Page 43 of Breakaway Heart
“Is that right?”
I was so close to escaping this. I knew it was a bad idea. But I also felt something else, and that something else was shy and weak in his presence.
“Come with me.” He said and motioned with his head back in the direction he had just come from.
His words took me back to the last time he had said them, back at his villa in Mexico, his hand outstretched toward me. It was a moment I’d recalled frequently in both pleasure and agony over the weeks that had followed.
I followed Randy silently, both embarrassed and cursing myself for getting trapped like this, before he held open the door to a wide doorway for me.
“So, this is it. Our inner sanctuary.”
I stepped under his arm and into the empty locker room. Looking around, it made me think of a kid’s playroom. The sticks, abandoned tape, and training jerseys on the ground, all scattered around like toys for big men to play with.
“So, I guess I missed all the hot naked men slapping each other with wet towels?” I joked.
“Not all of them,” Randall replied with a cheeky glint in his eye.
I began to smile before stopping myself, and instead looked back at him seriously, remembering I wasn’t here for a tour. I had to know what had happened that night.
“Randall, where did you go? I turned up that night, and you were just… Gone.”
He looked bashful and uncomfortable all of a sudden, his gaze leaving me and turning to the floor.
“I want to apologise, Lucy. I mean, Iwantedto apologise. Things got a little out of control.”
“You know, I wasn’t expecting much from you. But, still, that stung.”
“Yeah,” Randy blushed, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand. “So look. That night. Jimmy, my agent, turned up. The man’s kind of a marvel, I have no idea how he found me out there. Anyway, I suppose word had gotten out, and apparently some reporters were heading over to find me. He told me to leave with him and get out of there before there was a big fuss.”
“I guess that explains why you disappeared so quickly.”
“Yeah. Well, someone must have let the cat out of the bag.” He looked at me, watching for my reaction.
“Wait! You think I told someone you were there?”
“I don’t know, Lucy. It’s usually how it goes. I get it, but I didn’t like the idea it had come from you. Y’know, after everything.”
“So you justassumed?”
“I didn’t even have your number. What was I supposed to do? When I got back to the city, I thought about looking you up, but I didn’t know where to start, and how could I really know?”
“For what it’s worth, it didn’t come from me.”
“For real?”
“For real.”
Randall’s hand rippled across his jaw, watching my features and considering whether it was true. Then, a look of acceptance told me he had decided it might as well be.
“I thought about you a lot, Lucy. I wanted to trust you. It was… Those few days… It was a terrible time, but then you came along. You were the only good thing that happened. You’re different. In a good way. But also, that last night together, before you left, you made it pretty clear that it didn’t mean much to you. It was just a bit of fun, like you said. Perhaps I felt differently about it, though, to be honest.”
I blushed as I remembered what I’d said to him. It had felt cruel back then, but I’d never had the chance to put it right.
“I thought about you too, Randall. I mean, it’s ridiculous, but it hurt me more than I’d like to admit when you just disappeared on me.”
“You didn’t deserve that.” He said, shaking his head ruefully.
“No, I didn’t! And it meant that I never got the chance to apologize to you either. I was wrong. What I said wasn’t what I felt. I just felt like I had to protect myself from getting hurt by you. You don’t have a great track record, remember?”
