Page 59 of Her Football Star Ex

Cole’s thick eyebrows raised. “What?”

“I slept in Jaxon’s bed,” I hurried to say before he got his hopes up.

“Oh.” He relaxed again. “So, what’s going on then?”

I tried to decide how much I wanted to tell him. We didn’t exactly talk a lot about ourfeelingswith each other very often. I’d saved talks like that for my therapist over the past year.

But my therapist couldn’t fit me in his schedule until tomorrow, so I rubbed the back of my neck and said, “Some stuff just happened that made me realize that even though I’ve been hanging on to the hope that she might give me a second chance someday, it’s probably not possible.” The image of Emerson running to my balcony flashed through my mind again. “I broke us irreparably.”

I really had traumatized her with what I’d done.

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“Yeah.” I rubbed my hands along my thighs.

Cole gave me a hesitant look, like he had something to tell me but wasn’t sure he should.

“What is it?” I asked, my chest tight.

He lifted a shoulder then pulled his phone out from his locker, and after a few taps on the screen, he showed it to me.

“Emerson sent me this message a little while ago.”

I furrowed my brow and took the phone from his hands. Emerson had messaged the profile I’d used to chat with her last Saturday.

Man, that seemed like a lifetime ago.

Emerson:How was the rest of your weekend? Mine was interesting. I’d love to chat about it over dinner sometime.

The words blurred for a moment as I read them again. I didn’t know what I expected her to do after last night and this morning, but for some reason, I hadn’t expected her to throw herself back into online dating the same day.

Maybe she really did feel nothing for me.

Maybe that kiss last night had only been for memory’s sake, after all.

I’d thought for a minute that things might have turned into something more, that she might have had some residual feelings for me, but apparently, it had all been in my head.

She had shut the door to the possibility of us when she’d drawn up the divorce papers. And it was only me who had been confused over the past year.

I blinked my eyes a few times, pushing down the surge of emotion that came with the realization that I never had a chance of getting Emerson back and that I’d just been fooling myself.

I handed Cole his phone. “You should probably just delete those messages,” I said.

He took the phone back, confusion in his eyes. “You’re not going to respond?”

I shook my head and stood, needing to get out of the locker room. “If she knew it was me she’d chatted with on Saturday, she wouldn’t be interested in having dinner.”

“Are you sure?” Cole slipped his phone into the pocket of his sweatpants. “She’s trying to set something up, so I’d say she’s interested.”

“Because she thinks it’s a guy named Tyler. A guy who didn’t cheat on her. A guy she could start out with on a fresh clean slate.” I looked down at my feet. “She would walk right out the door if she saw me waiting for her at a table.” I turned to Cole. “Maybe even run.”

“So you’re just going to leave her hanging then? Just ghost her?”

I nodded. “It’s for the best.”

He gave me a look that told me he wasn’t so sure, but after studying me for a moment, he nodded. “Okay.”

“Thanks.”

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