Page 81 of Dream Girl Drama

Grace? Grace. He searched his jumbled thoughts for that name and why it sounded so familiar. When the answer came to him, it did absolutely nothing to calm him down. Chloe’s mentor. “Where is Chloe? Why do you have her phone?”

Visions of beeping machines and hospital gowns were flashing in his head. “She’s at my place. Well, physically she is here. Mentally, I’m not so sure.” There were some footsteps, followed by the ethereal flow of notes that he instantly recognized as harp music. Not just any harp music, but the kind that came from Chloe. His heart recognized when something belonged to her. “When she showed up here this afternoon, she said she’d play until her fingers bled and I think she meant it. I can’t get her to stop.”

Sig’s chest was trapped between two boulders. In one sense, he was relieved.

In another, he was more alarmed than he’d been ten minutes ago.

Until her fingers bled? That didn’t sound like his girl at all.

“I don’t understand.” Sig’s head started to pound. “Is she okay?”

“She’s... incredible, actually. I think we hit a breakthrough around two hours ago. Dropping her might have been the best move I could have made.”

“Droppingher?” he repeated, throat dry.

“After reading about her in the gossip section? Like a sack of potatoes, my guy.” The woman sighed. “Then she showed uphere with a speech that gave me chills—and I don’t get those easily. I’m pretty sure the last time I got chills, I was at the Magic Mike show in Vegas. But I digress. She begged me to take her back, promised to work her tail off... and here we are.”

Pieces of the story were locking into place. Tallulah hadn’t sent Chloe the article.

Grace had.

And she’d let her go as a mentee over it.

Why the hell didn’t Chloe tell him any of this?

Burgess smacked him on the shoulder. “What’s up? You find her?”

“Uh. Yeah.” Sweat was causing his dress shirt to cling and he couldn’t swallow to save his life. “Yeah, I found her. You can tell Tallulah not to worry.”

“What is a Tallulah?” Grace asked, followed by the sound of a martini shaker. “Listen, Sig. It is very apparent to me that you and Chloe are madly in love. The first time I met her, she called you ‘the most perfect human on earth.’ Which, barf.” Liquid was poured into a glass, but he could barely hear anything over the crashing waves in his head. “Unfortunately, the fact that you love each other is also obvious to a reporter at theGlobe. And more will follow, I’m sure. She had to make a choice.”

“Put her on the phone,” he rasped, moving beyond panic into a place he’d never been before. His entire body had gone numb. Was he in shock?

“Do you hear the magic she’s making? I’m not interrupting that.”

As soon as he talked to her, everything would make sense. “Please.”

Grace let out a long breath. “Hold on.”

The bus had pulled up at the team entrance of the arena. Players were filing off the bus, shoving each other and shouting as theypassed his row. Somehow he knew Burgess hadn’t budged. That he was still sitting behind him. But Sig couldn’t move, couldn’t turn around. Couldn’t breathe. Finally, the music stopped and his hand flexed involuntarily around the phone, listening for her voice. Her footsteps. Anything.

Finally, “Hi, Sig.”

That was all it took. Two words and he knew. She was ending things.

The regret in her voice told the whole story.

“Chloe,” he started thickly, leaning forward in his seat. Subtly rocking side to side. Restless. Helpless. Oh God, what the fuck was happening here? “You should have told me about Grace. I’m sorry that happened—it’s... this is all my fault—”

“No, it’s my fault. I spoke to that reporter during the last home game and... I don’t know, maybe by that point nothing I could have said to him would have made a difference. Even a denial. People can see what’s between us, you know? We don’t hide it very well.”

His chest was on fire, along with his head, his blood. “We’ll figure this out. Whatever you’re doing, whatever you’re going to say, don’t. Chloe. Don’t do this.”

“You’re the best player in the league, Sig,” she continued, though he could hear the effort it was costing her to get the words out. “I’ve told you this for so long. You’ve worked hard and you’ve earned that captain patch and I’m not going to let you give it up. I’m not going to let myself give up the possibility of first chair, either. I’ve been coasting my whole life, but... you make me want to have purpose.” Her voice wavered. “We both need to have purpose, because it can’t be each other. Especially at the cost of hurting our parents.”

“Chloe.Don’t say anything else. I’ll come home right now. Right now.”

“No.”

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