Page 111 of False Start

He blew out a breath, his brow furrowing. “I don’t understand where this is coming from, Kitten.”

I tamped down the ball of tears rising in my throat. “We’ve spent a lot of time together. Things have gotten just a bit muddled.”

“I’m not muddled.” He dropped his hand, curling his fingers around my hair, as he reached across the seat with his other hand. “I don’t want to go a week without seeing you.”

His thumb brushed over mine, and I wanted to cave.

Instead, I pulled away. “You can text. We can still talk, Texas. Don’t make it sound so dire. I’ve got work, you’ve got football. It’s going to be like this all the time soon.”

I forced a layer of flippancy into my words. Pretending that our relationship had always been what we’d said: not serious, not forever. We were friends. Only friends.

“I mean, the football season is busy, but notthatbusy.” Trent’s meadow green eyes clouded, hurt creeping into his voice.

I had to get out of the car. I needed space before I took it all back. Before I gave in to Trent. Again. I squeezed his hand. “Just focus on your job this week, Texas. I’ll see you soon.”

A rusted door stymied my quick escape. I nearly toppled onto the pavement, but I escaped without Trent following.

“Thanks for letting me tag along!” I said, barely hanging on as I slammed the door behind me and nearly sprinted into my apartment building, not daring to look back.

From the lobby, I listened for the El Camino’s engine to roar to life and Trent drive away, my chest tight and my stomach in knots. As punishment for not being brave enough to tell Trent why I’d asked for a week, I climbed the four floors to my apartment, flinging myself on the couch as soon as I got inside.

“That was quick!” Derek called from the kitchen.

I buried my head in the couch, groaning.

“You okay?” He poked his head into the living room from the kitchen as I covered my head with a throw pillow.

“I’m friends with Trent,” I mumbled into the plaid fabric. “Again.”

“Yeah, I heard you two being very friendly a couple of nights ago.”

“No, not like that. We’re done. Forever. No more sleeping with Trent.”

The couch dipped as Derek sat down beside me. He pressed his palm to my back. “What happened?”

“He took me to his team's barbecue.”

“The bastard…” Derek deadpanned.

“He introduced me to all his friends.”

“Absolutely shocking.”

“He’s very handsome and rich, and he’s going to ditch me once the season starts up.”

“You don’t actually know that,” Derek said gently, the humor falling away from his voice.

“And if I let it go on much longer, it’d break me.” I winced even as Derek ran his fingers down my spine in comforting little circles. “I really like him. Like, really, really like him.”

“He’s a very likable guy.”

“And it might crush me.” My eyes misted, and I sniffed. “So, it’s better to end things now, before I get really hurt.”

“I don’t think Trent is the type to really hurt someone.”

“Not on purpose, anyway.” The tears came in earnest. “But he might do it on accident. He might not even realize it since we’re only friends.”

Derek hummed. “That might actually be true.”

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