Page 79 of Changing Rules

“He’s with my parents.” I close the door and head to the kitchen.

Stacey follows, just like she did at the baby shower. I didn’t realize it until Bella pointed it out.

Fuck, I was clueless.

I’d love to drown my sorrows in a bottle, but I can’t. Football is all I have left, and I can’t fail my team.

“Do you want something to drink?” The question comes out before I can think better of it. Damn the manners my mother drilled into me.

Stacey climbs onto a stool at the breakfast bar. Without knowing it, she has taken Bella’s place.

I’m tempted to ask her to move. She doesn’t belong here.

“Tea would be great.”

“Okay.” I start a pot of coffee before I heat up water and dig out the tea bags Bella picked up a few weeks before she left. When a cup of hot black tea is perched on the bar in front of Stacey, I lean my hip against the cupboard, holding my mug in my hands, soaking in its warmth.

“What happened?” she asks softly.

I scoff. “As if Audrey didn’t tell you.”

Stacey bows her head, peering up at me from beneath her lashes. “She did, but I don’t understand why.”

“Because I was an idiot.” I take a sip of my coffee and close my eyes. Even this makes me miss Bella. The way we take our coffee was the first thing we had in common.

“Why?”

“I wanted to make Miller pay for what he did—to me, to you, to our relationship. I hoped to expose him for the true fucker he is, and I hoped Bella would help me. But when I met her, when I saw how he treated her, my priorities changed. All I wanted was for her to be free of him. I wanted to keep her safe.”

I take another sip, hoping to dislodge the lump in my throat.

“I think, subconsciously, since I failed you, I thought I could make up for it by helping her. We were friends at first, and somewhere along the way I fell in love with her, just like she fell in love with me…” I suck in a breath, my throat closing.

I look out the window, watching the sun dip below the horizon. My mind instantly drifts to Bella. Is she looking too? She loves watching sunsets and sunrises. She’d stand near the window and look out over our backyard. Can she see the sunset from her new apartment? Does it have a view?

Stacey touches my arm, bringing my attention back to her. “If the two of you were in love, why did she leave?”

“I let Audrey get away with meddling. I didn’t set boundaries until it was too late. I failed Bella completely, and I fucking hate myself for that.” I shut my mouth and clench my jaw, staving off tears. I’m so tired of the tears. I never cry. But since she left, it hurts so much, I want to fucking bawl.

“What did Audrey do?”

I take another sip of coffee and set the mug on the bar. “She hired you.”

Stacey scoffs, but when she realizes I’m not kidding, she sobers.

“Audrey didn’t choose your company because she’d heard great things about it. She hired you to put a wedge between Bella and me. She thought if we reconnected, I’d break up with Bella.”

Stacey lowers her head, her cheeks going pink. “I wondered, especially after I met Isabella’s cousin. Ben is more experienced than I am; his company’s a bigger name than mine,” she says slowly. “I still don’t understand her reasoning. She wanted you to break up with Isabella so the two of us could be together? We’re friends, sure, but that’s it. I doubt you have feelings for me at all.”

“I don’t. I’m not interested in you.” I take a too-big gulp of my coffee. “Bella said I was cheating on her emotionally, and she was right.”

Her eyes go wide. “That’s bullshit, Alex.”

I grip the edge of the counter and zero in on her. “You and I texted every day, at all hours. I barely talked to her about what I had going on because I’d already discussed my days with you. I took her for granted. I stopped checking in with her.” I. Am. A. Fool.

Her shoulders sag. “When you put it like that, I guess it was a bit much.”

“Stace, you sent me selfies constantly, even late at night. That’s what girlfriends do with their boyfriends,” I rasp. “But I’m to blame too. I was so caught up in how well you were doing, so thankful we could be friends after what we went through, that I lost sight of the one person who matters most. I’m full of shit, just like Miller.”

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