Page 38 of Hello Heartbreaker

“And now all of a sudden it’s different?” I demanded? “Why?”

“It’s been different, ever since—” He cut himself off.

My eyebrows drew together. “Ever since what?”

“Things changed last year, Maggie.”

I shook my head. “And yet they’re still coming around.” I gestured toward the house, where the woman stood awkwardly on the porch.

His eyes darkened. “Damn it, Maggie, you weren’t even in town for over a decade! I was dead to you. Was I supposed to live like a fucking monk hoping you’d come around someday? You wrote me off just like you wrote off this town the second we broke up.”

The tears were really falling now, and I wiped them away, acutely aware of the girl getting in her car and pulling away.

“She moved out of town last year and must have come back for a visit, assuming things were the same ol’ same ol’.”

I shook my head and wrapped my arms around myself. I felt so small. So pathetic.

“Please,” he said.

“How am I supposed to know someone else isn’t going to show up the second I leave, or text you for a booty call, or call you to set up another date?”

He stepped away, wringing his hands together. “You know what?” He pulled his phone out of his pocket and threw it to the ground. The heel of his boot stomped against the screen, shattering it to pieces, then he picked it up and bent it with his hands, fracturing it further. “I’m done with the past. I’m getting a new number, and the only people who will know it are you and my family, and maybe Cooper.”

I let out a tearful laugh. “MaybeCooper?”

“I love him, but man, he’s a mess.”

I shook my head at Rhett. “I can’t believe you did that.”

He reached out, gently taking my shoulders in his hands. “This means something to me, Maggie. You and me.”

This time, I didn’t fight as he pulled me closer to him and held me to his chest. Because maybe it meant something to me too.

I didn’t trust him fully, not yet. But I could feel the walls around my heart crumbling, brick by brick that he took away.

19

RHETT

So I might have fuckedup by tearing up my phone without telling anyone. I went into Cottonwood Falls to get a new phone from the store, but they were out of the smart kind. I didn’t want a dumb one, so then I had to drive half an hour to Rutlage and sit around in the store while I waited for them to let me spend my money there. I missed a whole fucking day of work to get a new phone number.

And then I realized that I didn’t remember anyone’s numbers because I’d always saved them in my phone, which was too beat up to transfer any information over. So I showed up to the softball game Friday night in my pink jersey and a pair of jeans and boots. I was one of the first ones there, but I saw my sister, Fletch, and Maya were there too.

“I tried to call you,” Liv said. “You never told the parents whether you wanted grape or apple juice for after the game.

I handed Liv my new phone.

She looked from me to my device. “What’s this?”

“My new phone. Can you add the family’s numbers? And figure out what the hell my number is and send it to people? But you can leave me out of the team group chat. I don’t give a shit what flavor of juice pouches they bring for after the game.”

Liv stifled a chuckle. “Sure thing, Coach.”

“Fletcher,” I said, “help me unload the truck. Maya, you start warming up.”

“No one’s here yet,” she said.

“You and Graham are.”

---