Page 7 of Replay

“Finish the story. What kind of ex is Katie? Wife? Fiancée? Girlfriend?”

People didn’t know about her because it had been a long time ago. Fitch wouldn’t know anyway, since he was new to the team. “Girlfriend. We were together for two years.”

“Sorry, Ducky. I didn’t know. I thought you were one of the fuckboys on the team.”

I shrugged a shoulder. “Well, yeah, but that’s because I didn’t have Katie.”

Obviously. If I had a girlfriend, I didn’t cheat. Those were the rules.

“How long ago did you break up?”

“Senior year, high school.”

“And you’re what, twenty-four now? So six years ago? You haven’t had a girlfriend since?”

I shook my head. It was five years ago. His math was off because I’d had to repeat a grade, but it didn’t matter. I’d never been serious about anyone because I hadn’t found anyone like Katie.

“Huh.” Fitch took a swig of my former beer. “So, you saw the ex and that killed the mood?”

“Well, yeah. Especially when they were talking about me and all the things I did wrong.” I picked at the label on the beer bottle. That was the part that had me stumped. I’d been sure I was doing the right thing.

“What did you do?”

I gave Fitch a quick recap of everything I remembered. When I looked up, he was shaking his head at me. My beer was empty but I didn’t think I should get another, even though it was an optional practice in the morning.

“When you want to end a relationship, you need to talk.”

I let out a long sigh. “Yeah, I get that now. I was just afraid that I couldn’t do it if I was looking at her.”

“Why did you have to break up? And why then? You could have waited till you were drafted, in case you ended up somewhere near her. Or broke up then if you didn’t think long-distance would work.”

“So she would pick a school for the right reasons. Her parents said?—”

“Wait, her parents were in on this?”

Oh yeah. They’d asked to talk to me and explained that Katie had to make important decisions and I was a distraction. They were afraid she might decide not to go to school until I was drafted so she could follow me.

Fitch frowned when I told him. “Seems they didn’t like you. Or that Katie was easily influenced.”

“I thought they liked me.” Had I been wrong about that too? “And no, Katie can be a hard-ass. She wouldn’t do my homework for me, always insisted I could do it myself if we found a way for my brain to figure it out.” And she did. She was brilliant.

“Then maybe they were wrong. Sounds like Katie could have decided on her own.”

Fitch made a good point.

“I messed up, really badly.”

“I’m afraid you did. That’s too bad, because it sounds like you really cared for her.”

I did. In high school, there had only been two things that mattered to me: hockey and her. “Katie—she’s the best. She’s so smart, and I don’t know what she saw in me.”

Fitch fought back a grin. “Me neither.”

“And she said my mother didn’t like her, and I’m trying to see if I missed something. If Mom didn’t like her. I mean, Mom always said she did, but people lie.” I’d always respected my mother and other adults. That was how I was raised. I never thought Mom would lie to me. But damn, these people had played me.

“That is true.”

“Yeah, I’m going to have to figure that out.”

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