Page 111 of Leave Me Broken

“You are the first.”

She squeals again. This time grabbing my hands and turning us in a circle while jumping. I make her stop because my boobs are close to knocking me out, she stops and smiles. “I can’t wait to rub it in his smug—” Her smile falls as she glances over my shoulder. “Payson don’t turn around.”

As if anyone has ever listened when someone has said that. I turn and it takes only a quick glance to see what caused her smile to fall so dramatically.

Ash stands closer to us than before, next to the coaches’ table, in front of him is one of the other coaches. I think she’s the hosting coach. Coach . . . Buckingham, I think. I didn’t work with her much since she’s coaching the hitters. She’s tall, blonde, and like every single other female that comes into the view of Ash Pearson, beautiful. I hate her already. I hate her more seeing her claws wrapped around my boyfriend’s necktie. She strokes a hand down his tie, then perches it over his shoulder. The shoulder my legs were on a couple hours ago.

“How do you figure they know each other?” Janelle asks.

I suck in a sharp breath when she turns and throws his arm over her shoulder. She flashes a big smile and a flicker goes off. “I’ll give you one fucking guess,” I growl. It’s so obvious there is a sexual history, one she seems to not have left in the past. I’m learning any girl that knows Ash has some kind of sexual history with him. Okay, this might be where younger guys are better. Less time to fuck everything that walks.

“Oh, her?” Parker steps to my opposite side, holding a bottle he’s too young to have.

“You know her?” The pit grows even more.

“Not really. I spent one week here like years ago. She was around.” He shrugs.

Ash finally steps away from the woman, but he doesn’t look my way. I know by his stiff body he can feel the weight of my stare. Like I could feel his when those guys were around.

“So, who is she?” Janelle asks.

I notice Parker flinch a small amount hearing her voice. Then he sighs. “His ex-wife.”

I don’t know whose mouth falls open faster. Mine or Janelle’s. Parker saunters off but Janelle and I stand there gaping at my boyfriend slipping into a booth next to his ex-wife.

Three steps forward, three hundred steps back.

“You know he’s going to kill you when he finds you?” Janelle tells me like it’s not something I already know.

“Better him than me.” Then I cringe because I’m aware how that came out.

Janelle is frowning but she waves me away. “At least you’ll look hot when he does.”

I turn toward the mirror. For the last half hour, Janelle has been attempting to tame my hair. The California heat is not doing it any favors. It’s not even humid, just the heat in general, I guess. We decided on two boxer braids but it took her extra long because how frizzy it is. Janelle tried to get me to wear one of her swimsuits but dropped it when I gave her a look and she remembered the scars on my arm. What she doesn’t know about is Ash’s name under my left boob, which has me feeling extra stupid right now.

Ex-wife.

“No, stop that. I see where you are heading. We are going to go to a pool party and enjoy our time as best friends. Okay? No cheating-boy drama or ex-wife drama.” Ugh. “Just Pay, Jay, and hella fucking party food.”

That actually sounds amazing. “Thought you were looking for a lay.”

“That was before you found out your boyfriend has an ex-wife. Now tonight is about distracting you. But not with boys. I saw how you were looking at those two earlier. You couldn’t be less interested.”

“Can you blame me?”

Janelle shrugs and fiddles with her minimal makeup in the mirror. “They weren’t bad, P. Your vision is just warped by our coach. You never stood a chance at having a normal life when Ash Pearson walked in.”

Tell me about it.

“So, how is your knee, anyway? You didn’t seem bothered by it today?”

“Yeah, no, it’s good. My brace helps a lot.”

“I can’t even tell you how happy I am Alyssa isn’t here.”

I shoot a look her way as we step onto the elevator. She presses the ground floor. “I mean, you probably know but shit am I glad.”

I think everyone is. Even Shannon, Alyssa’s closest friend on the team, seemed more relaxed today. I think that says a lot. We will definitely miss her skills but we will make do. I will pull double the work if I have to. Anything to prove that we don’t actually need her.

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