Page 28 of Her Football Star Ex

“Well, it was going okay at first,” I said, remembering back to the first part of the night. “Dinner was good and the conversation was engaging.”

“Yeah?”

I ran my fingers through the bubbles in the water. “But when he started talking about wanting to have enough kids to build his own basketball team, I pretty much knew it wasn’t going to work out from there.”

He and I both only had one kid each, so it would take at least three more.

“Oh.” Ivy’s voice was soft. “I’m sorry.”

I nodded even though she couldn’t see me and swallowed the emotion bubbling in my throat. When I felt I could speak again, I said, “So anyway, that was the first sign that we weren’t going to work out.”

“The first sign?” she asked. “So there was more?”

“Yep,” I said. “After the whole kids thing came up, Jaxon suddenly showed up at my side.”

“What?” Ivy asked, her tone surprised. “How? Did he and Vincent follow you there? Was Vincent trying to sabotage your date?”

“I don’t think so.” I shook my head and laughed. Ivy used to have her own gossip blog so of course she’d think of something like that. “Apparently, it was just a weird coincidence. I think they wanted some of that chocolate lava cake they serve there, and they just happened to want it the same night I was there.”

“It is a great cake,” Ivy said. “That’s the cake I ate the night Hazel thought I was secretly dating you.”

“It is?” I laughed, remembering Ivy’s story. She’d run into Miss Hazel, her grandmother figure, who was having dinner with the guy she was crushing on before—who was now her boyfriend. But back then, Ivy had pretended to be on a dinner date with a fake boyfriend when it was really me she was eating dinner with. And since the universe can’t let any lie go unpunished, when Ivy tried to come clean about the fake boyfriend thing, Miss Hazel misunderstood and somehow interpreted it to mean that Ivy and I were romantically involved.

So to prove she was into men and not girls, Ivy ended up kissing Justin right there in the restaurant for all the customers to witness.

“Sounds like Element 47 is quite the exhilarating place to go on a date for both of us,” I said.

“Or fake date,” she interrupted with a laugh.

I had to smile. “Yep. It has turned out pretty hazardous for both you and me.”

“I don’t know,” she said thoughtfully after her laughter had died down. “I did end up with the guy I kissed that night.”

“I guess that’s true,” I said.

“Maybe the restaurant’s real magic isn’t necessarily in matching you with the person you went to dinner with, but the person you felt the most sparks with while you were there?” she said. “Was there a hot waiter? Or some other guy sitting at another table who piqued your interest?”

I thought about it. But I couldn’t remember anyone that I’d felt any sort of spark with while I was there.

In fact, I hadn’t even felt anything when Dave touched my hand at dinner.

If I were to be honest with myself, the moment that had caused my body to react the most to someone tonight was those few seconds when I’d been in Vincent’s arms after he saved me from that car in the parking lot.

Yep, my body was really stupid sometimes.

I sighed. “If the restaurant has any sort of magic, it must be dark magic because the guy I felt the most sparks with was Vincent. And I’m pretty sure that’s not happening again.”

Yes, we still had amazing chemistry. And yes, there had been a few times over the past year when he’d done something sweet with Jaxon or looked at me the same way he had on our wedding day, which had made me wish I could forgive and trust him again.

But going back to someone just because they still made your heart flutter was not a smart way to go about life. Marriage took so much more than attraction and a few tender moments. It took hard work and trust.

And as much as Vincent told me the night with Victoria was a mistake and meant nothing to him, I couldn’t get over the fact that he had slept with her instead of coming straight home to me.

While I knew no one was perfect, and we all make mistakes we wish we could undo, there were just some things that you can’t overlook. My mom had forgiven my dad for cheating on her so many times, only to have him leave her in the end to be with a woman twenty years younger than him. I refused to turn a blind eye and forgive and forget like she did. I wasn’t going to repeat the pattern that I’d grown up with. Butterflies in my stomach or not.

Ivy must have known something was going on in my head because she said, “It must be so complicated to be around Vincent all the time.”

“Way more complicated than I thought.” I let out a long sigh. “When we got divorced, I naively thought it meant I would be done with him for good. I somehow didn’t think about how I’d still have to see him a few times a week when we exchanged Jaxon.”

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