Page 16 of Play For Keeps

My dad nods sympathetically. “Just be smart about things. I know you will be. If you do end up falling for this guy and he’s good to our Birdie, I’m not trying to talk you out of it. You deserve a second chance.”

“Yes, honey. Grant cannot be allowed to take your happiness from you. He has already taken too much,” my mom adds, placing her hand over mine.

I’m reminded of all the ways Grant pushed me to the point of breaking, until I felt like I was dying inside. I did everything he asked of me, and it still wasn’t good enough. There was virtually nothing I could have done to stop him from sticking his dick inside of every beautiful woman who threw herself at him.

I’d met Grant at a mutual friend’s birthday party. We spent most of the evening talking and laughing, and when he offered to drive me home at the end of the night, I let him. When he asked if he could see me again, I said yes, even though he told me he wasn’t looking for anything serious. Pretty soon I was spending most of my free time with him. As far as I knew, we were in a committed relationship.

Eight months after we started seeing each other, I found out I was pregnant.

“Your mother is right, sweetheart.” My dad brings me back to the present. “Do what makes you happy. Just be careful with Birdie’s heart. She gets attached easily.”

Ever since I ran into Jake in the ice cream shop, he’s been all I can think about. I imagine his eyes—those eyes a dozen different hues of green—and his smile, especially when he smirks. Physically, I’m very attracted to him, but more than that, I love talking to him. Just being around him feels… intoxicating.

But my mom is right. I can’t let Birdie get close to Jake, only for her to be heartbroken down the road when he decides he doesn’t want to be in our lives. I have enough to deal with as it is. Jake Matthews is a distraction I can’t afford right now.

Two hours later, after a delicious dinner and a second helping of my mom’s homemade apple pie, it’s time to leave. As I slide into the driver’s seat, I feel my phone buzz in my pocket and my mind immediately returns to Jake. But when I pull my phone out and swipe the screen, I find a message from the last person on earth I want to talk to.

Grant: You’ve had your fun, now bring Birdie back home. I’m tired of this bs.

I ignore the text, my jaw clenched so tight that I feel a headache coming on instantly. You would think I’d be better by now at not letting his rage texts get under my skin. But I’m not. Lowering myself into the car, I rest my head against the leather seat while tears prick at my eyes. Easing out of the driveway, I roll down my window and turn the music up in the car as a distraction. A warm, summer breeze hits my face as I drive, and I breathe in the scent of lilacs and linden trees as I try to calm the urge to scream.

Once we are back at our apartment, I park the car and try to put on a happy face for Birdie, but for the rest of the night I’m lost in my own thoughts. I’m happy here in Reed Point where the memories of my marriage aren’t constantly haunting me. But it’s a lot. Grant, his mom, paying the rent on this tiny apartment, making a home for us, my job, Birdie. It all feels like an impossible balancing act, and I am just so exhausted. The alternative is I could move back to Brookmont, but the thought makes my stomach twist.

Maybe I just need to take a break from it all, just for a day. Do something fun. I think back to the texts that are waiting for me from Jake. Maybe he’s the fun I need.

JAKE

It’s Thursday afternoon, and I’m back on a job site installing hardwood flooring, my T-shirt soaked with sweat. The good news is that we’re back to a full crew tomorrow, which means I can get back to the office instead of breaking my back on my hands and knees. I’d forgotten how demanding this work is, and I had underestimated how exhausted I would be after a few weeks of it. The bad news? I’m in a shit mood.

Halsey pumps through the speaker of my site super’s phone while he installs a bathroom vanity. The song, Bad At Love, is about falling hard and fast for someone, and although I’m not at the point where I’m falling for Everly, the song still annoys the shit out of me. I haven’t heard a word from her. She’s obviously not interested. She made that painfully clear when she didn’t return the second text I sent to her. I need to forget about her and move on.

Unfortunately, I can’t get her out of my head. I obsess over our conversations, thinking about what I could have done or said differently. I sit in traffic and wonder what she and Birdie are doing. I close my eyes at night and picture Everly. This isn’t like me. The only time I felt anything close to this was with the one girl who ended up breaking my heart.

I know what it feels like to be in love. I was with my ex, Jade, for two years. Jade is beautiful—ice-blue eyes, dark brown hair. More than that, she got me. She had lost a parent too. When she was nine, her mother died in a car accident. She was driving home from a work function when a drunk driver swerved into oncoming traffic. Jade was the first person I met who had suffered a loss like I had, and I think that made it easier to be myself around her. She didn’t expect me to be happy all the time, she gave me space when I didn’t feel like talking. She loved me for who I was. Until she didn’t. The day Jade broke up with me I felt like I lost everything. She said we were young, that things felt too serious. She told me she wanted to see the world. Three weeks later she left for Europe, and I haven’t seen or heard from her since. That was two years and four months ago.

For a while, I really thought she would come back to me. I thought that one day I’d get a call from her saying that she was back home in Reed Point, that she realized she had made a mistake when she ended things. I think some part of me still wants that to happen. Maybe it will.

The truth is— I saw a future with Jade. It’s not easy for me to open up to people, but Jade was so easy to talk to that it just came naturally. We had a lot in common. We just fit. We matched up well in the bedroom too. The sex was mind-blowing. Jade didn’t want a gentleman in the bedroom. No, she preferred it when I pinned her up against a door, tore her clothes off, and left marks on her skin. She was always game to try new things and liked being pushed past her limits. She loved it when I was rough with her, and the dirtier I talked, the better. Her kink was being praised. Sex with her was more like a marathon than a sprint, and sometimes I wonder if I’ll ever be able to find someone like that again, someone who likes sex the same way I do.

Ultimately, I want the girl who’s going to beg me to fuck her harder while I’m whispering the dirtiest shit into her ear, not the girl who wants to have sex with the lights off.

Checking the time on my watch, I get back to work, trudging between the kitchen and the miter saw I set up outside. I work for another two hours solid, only stopping when I get a call from my sister. I step outside to answer it.

“I’m almost all packed. Are you excited to see me?” Sierra arrives on Saturday, and despite the difficult task of helping Gran move out of her home, I’m excited to see her. Four years is a long time. Too long.

“I am, Si. I know Gran is too when she isn’t losing her shit about the move.”

“Yeah, I’m sure she’s giving you an earful. I’m sorry I haven’t been there to deal with some of that.”

“You should be. She’s been a peach.” I sit down on a patio chair, groaning slightly as I stretch my legs out in front of me.

“Are you okay?” Sierra asks.

“Yeah, just tired. I’ve been working on site for the past couple of weeks and I’m fucking feeling it,” I admit.

“How old are you?” Sierra teases. “Do you need me to get you a room next to Gran’s?”

I toss my free arm over my head, stretching out my deltoid muscle, which is killing me too. “Just remember who’s going to help you unpack. Keep being a brat and I’ll fake an appendicitis.”

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