Page 26 of Dirty Devil

“That was… something,” Foster says as he turns around and gestures behind him. “What does she mean, ‘bigger than the pizza man’? I don’t think she meant my height, right? She was staring pretty intently at my knob.”

“No, she did not mean your height, and I think she was staring at your… everything.” I grab his arm and pull him into my apartment. Anything to get him out of that hallway before Gloria can make another appearance. It’s not until after I close the door behind us that I notice a bag dangling from his left hand, and it smells delicious. “What are you doing here? And what’s that?”

He holds up the bag, and I realize it smells suspiciously like Mexican food. If my brother told him to bring me dinner, he’s a traitor, too.

“This is an apology for last night.” He places the bag on my coffee table, which is very presumptuous of him considering I haven’t said whether or not I accept his apology, or his food. “Your brother told me he was going to bring you dinner, so I offered.”

Fucking Rhett.

That sounds out of character for him.

He’s not one to let his teammates come and hang out with me or really interact with me at all.In fact, when I first came to visit, he explicitly told them all that I was off limits in all aspects.

“And he actually let you? Willingly?”

“Yep.” He smiles, and dammit, I almost cave and forgive him right there. But I can’t.Be strong, Avery, he hasn’t actually apologized. It’s just a smile. A really, really nice smile.“It’s from El Ranchero. I heard that place is your favorite.”

“It might be.”

“What if I got a large queso and extra chips?”

“I’d say that’s a step in the right direction.”

He glances down at the floor before raising his head to meet my gaze. “I’m sorry about last night, Avery. I really am. That was really shitty of me, and I shouldn’t have used you like that.”

“It was a surprise for sure.” I pause and take a few breaths. I don’t really want to know why, but I have to ask. If I don’t, I’ll think of it every time I see him. “Why did you do it?”

Foster jams his hands in the back pockets of his jeans, and it takes a lot of willpower not to stare at his pelvic region. Or his chest… or his biceps...any part of him, really.

“Honestly, that girl is a few sandwiches short of a picnic. She’s been following me around for months, and I thought that maybe if she saw I was with someone, she’d leave me alone.”

“Oh.”

I don’t say anything else, and neither does he. I’m not sure what to say.

Does it suck that he only kissed me to get some girl to leave him alone?

Yes.

But it doesn’t change the fact that he’s a player, and players never change.

Ron Cooper, Mason’s dad, taught me that lesson the hard way, but it’s one I’ll never forget.

Couldn’t if I tried, and quite frankly, I don’t want to forget. I don’t want to lose myself in something that’s destined to crash and burn ever again. I don’t want to be so blind I ignore all the red flags because I keep thinking I could be the one to make him change. Maybe I could be the one to make him settle down.

Deep down, I knew. I knew Ron wouldn’t change for me. I knew I wasn’t worth it.

Sometimes I hate being right.

At least he kept the other girls a secret while we were dating. I didn’t find out about them until after I told him I was pregnant.

He told me he never stopped sleeping with the bunnies about the same time he threw some money at me and told me to take care of it, like our baby—my baby—was a problem.

You think I would stay faithful to you because your brother plays on the same team I do? You think you can change me?And when I didn’t answer, he laughed, because he knew—he fucking knew it was true.Yeah, you and all the other bunnies lining up to suck me off. The only difference between you and them is that you were stupid enough to get knocked up, and don’t think you can take care of it and come crawling back to me. We’re done. You’ve had your fifteen seconds of fame.

Funny thing is that I didn’t even want the recognition that came with dating a hockey player.

The pictures, the parties, the free clothes and purses… None of that mattered to me—although I wasn’t going to say no to a free designer purse—I just wanted to spend time with someone Ithoughtwas a good person.

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