Page 86 of Desired Hearts
Reaching over to the table, I grabbed it, just to be sure my father was fine, and brought it down to my lap to see.
Parker and I both stared at the name that popped up in a text.
Makis.
He stood up.
I closed my legs and clicked on the message.
Please talk to me. I miss you D.
Looking up, I wished I hadn’t. Parker was pissed.
“I thought you were blocking him after his last text.”
I tossed the phone onto the table and stood too. “I never texted him back,” I said. “And then didn’t think of it again. His number got buried?—”
“Delaney,” Parker said in a tone that was unusual for him. “You can’t tell me you forgot completely. That your ex-boyfriend, the one that crushed your spirit, comes back from the dead, and you don’t think about it for a second? Enough to remember to block his number?”
I didn’t answer. It wasn’t that I was trying to lie to him, but I didn’t want Parker to think there was anything there. My feelings for Makis were dead and buried.
“Maybe for a second,” I admitted. “But I’m just not that kind of person. I’ve never unfriended or blocked someone in my life. It feels almost mean. But that doesn’t?—”
“Mean? You didn’t want to bemeanto the guy that treated you like absolute shit? Come on, Delaney. You can do better than that.”
He’d walked into the living room, and something stopped me from following him. Parker wasn’t being himself, and there wasn’t much more for me to say. I didn’t block him. But I should have. And here we were. Maybe it made no sense to Parker, but that was the truth. “There’s nothing there,” I said quietly. “I should have blocked him,” I admitted.
Waiting for Parker to accept my words, knowing he would because that was the guy he was, I headed to the kitchen in the meantime. Started doing the dishes. Remembering the conversation we’d just had about disagreements. Parker liked to talk things out. Not let them “stew.” I would block Makis’s ass in front of him, explain once more there really wasn’t anything there and…
No. Better yet, I’d be even more honest. I would tell Parker how I really felt about him. How could I possibly care a lick about Makis when I was deeply, head over heels in love with Parker?
Turning off the water, I dried my hands, hoping it was enough time for Parker to cool off, and headed into the living room.
But I couldn’t tell Parker I loved him. Because he was gone.
33
PARKER
The second I walked into O’Malley’s, I wanted to turn around and go back. If Beck hadn’t spotted me and called me over to the bar, I would have. Instead, I walked the distance from the door of our trusted corner pub to my friend and sat on a stool.
Before I said a word, a cold beer was in my hand.
“On the house.” I wasn’t sure how Beck knew, but he did. “Be right back,” he said, heading over to another customer. There weren’t many of them on a twenty-degree Wednesday night. Thankfully.
“What’s up?”
I looked from the bottle to my friend as Beck waited. After that night in the kitchen, none of us had uttered Mae’s name. No one said a word. But I could tell Beck was still not himself, and maybe that was how he knew I wasn’t myself either.
“Delaney.”
If I said any more, I’d sound like some pathetic asshole. “She didn’t block her ex.” Since when was I the jealous type? Especially of a guy like that. But when I saw his name on Delaney’s phone, I hadn’t been able to think straight.
“That’s not a lot to go on,” Beck said finally.
“I know.”
It probably wasn’t the answer he’d been expecting. But it was the only one I had.
