Page 89 of Rebel Bride
Disappointment flashed across his features for a second before he schooled them to neutral.
“He’s on his way. Still think he’s hurting?”
I tried to smile. “He’s lashing out, so yes, that is often how hurt people behave. We need to talk. I can’t put it off any longer.” Not that I had been, but I had to admit a certain relief when a text or call remained unanswered. I could bask in the glow of self-righteousness, but it wasn’t moving either of us forward.
Hatch opened his mouth, but whatever he was about to say was drowned by the thunderous entry of more hockey players. First his brother Conor, whose eyes went wide on seeing me. Then Jason, who nodded then sent an inscrutable look Hatch’s way. Finally, Dash. No sign of Theo, for which I was grateful.
Dash practically sneered. “How did you get in here?”
“I still know people. I hoped we could chat.”
Given that he had maintained I was giving him the runaround, he couldn’t very well claim he didn’t want to talk to me now.
“If you’d talked to me in the first place, maybe we wouldn’t be in this mess.”
I deserved that, so I took it like a champ, but I could feel the tension emanating from Hatch’s direction. I stood and headed to the door, passing by Hatch. I didn’t dare look at the man who had rescued me, and who had become so much more than a random knight.
“I’ll be in the yoga room whenever you’re ready.”
Dash turned away, which gave me a chance to catch Hatch’s eye. Just a brief glimpse to give me strength before I shut the locker room door.
My former fiancé made me wait twenty minutes. Again, fair. I was sitting on a yoga mat when he came in. He’d obviously taken the time to shower, had even dried and gelled his hair. Fine, we were both going in armed.
“How are you?” I asked.
He lowered himself to the mat beside mine. “Oh, just great, Summer.”
Dash’s defense mechanisms always leaned heavily on sarcasm, not that I could blame him.
“I know I didn’t handle it right. I panicked and saw the window, and before I knew it, I was running.”
“Well, how come you decided to run back here? You’re just making it worse.”
“I have a life here, Dash. And I’m not ready to give all that up.” I exhaled. “Surely this town is big enough for both of us.”
“Don’t think you’re getting your job back.”
“I wish I hadn’t given it up.”
He snorted. “Is that what this is about? I was taking too good care of you? You could have done some volunteer work like my mom. That’s how she spends her time. Or brunching and bitching with her girlfriends. Hell, you would have been pregnant soon.”
“I wasn’t ready for that. Yet I overheard you talking about it with your mom and arranging for your former nanny to come out of retirement. Don’t you think it’s weird that you’re letting your mother call the shots about our reproductive decisions?”
He rolled his eyes. “So, she’s interested. You don’t have parents, Summer, so you don’t know what it’s like when the ones you have actually care about their family and the future of it. I would have thought you’d be pleased to become a part of a family, especially one as important as mine. But you never made an effort with my sister or my mom.”
“They thought I was trash. I was never good enough for you.”
“Looks like they were right.”
He stood and stretched, giving me a glimpse of his abs. It did nothing for me.
This man did nothing for me.
I had handled our wedding day all wrong, but I made the right call in finishing this relationship. Neither did he want me back, and any chatter on that topic was his usual mind games.
I stood and extracted the engagement ring from my purse, handing it off to him like Charlie surrendering the everlasting gobstopper to Mr. Wonka.
He shoved it in his pocket without looking at it.
