Page 22 of Replay
“Please, Emma. Let me explain?—”
“He cheated on you, sugar. That's what he wants to try and explain,” Hawke announces for him. I can hear the gasping sounds from Riley and Sam while I’m pretty sure one of the guys behind us swears. I bring my focus back to the girl, Bella, at his side. Hawke distances himself from her, sliding his hands inside his jeans pockets.
“It wasn’t like that–” Jax jumps in and tries to turn my body toward him.
“Is it true?” I glare at him while tears fill my eyes and his face becomes blurry.
“It was before we got together,” he tries again, “we kissed.”
“Spring break,” the girl answers while chewing on her lip, nervously. I glance at her and can’t understand if she’s trying to help him or not.
“Spring break when you went with the guys to Miami?” The words feel hollow as I ask them, and if he says yes, then we’re going to be done. We might not have been labeling our relationship then, we even had a fight about it before he left, but we were together.
Jax’s eyes swing back and forth between mine and I can see his mind searching for the right answer, the best way to talk himself out of this, and right when he comes to the same realization that I did just a few seconds ago. His shoulders drop and his chin dips down.
“Yes, but–”
I shove past him, making my way through the house to the front doors. I need air. At any moment I’m going to lose it, the tears will fall and I do not want that level of humiliation witnessed by our teammates, our friends, or Hawke.
“Emmarys!”
I hear Hawke call after me and hear his footsteps pounding the ground. It kills me that he’s responsible for this mess tonight and also for the reason I feel relieved through the guilt. My stomach twists when I hear Jax as well shouting after me.
“Sugar, please listen to me,” Hawke tries again. This time he grabs my arm and I’m swung around to face him. His eyes search mine and I can see the concern all over his face. I want to scoff at the sentiment. He knew what he was doing. He went out of his way to bring that woman here tonight.
“I don’t want to listen to you, Hawke. I don’t want to talk to you at all.”
Jax shoves Hawke so that he’s forced to release me. They stand eyeing each other, both of them with their hands clenchedin fists and now I’m worried that they’re going to beat the shit out of each other. “Back off, asshole.”
“Go home, Hawke,” I manage to say, trying to keep things calm. I can only deal with so much at one time.
Hawke’s face whips toward me and I see pain there, as if I betrayed him, his eyes pleading with me. “I’m not leaving you here with him,” he answers, voice shaking.
Jax steps toward Hawke, his arm raised and this time I step between them, forcing them apart.
“Enough, both of you. Leave. Leave me alone.” My voice breaks and the little sobs I had been holding start to break free. I did not want this. I did not want this to happen here, in the open, for all my brokenness to be on display.
“Please come home with me, Emma, please,” Jax says, his voice thick and desperate. “I just want to talk. I’m sorry, but I can explain.”
My eyes squeeze shut as soon as he says he’s sorry.Sorry.As if that erases the fact that he cheated on me when he was on his trip. A trip he assured me was just the hockey guys, chilling to celebrate the end of a season. I’m suddenly so thankful we hadn’t put a label on our relationship before that although I had thought we were exclusive.
“No.” My voice trembles. “I don’t want to hear about this right now, Jax. It's bad enough that she’s here. It's worse that everyone just heard what you did.”
His hand smacks his chest. “I didn’t invite her. Hell, I never had contact with her past that one night in Miami. Your ex is the one who brought her here.”
“One night?” My voice hitches. “You said it was just a kiss.”
Jax’s gaze burns with anger and resentment. Unfortunately, I’m not sure if it's at Hawke for his role in this or because he thought I would never find out. Hawke chuckles, and the sound is menacing.
“I gave you the opportunity to come clean, Kellan. This is what it meant when I said, or else.”
“You’re a fucking psycho.” Jax falls back a step, his hands running through the short ends of his hair. “Emma, please. It didn’t mean anything. It was before we were officially together, and when I left for that trip, you weren’t sure about us. I was drinking, I was hurt and I made a mistake.”
My head falls back and tears slide down my cheeks. “I wasn’t sure about us because of your reputation. We weren’t officially labeled but we were exclusive.”
“I’m sorry, baby,” he chokes out and reaches for me, only to have Hawke shove him away. “Fuck! What is your problem, asshole? Are you happy you hurt her now? Or are you just jealous it’s me she goes home with every night?”
Hawke grabs Jax by the front of his shirt and once again I spring forward. “No, stop. Both of you. Don’t do something you’ll regret.”
