Page 55 of Delayed Penalty

She looks confused, but explains. “The letter you taped to my door, breaking up with me, only to have Peter's dad talk to me to let me know you were on vacation to clear your mind and you didn’t want me to try and reach out. I made my one phonecall then let you rot,” she spits out, each word becoming more and more angry as she obviously is remembering it all. Only it sounds like she’s got it all sorts of fucking twisted.

“On vacation to clear my mind. You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me,” I hiss, ignoring the guys still sitting around us as I feel myself start shaking. I can’t let myself get this worked up…it’s never good for anyone. “I wasn’t on a fucking vacation… I was picking up the fucking ring I was going to propose to you with. The same ring you’re wearing right now.”

Chapter Twenty-One

Avery

Ihaven’t been able to stop staring at my ring since Harris dropped that bomb earlier tonight at the bar, the heaviness of that topic, of those memories all feel weighted down in this beautiful diamond.

To know he’s had this ring for six years, to learn the dreams I thought were one-sided all these years truly weren’t.

It’s confusing as fuck, if I’m being honest.

I can’t figure out what I’m thinking, what I’m feeling, and I don’t think I’m going to be able to until I get to sit down and talk to him.

That’s how it was the rest of the night at Hudson’s, even now as I sit in his kitchen while he’s changing before coming back out. I want to know everything. I want to know what happened from his perspective, because I’m starting to think I spent the last six years of my life trusting and loving a man who did nothing but lie and deceive me.

I’m still in the same spot sitting on his kitchen island when Harris finally comes back out.

“Sorry, I just needed out of those jeans,” he says quietly as he heads to the fridge and grabs us each a water. “You okay?”

“I don’t know,” I say, looking up finally, taking the water as he leans up against the counter.

He looks broken, lost, as confused as I feel, and it makes me feel broken for us.

“I’m starting to question everything, Harris. Literally everything.”

“Me too,” he says solemnly.

“You’ve really had this ring for six years?” I ask, out of the blue.

“Yes. I picked it up from Kylie, Cade’s little sister who was in town for the weekend. I met her for lunch, picked up the ring my mom sent with her, then went and had it cleaned and sized and went to go talk to your father to ask for permission.”

“You went to my parents’ house? Why am I just now hearing about this?” I ask, thinking back to that weekend, trying to recall any mention of my parents seeing Harris. There’s no way. If I had known my parents had seen Harris, I probably would’ve thought twice about believing that letter.

I mean, I’d like to believe I would have.

“I got intercepted outside. As I’m sure you know, Peter’s dad is on the coaching staff for my college team. When I went over to your parents’ house he was there and stopped me from going in. Told me your parents weren’t there and that they wouldn’t want to see me anyway.”

“Are you kidding me? He actually said that?”

I feel like my blood is boiling. I’m so angry, I want to cry, scream, and throw things all at once, all while wanting to hug Harris. I want to wrap myself around him, hold on and just grieve all of what we could have been. It’s hard to reconcile what you thought your life was going to be with what it actually is… especially when it didn’t turn out how you wanted.

But what if it still could?

“He did. Honestly, that was just the tip of the iceberg. He then gave me an envelope filled with pictures of you and Peter. They looked very damning, so I believed him. That being said, I was going to talk to you, I told him that. I wanted to hear your side, see if we could work it out. I was ready to do what I could to figure it out. But then he threatened everything. He threatened to make Cade and I ineligible for the draft. Said he could make it look like we were using, and no NHL team would ever take us on. You don’t know the whole story, but Cade had been through hell a couple years before that… I couldn’t let him not get his dream because of me. Then, there was you. He said he had the power to ruin your career and would do it with a smile on his face if I ever spoke to you again.”

When he’s finished speaking, I feel my soul crack, the heartbreak of these emotions so devastating, but beneath that. Under the many layers of other emotions I haven’t filtered through yet, is hope—the one emotion I want to hold onto. I want to run to him and hold him, touch him, kiss him. But I can’t yet. I need to know more.

Hell, I probably need to process this all first, but… who knows?

“You… you were going to propose,” I ask.

“I was,” he says, setting his water down and taking a step closer to me.

“With this ring?”

“It was my grandmother’s.”

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