Page 212 of Scoring the Player
She swipes again. He’s bent down next to her, arms slung over her shoulders, and they’re making matching silly faces.
He was here in this very room a few days ago.
“Aww, babe,” she says, lowering the phone. “You look like you’re gonna cry.”
“How long did he stay?”
“A couple of hours.”
“What day?”
“Uh…” She squints, pursing her lips. “Three, maybe four, days ago.”
My head flinches back. “Wait. What day of the week?”
Her eyes roll toward the ceiling. “Friday? No. Thursday?”
I pick up her phone, google Salem and Lucien, ignoring the stab in my gut at the images of them kissing, and scan the date.
I show her the kiss. “So he was here, then went on his date?”
Her mouth dips at the corners. “Yeah…I don’t know, Arnie. He is definitely not over you. He said this thing that when you got into it with those jerks at the game, he would have fought all the security in the building to protect you. Something like, if you come for his…”
I slouch and blow out a breath. “I feel like my head is gonna explode.”Or maybe my heart.
“That’s ’cause you love him.”
“I keep thinking about how I ran from him. And knowing what I know about him now, he’s way bigger of a person than me. I’m not sure I’d have had the confidence to keep pursuing him if the shoe were on the other foot.”
She leans her head against my shoulder. “I know. But you aren’t him. There are reasons you run. Just like there are reasons Alfie doesn’t trust most strangers.”
I close my eyes to curb the burn. “Sometimes I think you’re the only person who will ever know me. Likereallyknow me.”
“Hmm.” She’s quiet for a few breaths. “Maybe I’m the only person you feel safe knowing you. You remember the time we got lost on the way back to that resort in the Dominican Republic?”
“Hmm?”
“When you were young.”
Then she was young too. We’re only four years apart.
“We got lost on the way back to the resort. And you stopped walking and said,‘Where is everyone?’And you tightened your hold on my hand. Mom and Carter were supposed to come back for us, but the beach cleared out, the sun set, and they still hadn’t returned.”
A faint memory surfaces. “The lizard with the aqua and green stripes?”
She huffs out a hoarse laugh. “Yes, you remember. Right before that, though, when I was trying to hide how terrified I was that we were lost, I told you not to worry because Mom and Carter would find us. And you remember what you said?”
I shake my head.
“You said they wouldn’t find us because they wouldn’t even know we were missing. You were so young to?—”
“It’s okay,” I tell her, even as the memory from that day curls in, tightening my throat.
“I hated crying back then because I needed to be strong for us, but when you ran off to chase the lizard, I broke. I kept thinking you deserved better. You weren’t even seven, and you already had a broken heart.”
Pressure builds behind my eyes as her voice cracks.
“Anaïs—”
