Page 44 of This Wild Heart

A foreign sensation warmed my chest, and I kept my gaze safely on the table.

“I know you have.” After a quick glance at me, Logan sighed. “I wish … I wish I’d known about Max earlier. I could’ve done something.”

“Stop,” Anya insisted. “He was a very good liar.”

“Had to drag Emmett off him that next day in practice.” Logan pinched the bridge of his nose. “Then he opened his big fucking mouth, and they had to drag me off next. Thank God no press was there.”

Paige tilted her head. “Wish I could’ve been there to see that.”

“I wish that too,” Anya said wistfully. “I also wish I hadn’t been dumb enough to trust him for so long.”

“You weren’t dumb,” I interjected. “When someone doesn’t want to show what’s going on underneath the surface, even the smartest, most trusting people can be fooled.”

Anya’s eyes locked with mine, and the shared secret that we were doing the same thing to our families had my pulse speeding. We were in this together, she and I. We had our own reasons, yes, but I couldn't deny that her reasons were inextricably linked with mine. I took a risk and slid my hand up Anya’s back, wrapping my hand around the back of her neck and dragging my fingers lightly over the satin-soft skin there.

“Besides, his loss is my gain, isn’t it?” Her braid tickled the back of my hand, and her eyes fluttered shut for a moment. “And if that idiot wants to keep running his mouth to the press, then let him.”

Silence blanketed the room, and I caught Greer and Paige share a quick, loaded glance. Logan’s expression was thoughtful. My hand moved back to the chair, and Anya let out a shaky breath.

“Well, that answers a few questions,” Paige murmured to her husband.

“Does it?” he said, eyes still pinned on me. Paige elbowed him in the side, and he grunted, slipping his hand over to rest on her leg under the table.

“Sorry,” Paige said to Greer. “He’s not usually this mean. Even with the girls, he let them make their own mistakes. It’s this younger generation that has him a bit more worked up.”

My sister smiled. “Are you kidding? Have at it. It’s nice to see someone else give him shit. Usually, that’s my job.”

“Believe me when I say no one gave you that responsibility,” I told her.

Anya patted my thigh. “Keep it up. It’s good for him.”

I plucked her hand off my leg and brought her fingers up to my mouth, biting down gently on her fingertips. “Now, now, golden girl, you keep me humble enough.”

At the nickname, Paige’s eyes sharpened with interest. “Golden girl?” she asked innocently.

Shit.

Anya’s cheekbones were flushed pink, and she tugged her hand back into her lap. I cleared my throat and somehow managed to ignore the way Logan stared intently at the two of us.

Instead, I kept my eyes on Anya’s profile. “Yeah. Everything about her is so bright, you know? Beautiful, obviously. But it’s more than that. She’s warm and good and generous. Only someone with a heart of gold could put up with this wreck.”

Finally, she lifted her eyes, and when they met mine, there was a different sort of explosion in my chest. The same kind I felt when I saw her in Vegas. It wasn’t the painful kind like I used to feel with my dad. It still left me slightly breathless, though, something powerful in its own right.

For a split second, a voice whispered in the back of my head that I was simply trading one distraction for another. That nothing was actually being solved by what was happening.

I ignored that little asshole like my life depended on it.

Paige sniffed loudly, and when she dabbed underneath her eyes, I was pulled from that line of thinking. Logan’s face had finally, finally softened, and Greer was watching us with a smug grin on her face.

A while later, Greer and Logan and Paige left, with hugs and a begrudging handshake, and Anya and I were left alone again.

Wordlessly, she helped me clean up in the kitchen.

When the counters were gleaming, the table clear, she finally spoke.

“That wasn’t too bad,” she admitted.

I gave her a quick look. “No. I thought they’d ask me more questions.”

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