Page 9 of The Forever Play

Happening!

CHAPTER 4

ZANDER

“Sienna!” I try again, picking up my pace and starting to sprint.

Fuck, I should have started running as soon as she did, but I was frozen in place, shock pulsing through my veins like venom.

That little girl said, “Mommy.”

Sienna’s a mommy to a girl who looks about two years old. I’m wrestling to do the math as I charge after her, desperate for answers.

But by the time I round the corner, she’s gone. Vanished… just like she did last time.

“Fuck,” I mutter, scraping my hands through my hair and getting a dark scowl from a mother walking past with her babies.

“Sorry,” I murmur, my shoulders deflating when I stare down the road, wondering if I just imagined the blue-eyed beauty. She’s still a stunner.

I never thought I’d see her again.

But there she was. Holding a toddler.Hertoddler.

My toddler?

“Double fuck,” I mutter under my breath as I spin and look the other way.

Should I just start wandering the streets shouting her name?

What is she even doing in Nolan?

My mind flashes back to the last time I saw her, the way she felt in my arms as we shared our final kiss goodbye. It took everything in me to let her crawl out my bedroom window after the night we’d spent together. I loved her. And it killed me to break up with her, but I knew it was the right thing to do. I’d thought it through, made the sensible decision for both of us. Logically, I was being the better man, not tying her into some long-distance bullshit.

But I’d hated myself for it.

I’d tried to live it up in college, play the best ball I could, party and spread my wings the way I wanted to. But I missed her. I tried to get over her. And when that didn’t work… I went back for her.

But she’d already gone…

I had a three-day break for Christmas, and I wasn’t about to waste it. I’d been training my ass off, proving to Kelsey U that picking me had been the right decision. I was getting in good with the rest of the team, earning their respect. I didn’t always love the hoops I had to jump through, but I tried to convince myself it was worth it.

I hated some of the stuff I’d been doing, but I could make changes. Just small little tweaks that would keepme in the good books with my team captain but also let me be with the one person who I just couldn’t let go.

I had to get Sienna back. I’d tried the bachelor life, but I was fucking miserable.

Hopefully I wasn’t too late to persuade her to get back together with me, to beg her to apply to Kelsey U so I didn’t have to live without her anymore.

I’d held out for as long as I could. Not contacted her the way my parents told me to. I was being merciful, cutting the ties and not teasing her with texts or phone calls the way I wanted to.

But I couldn’t do it anymore.

The second I walked through the door, I dumped my bag, hugged my mom, and told her I had someplace important to be.

“Where are you going?” she called after me.

“I’ll be back soon. I promise!” I waved to her, and she no doubt assumed I was heading to Noah’s house. He was back for Christmas, too, and we’d already arranged to catch up.

But there was someone else I needed to see first.

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