Page 37 of The Games We Play
I’d spent energy and time trying to erase him as best I could. Trying to shove every memory, every whispered promise, every stolen glance into some locked-away part of my heart.
Mac didn’t realizethatmorning, my heart had been ripped straight from my chest by a woman I’d never even met. Then, he was the one to step on it.
I stood there, listening to her words, knowing I was never meant to hear them—thatwas the moment everything shattered.
Trust wasn’t something you played with. My emotions weren’t a game.
Yet, Mac Ridley had handled them like they were. Not with care. Not like they mattered.
Maybe he hadn’tlied.
But he had hidden something, a secret so big it made every kiss, every touch, every whispered what-are-we feel like a cruel joke.
The only thing that kept me from breaking completely?
We hadn’t planned a future together.
Not yet.
But that hadn’t stoppedmefrom dreaming about it on my own.
Finally, I spun around, my chest heaving, my skin burning with anger.
“Get. Out.” I pointed toward the door, my voice sharp enough to cut through the tension. “I don’t want you here. I don’t want to hear you out. I don’t care.”
Mac didn’t flinch.
Instead, he shrugged off his jacket, acting like I’d just invited him to stay awhile. He draped it over the stool beside him, crossed his arms over his broad chest, and leveled me with a look that made my blood simmer.
“I’m not leaving until you listen to me.”
I let out a scoff, followed by an exasperated groan. My gaze locked onto his, onto those deep, familiar eyes I’d stared into so many times. I could describe them to a painter, guiding theirbrushstrokes until they captured them perfectly in a masterpiece that belonged nowhere but on a wall.
Brown as the bark of an old oak tree.
Warm as the first golden rays of spring after a brutal winter.
Soft, yet sharp enough to bring even the strongest to their knees.
And damn it, I hated that I still noticed.
“I guess we’re going to be here all night then,” I muttered.
“Fine by me.” He leaned against the counter, one ankle crossing over the other, looking like he had all the time in the world. “There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”
I tilted my head side to side, rolling out the tension coiling in my neck, but it didn’t help. Not whenhewas standing there. Not when his presence made my skin prickle and my stomach churn.
Ignoring him, I moved down the hallway to my bedroom, resuming my night like I didn’t have a six-foot-something shadow trailing behind me. The music still played—traitorous love songs mocking me with every lyric.
Mac was right there, hovering like a damn gnat that refused to be swatted away.
“If you’re not going to stop for a minute and hear me out, I’ll just talk at you instead,” he said.
“Oh,thank God,” I mumbled, dripping in sarcasm.
His jaw ticked. “If I had known she was going to show up, I would’ve told you.”
I barked out a hollow laugh, bending down to lift the laundry basket. “Oh wow, that makes me feel so much better!”
