Page 126 of Hard Hitter

“Why what?”

“Why are you asking? Why are you so concerned?”

“I’m not, I’m just nosey,” he replied, though there was a smirk that suggested he simply wasn’t willing to admit that he actually might care. Just a little. “You never told me why you guys quit talking after high school…”

She looked at him for some sign that this was a joke, but he just looked back at her, ready to listen. “I already know I’m going to regret telling you this,” she said, head falling into her hands as she thought of where to begin. From the beginning? That seemed like a lot to share, and way too personal. Emerson didn’t need to know all the intimate details of Quinn’s life, his mother, and their friendship.

She’d give him the cliff notes version: They met when they were seven, became best friends, this continued through high school until junior year when she realized she felt more than that, but was worried about his ability to have an actual relationship. Then the pact. At this, Emerson laughed, saying it was the dumbest thing he’d ever heard.

“Come on, I had no other way to appeal to him without pouring all my feelings out, and I was terrified that it would backfire. It seemed like a good idea at the time,” she said defensively, her face turning slightly pink. “You wouldn’t have taken me up on it?”

“I lost my virginity at fourteen, so definitely not. I don’t do virgins. Too dramatic.” Emerson shook his head in absolution.

Raelyn laughed. “Well, he did. Only, he wasn’t actually a virgin. So he lied to me about it until the last possible second. I mean, he was opening the condom wrapper and decided to tell me then.”

Emerson let out a low whistle. “Bad move. He should’ve kept his mouth shut.”

“He should’ve told me from the beginning,” Raelyn insisted.

“Would you still have wanted to do it?”

“More than likely,” she replied. “Well, actually, yes. I’m sure I would have. I didn’t really care about the pact at that point. We’d practically been dating for a week by then and I was crazy about him. Like, ready to move across the country with him.”

“So, why didn’t you tell him it was more than sex to you?” Emerson asked with genuine intrigue. “Isn’t it just as deceitful to have sex with him under the guise of it being ‘just sex’ as it was for him to do it under the guise of it being his first time? I mean, that sort of put him in a bad spot. Imagine telling him afterwards that it was more than that, and hedidn’tfeel the same way. That would’ve been a shitty position with him being your best friend, and you would’ve felt like shit. It was risky to just assume he felt the same thing.”

“That is not the same,” Raelyn said. “And if he hadn’t felt more than that...well, I would’ve probably been even more humiliated.”

“But...you told him that’s all it was.”

“But he lied.”

Emerson snorted. “But you didn’t even care aboutwhathe was lying about.”

Glaring intently at him, trying to ignore the point he was trying to make, she repeated, “He lied. We were best friends for eleven years and he lied.” She gave him a pat on his shoulder, “I wouldn’t expect you to understand how upsetting it is to be deceitful towards women when they actually think you care.”

“So, how did you end up not seeing each other for so long then? You both did something stupid, but were both into each other...what happened after you talked it out?”

Raelyn looked away and bit her lip. Wow, somehow his entire point had come full circle and she was less than amused. She winced as he shook his head again before saying, “Oh my God, Rae. You fucking hid and never talked it out, didn’t you? You knew you could get hurt, so you avoided it.”

“I was humiliated, okay? And I just...I don’t know. I was terrified at how hurt I was. I didn’t want to feel like that again. If I’d talked to him and I had to hear him actually say that he didn’t feel more…” she trailed off.

“Rae, just go talk to the guy,” said Emerson, finishing his last gulp of coffee. “You can’t just leave loose ends with someone you love that much.”

Raelyn studied him for a moment, not taking her eyes off him as she tipped her glass to her lips. She set it down and looked more curiously at him, one eyebrow raised and the other furrowed just slightly. “You’re weird today.”

Emerson smirked. “Yeah, well, if it doesn’t go well, you’ll be at the bar getting drunk tonight and I’ll make sure I’m there when you’re ready for rebound sex.”

Laughing dryly, Raelyn nodded. “There’sthe motive. I knew there was one somewhere.”

“Where the hell is she?” Quinn paced back and forth in the living room of Jett’s apartment. Jett and Zoey sat on the leather couch watching Quinn’s panic heighten each minute that passed without hearing from Rae. “What time did she leave here last night?”

“I walked her out to her car at 11:15,” Jett said, for what seemed like the hundredth time. “I walked her out, shut her car door, and watched her drive away. It shouldn’t have taken her more than ten minutes to get to the hotel. Even if she had to stop and fuel up the car or...buy condoms.”

Quinn fisted his hair with both hands as he groaned, “Ugh, this is my fault. I am the reason crazy people are following her. What if she stopped at the gas station and someone recognized her and...I mean, people can get obsessive. Especially over a beautiful girl like her. You wouldn’t imagine the kind of creeps…” he trailed off, not wanting to think too hard about it.

When Rae hadn’t responded to his text, he figured she was just going to show up. And when she didn’t show up within a half hour of his first text, he thought maybe she’d fallen asleep. It was a lot later than he’d meant, after all. He had known it was going to be a late night getting back anyway, but Rae wanted to have a night alone, outside of her parents’ house and he was all for it.

He and Jett tried to make their trip quick but driving on unfamiliar roads and with the recent rain over the past week, they’d managed to get stuck in the mud and had to push the massive truck out while Quinn’s mom sat in the driver’s seat, heavy on the gas pedal, flinging mud everywhere. Once back at the hotel, he’d swung by Zoey’s hotel room, told her he needed to shower, but that they could talk and go over everything when he was out. Zoey’s visit had gone long, and next thing he knew, it was nearly midnight and he hadn’t had a chance to even send Rae a text.

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