Page 97 of Trusting Tanner
“Are you going to?”
“Nope.” She shook her head. “There’s nothing left to say.”
Devon sighed. “You seem to be taking this breakup better than you did with Zach.”
If he only knew how wrong he was. She wasn’t taking it better; she’d simply learned how to hide it better. But she wasn’t doing well. At all. She was a hot fucking mess, and each day she spiraled a little more. And the late nights were the hardest.
“Well.” He patted her knee then stood. “If you’ve got it all figured out…”
“He cheated on me, Dev. What else am I supposed to do?” She tossed the remote on the couch and stood, crossing her arms. “I don’t want to be without him, but I don’t want to be with him, either, not if he’s going to be sleeping around with other women.”
Devon pulled her into a hug. “I know.” With a friendly kiss to the top of her head, he said good-bye and left.
…
Juliana adjusted the strap of her backpack and hurried across the quad. She wanted to get into the science building as quickly as possible so she wouldn’t have to talk to Tanner before class. That had become his MO—catching up to her, walking with her to class, trying to rebuild a friendship with her. And she was falling for it. As badly as she wanted to hold on to her anger, he was slowly chipping away at her resolve.
She’d made it almost all the way across the quad when she abruptly stopped. “Xander?” There was no way Tanner’s brother was sitting in the quad. She had to be seeing things.
“Jules!” He stood and rushed toward her, scooping her up in an enthusiastic and slightly awkward hug.
“What’re you doing here?”
He shrugged and peeked over her head and then around her. “Tanner called, told me what happened.”
“That doesn’t explain why you’re here, though.” A nagging feeling welled up in the back of her mind, and she knew she wasn’t going to like what he had to say.
“He asked me to talk to you, and I figured I’d have better luck in person.” He grinned.
And she couldn’t stop from smiling back at him. He had that effect on people. She shook her head. “I hate to tell you this, but you wasted a trip.”
“Well, that’s yet to be seen.” He draped his arm around her shoulders. “Got some time now? We can go grab coffee.”
“I have class.” She averted her gaze. Even though she knew the end of her relationship with Tanner wasn’t her fault, it was still embarrassing. He’d cheated on her with someone as vile as Rebecca. What did that say about her? Xander didn’t pull any punches, and she wasn’t about to sit around and listen to him side with his brother on this matter.
“Skip it. This is way more important.”
“Xander.” She moved away from him, his arm falling to his side. “I think it’s great you came here to help your brother, but there’s nothing anyone can say that’s going to change anything.”
“You’re wrong.” He crossed his arms, his carefree expression changing into something harder and unyielding. It was the same look he’d given her in the bowling alley when he’d demanded to know if she was a gold digger. “I know my brother, and while he can be a dumbass, he didnotcheat on you, Jules. I’d stake my dick and my nuts on that fact.”
“I have pictures to prove otherwise.”
“Do you?” He raised a brow, challenging her. “I know you have pictures, but how do you know they’re real? Everyone is a fucking Photoshop guru nowadays.”
Her jaw dropped. That thought never once crossed her mind. Would Rebecca really go to the trouble of faking pictures in bed with Tanner?
“Tanner loves you, and he wouldn’t do this. It’s not in his DNA,” Xander said.
The conviction in his tone had her second-guessing everything. Was it possible Rebecca had done something sneaky just to be a bitch? Why would she do that, though? And Juliana had relentlessly tortured herself by looking at those pictures. She didn’t know why she hadn’t just deleted them. Maybe she was becoming a masochist. There were no doubts in her mind, though—that was Tanner in bed with Rebecca. She knew his body, intimately, and it was him.
“Whether it was intentional or not, he was in bed with her,” she said. “I can’t just forget and move on.”
“Tanner is a lot of things, but he’s not a cheater. I’m going to prove it to you. Mark my words.”
“There’s nothing to prove.” Impatience unraveled inside of her. “Tanner had sex with Rebecca. End of story.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. It’s not even fucking close to the end of the story. There’s something else going on here, and I’m going to find out what.”
