Page 20 of Sneak Attack

I’d already figured that part out but hadn’t considered what being back here would be like for her. Hell, it’d taken me a full year to drive the road where Hilary died and even then, I’d omitted it for the next six months when I did. “Right. That all?”

“Heard from her parents one time. Few months after.”

“What?”

“You were already at Vandy. Didn’t want to tell you, not with the way things were for her, but they were having a hard time after leaving, and they were worried for their daughter.”

“We were all having a hard time.”

Dad nodded. “Prolly so, but from what Angie made it sound like, she was doing pretty bad. Wouldn’t get out of bed. Wouldn’t stop crying. Wouldn’t eat. Lost fifteen pounds in two months, that kind of thing.” He sighed, ran a hand across his smoothly shaven cheek and jaw. “Were thinking of hospitalizing for her own health and they…well, they needed some insight is all.”

Fifteen pounds? She’d never had that to lose.

My teeth ground together as rage built inside of me, hot and feral as I stared into the dark. That first semester of college had been brutal. My summer was already non-existent since I had to report for summer training and transferring to Vandy made everything more rushed. But I’dgone.Done the thing and put one foot in front of another to get through. All the while, every single second of every single day, I thought of her.Neededher.

“You should have told me. Gave me their number. I could have…”

“What? Given up your backup plan and your dream to chase her down? I was worried enough about you as it was.”

…I stayed with them for a while until they forced me to go to school…

So that was what she meant.

I hated it. Every single minute. She might have left me, but I’d had an entire town to help me through the trauma. Help me heal. Hilary’s parents alone, who moved after because it was too tough for them to stay, had absolved me of all of it early on. That had helped.

Eden never had any of that, just parents who were probably equally confused as to why everything went sideways in a night.

“At least knowing where she was would have let me stop looking for her.”

“Maybe. Maybe so. I’m just sayin’ you had a village behind you, she had no one. Can’t think that’d be an easy race to win with no one at your back or holding your hand through it. My guess, she’s probably different now. Tread carefully.”

“Why are you telling me all this now?”

“Because maybe your mom and I miss seeing the light in your eyes you always had when she was around, something that even football doesn’t give you. Maybe Jasper, but it was different with her, too. We lost you too, that night, a part of you anyway, and selfishly, we want you back. Want you to have that back.”

He slapped my shoulder and headed inside, leaving me alone with my dog, the night, and thoughts of the one and only woman I’d ever loved still stinging with every breath I took.

CHAPTER8

EDEN

Of course, Marley watched Cole’s football games. It shouldn’t have surprised me when she appeared in the kitchen while I was cooking breakfast, wearing Cole’s Steel jersey and his number four in fire engine red taking up most of her torso.

Was it too much to ask she’d forget Cole’s football schedule like she’d forgotten how to make coffee?

I’d turned back to the stove, burned my fingertip as bacon grease popped and sizzled while I tried to ignore what that shirt meant was coming for me later in the day.

Football.

Watching Cole Buchanan fire a thirty-yard pass to his wide-open receiver who ran it another thirty yards for a touchdown. On the opening drive of their first preseason game being played at home.

Marley’s living room vibrated from the noise as the crowd went ballistic, partly due to Marley’s need to have the television turned up as loud as it could go. As soon as she turned the game on, she told me she wanted to feel like she was there. If only I could say the same.

She pointed at the screen when the media had scanned the crowd during pre-game warm-ups, stopping on Cole’s family.

“My first home game I’m missin’ since he was drafted. Five years. If I’m gonna have to sit in this chair and watch the game I’m doin’ it feeling like I’m right there.”

Right there meant in the seat next to Jasper. With his noise-canceling headphones on and wearing a miniature version of Marley’s jersey, he was almost cuter than when I’d seen him on the street. The chair next to him was taken by Selma, also decked out in Steel gear, but not Cole’s jersey. I cringed as I saw her smiling face on the screen and looked away. I might have always disliked her, but if Cole was happy…well, I wish I could say I was the better person and was happy for him. Kate and Dave Buchanan were behind them and every time the cameras scanned the crowd, it felt like they stopped on the four of them and told the story of the hometown hero.

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