to leave,” I said, my voice coming out firmer than I felt.

But he didn’t move, his expression twisting in something that almost looked like pain. “You think Parker is gonna love you like I do?”

The words stung, lacing their way under my skin, but I pushed them down, my hand gripping the edge of the door.

I pressed my lips together, fighting the knot tightening in my chest.

He leaned toward me. “He can never love you like me, because he’ll neverknowyou like me.”

I stared at him for a long, tense minute, and then without another word, I closed the door in his face. Leaning back against it, my mind was a mess of memories.

It was hard to say goodbye to memories that had once been held in strict reverence in my mind, the only things that had kept me going in years filled with nothing but pain.

But no matter what Gray wanted, Parker’s glow was too strong. Gray wanted to pull me back into the past, but I didn’t live there anymore. I’d learned that what I thought were highlights, sparks of brightness that were all because of Gray…they were actually nothing but shadows.

Swallowing the tangle of emotions clawing at my chest, I pushed myself off the door. I needed clarity, I needed to feel grounded again. I grabbed my keys, knowing there was only one place to go when my heart felt torn apart like this.

It was time to talk to Ben.

PARKER

“You look suspiciously rosy-cheeked,” Jace quipped as we walked into the locker room. “I wonder why that is.”

I grinned. I wasn’t going to deny it. Well, I wasn’t going to say I was rosy-cheeked. Because what the hell was that? But Iwassupremely happy, like someone had stuck me with fucking happy juice and this was my new state of being.

“What’s the opposite ofdickmatized?” Matty asked, leaning his arm on Jace’s shoulder as they both gave me smug smiles.

“Pussy-conquered?” Jace offered, cocking his head as he thought about it.

“Oh, yes. That’s a good one,” Matty said, giving Jace a fist bump.

“I don’t like this,” I said, pointing to the two of them. “When you two gang up on me.”

“It’s because you’re a little scary now, QB. You’ve got that crazy look in your eyes. We’ve got to shore up our defenses,” explained Jace.

“What?”

“Just in case it’s catching, he means,” said Matty. “We didn’t sign up for…what was the word again?”

“Pussy-conquered. We didn’t sign up for that,” supplied Jace helpfully.

I scoffed. “I’m pretty sure that’s not a word.”

“I’m pretty sure that your picture is the definition of it in the dictionary,” said Matty.

I threw my jockstrap at him, and he ducked, laughing when it smacked the wall behind him.

“I’m just saying, Matty. If you let your little stalker get within ten feet of you…maybe you will get a little crazy too.”

Matty shuddered like that was his worst nightmare. “Take that back right now.”

“I don’t know, Matthew. She might be just the kind of crazy you need in your life.”

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