Page 7 of Easton

The plan was that I was supposed to marry Claire before she hit twenty-seven so she could access her trust fund.

Hell, back then, I would have said yes to marrying her for any reason. She meant that much to me.

If I’m being honest, she still holds a special place in my heart.

She always will.

Too bad we haven’t been in any kind of contact in years.

“How’d we lose touch anyway?” I ask myself as I continue to lie on the sofa, head propped up on a pillow.

The lights are off, and I’m looking out the floor-to-ceiling windows at the Phoenix nighttime skyline.

It’s after 2:00 a.m., but I can’t sleep.

That’s why I came out here to the hotel living room.

I should try to get some rest, though. I have an early appointment tomorrow with a real estate agent named Madison to look at that Cave Creek house.

Fuck it, I’ll just be tired.

Yeah, so whydidClaire and I stop talking?

I guess, for me, I just got too busy playing college hockey back in Boston.

And she was here.

I think the boyfriend she had at the time played into it too.

And, man, that distance factor was huge.

Neither of us had any money back then to fly across the country to visit each other.

And when my parents moved to Boston before Christmas our freshman year, I never had a reason to come back.

So, yeah, life got in the way, and we drifted apart.

But damn, if there isn’t a part of me right now that would love to reconnect.

Shit, though. She could be married.

For some reason, I hope the fuck she’s not.

“What are you going to do?” I ask out loud, chuffing. “Marry her like you promised ten years ago?”

Yeah, right.

Then again…

Maybe it’s the late hour, or the fact that I haven’t slept yet, but for some crazy reason, I pick up my phone and look up Claire Weller.

Ahh, so she’s a real estate agent.

And damn, from her business profile photo, she’s still beyond beautiful.

In fact, she may even be prettier.

I should ask this Madison chick tomorrow if she knows Claire.

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