Page 13 of Replay
A scoffing noise comes from deep in her throat. “I’ve been here for two years.”
Her fire makes me smile and my unexpected reaction has her gaze narrowing. “You know I couldn’t come for you until I had my inheritance. We might have been a little preoccupied the last time I saw you, but I know we talked about this.”
“Your birthday was in February,” she says before biting her lip and the blush staining her cheeks turns brighter.
I step closer to her. “Are you mad I wasn’t here sooner?” I ask, and watch as she takes a deep breath in. My whole body is vibrating with need and my heart is soaring. Even if she denies my words right now, it will be a lie. She knew when I would get my inheritance and when my birthday came and went, she clearly thought about it. Her tone was both upset and accusing.
Emmarys shakes her head and steps back from me. The air instantly feels colder and my body misses touching hers. “I can’t do this with you again, Hawke.”
I want to scoff and rage against her words. My little heartbreaker. She’s such a good liar.Patience. This is one game that is going to require time and careful precision. A Hail Mary pass won’t work on the defense she’s blocking me with. Emmarys has no idea all the things she’s going to do with me, all the ways I’m going to punish her for not believing in me, in us and changing her plans. Our future starts today, whether she’s ready for it or not. I’ve been waiting for her for years. She will “do this” with me again and this time we won’t be stopping.
I gently let my lips ghost over her forehead and watch as goosebumps break across the exposed skin on her neck. She practically shivers. “I’ll see you after practice.”
Emmarys jumps back from me, her head shaking furiously. “No. I have nothing to say. I don’t know why you’re here, but the campus is large. There is no reason for us to see each other.”
Her words cut and hurt more than I care to admit. Once again I have to shove my hands in my pockets just so she doesn’t see how tightly they are clenched, how much her words affect me. Instead, I watch as she turns and dashes into the arena for her practice. I’ll let her go for now, but she won’t be rid of me that easily.
emma
. . .
I ranand I’m not exactly proud of it. The longer I stood there with Hawke, the more I felt my insides growing warm, and my heart was being a traitorous bitch, softening with every word he said to me. It didn’t help that we had eyes on us as literally every person in the area either stopped to stare or did a double take and looked again. Seriously, they have no shame. I also didn’t want the gossip to get to Jax before I had the chance to talk to him about Hawke. After Sam and Riley spoke to me about telling Jax before he found out, I had resolved to do just that. They were right in that he should know, so things like this don’t become an issue for us. I was not expecting my ex to corner me so soon. I really did a good job lying to myself that he wasn’t here with a purpose.
Ducking into the locker room, I quickly change so I’m not the last one on the ice. Once my skates are tied, I make my way out there and immediately find Riley and Sam.
“Holy freaking cow!” Sam’s eyes widen as she grabs the front of my jersey and yanks me closer. Riley levels everyone aroundus with a hard stare, silently telling them to stay out of our bubble.
“It's not how it looks,” I try to tell them. Both of them immediately glare at me like I’m stupid.
“Emma.” Riley blows out a breath, her hands on her hips.
“Okay, so it might be like it looks.” I bury my face in my hands.
“Did he say he was here for you?” Sam asks, her teeth chewing on her lip.
I peek at her around my gloves and notice how she looks a little too excited about this. Frowning, I drop my hands. “Something along those lines might have been mentioned.”
“I knew it!” Riley whisper-shouts and jumps into Sam. Again, they both look a little too happy about the situation. “What did he say?”
“I asked him why he was here and he said…you’re here,” I admit reluctantly and feel my cheeks heating all over again. God, the way he said it like it was obvious and meaningful about made my knees weak.
“Oh, he so wants her back.” Sam is smiling so wide while she gives Riley’s arm a little shake. “Pay up.”
“You guys!” I laugh because if I don’t, I know I’ll break down crying instead. “You can’t bet on me. That has to be against girl code or something.”
“We didn’t bet on you; we bet on him. Riley thought he wanted to settle a score, I bet that he was here to win you over,” Sam clarifies, and her eyebrows jump up and down while she says it.
“Still...” I point at them. “This means nothing. He can live his life however he wants to. I already told him I’m not doing this with him. You guys know how hard it was the first time and you know the second time almost destroyed me. Plus, his familyhates me and his evil grandfather actively wants to destroy my own family. It's not a good idea.”
“Plus, you have a boyfriend,” Riley adds, her gaze a little too intense on me.
My chest flushes and my stomach coils with guilt. Not once when Hawke was standing so close to me, when he touched me, or when he kissed my forehead, did I stop him or think about Jax. It took every ounce of energy I had to keep my legs from buckling or from crying.
“Jax doesn’t deserve the drama that Hawke has caused in my life. I want to move on. I want a fairy tale that doesn’t come with strings attached to it,” I tell them honestly.
The smiles on their faces dim. They were both there when he left. Sam was there after prom and held me together. Riley became my pillar last year while I navigated our first year of college and even sat with me on Hawke’s birthday when he turned twenty-one, and my phone still didn’t ring. I know Sam would have been here too if she hadn’t been dealing with her own relationship issue. She wasn’t there though that night to see the wine-floodgate, which had been Riley’s idea to take my mind off of things. I spent the night drinking too much wine and doing lots of crying over a man who didn’t seem to care anymore. I cried for hours that night. I spent days wondering if I should reach out to him. Wondering if I made up everything he said to me on prom night. I felt sad, betrayed, and lied to. My heart had held onto his words, hoping that once he was free on his birthday that I would hear from him. That we would find a way to be together. The silence from Hawke on that day was way more painful, and numbing at the same time, than anything before.
“I didn’t say this earlier because, honestly, I didn’t know what you wanted to do. But I think you should know. Reign did some asking around and no one had a bad thing to say about Hawke in Texas. He went to class, played football, and occasionally would show up to an event if it was expected. He was never seen or heard of to have a girlfriend or jersey chasers at his side,” Riley tells me. Guilt passes over her features. “I just wanted you to know that in case you were worried.”
