Page 31 of Catching Coy
“Thanks for the tip.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Then she grinned at him, enough that those two dimples showed up and made his night. She pulled the jersey on and went to sit behind him. He adored how eager she always was to show her Team Coy spirit.
He turned back to the women, his momentary good mood dampening at the aura of tension that remained with the other three. He picked up the next jersey. He glanced over at Agnes. He knew what name he wanted to call, but she mouthed, “Take your time.” He restrained himself from rolling his eyes. Agnes was bearing with a lot for Coy to make sure he got out of this experience what he needed. He could play her game too.
He stared down at the floor as though he couldn’t decide who to give the jersey too. Counted slowly to ten and then brought his gaze up. “Charlotte.”
Charlotte hurried forward, confusion written over every feature in her expression. “Coy?” Charlotte took the jersey from him. “You’re sure?”
He nodded. “I need you here.”
She nodded back and he didn’t miss that her gaze darted toward Bellamy. “Okay.” She wrapped her arms around him and hugged him, Coy ignoring for as long as possible the moment that he would have to face Lucy.
He took the last jersey, making a show of waiting again before saying, “Gillian.”
Gillian rushed toward him, her reaction almost lost in Lucy’s gasp of surprise and then the way her breathing turned to shudders. “I’m sorry about last week,” Gillian said, enveloping him in a hug. “Thank you for the chance.”
He kissed her cheek but couldn’t linger over their hug to avoid Lucy. Gillian would get the wrong idea.
Lucy was waiting when Gillian stepped away, throwing herself into Coy’s arms, her shuddering breaths turning to sobs. From the corner of his eye he saw the three remaining women head toward the couches where they would celebrate with Coy later.
“I don’t understand,” Lucy cried. “I know you felt it. I know I didn’t imagine that you kissed me back and that we had something so real.”
It wouldn’t do any good to assure her that he had. It would make the heartbreak for her that much worse. “I’m sorry.”
She had her face buried in Coy’s chest, gripping the lapels of his suitcoat. He’d offer her a handkerchief, but Charlotte hadn’t returned the one he’d given her. “I didn’t lie about Gillian. I didn’t do that just so you’d kick her off. I promise, Coy. Don’t punish me for fighting for you.”
He held her tighter. “I’m sorry.”
She forced him to let her lean back and stare at him. “Coy. Please, just take it back. I know this was meant to be you and me. I’ve known it since the day we met. Please.”
He didn’t bother with I’m sorry again. He took her hand and led her, sobs still audible and a hand pressed against her mouth, to the gym doors. The camera followed them through the lobby and to the SUV that waited to take her back to the Ranch House to gather her things and be gone before the other women returned.
When he opened the door for her, she turned toward him one last time. “Coy,” she whispered, gripping his hand. Standing here with her, her voice pitiful and full of anguish, it made it hard to believe that someone as good as Charlotte had offered to go home herself to make sure that Lucy left. Lucy cared for him, he didn’t doubt that. And he had felt the connection she pleaded him with. But he was already taking a big risk keeping Charlotte, someone whose friendship he valued so much. Someone he could picture caring about as much as he did Bellamy. He risked getting to the end of this and falling for two women. He couldn’t also risk that Bellamy and Charlotte’s worries about Lucy wouldn’t catch up and make him regret taking a risk on her.
“Thank you for the time you gave me, Lucy.” He leaned over and gave her a kiss on the cheek. She hiccupped again with another looming sob and pulled away, finally climbing into the SUV. He shut the door and watched it pull away.
* * *
Lucy, 23
Phoenix, Arizona
Model
“This is my worst nightmare. It was love. It was real. And … and I can’t understand why he would cut me. I don’t know what Charlotte and Gillian said to him to make him do this, but it’s worse than anything I did. We had something. I just … I don’t get this at all.”
Chapter Sixteen
Bellamy had neversnuck out of a house before. And as she crept along the hallway of the Ranch House praying the boards didn’t creak, she realized she should have asked Roxy if she’d ever snuck out, in hopes she’d tell her the best possible route. She just knew that after seeing Coy’s face when he held Lucy after cutting her, she wanted to be there for him, no matter what Agnes’ rules said.
Bellamy paused at the stairway. Up held more crew, but also held her apartment and a door to the outside that no one was thinking about. Downstairs was the more direct route. Or back to her room and risk going out the window and shimmying down the beams between the porch covering and the ground.
She padded downstairs, creeping around the corners to the dining room and then through the mud room. She grabbed her boots by the back door and quietly got out to the porch. A few seconds more and she was sprinting up the road in the dark toward Roxy’s house.
She didn’t want to risk Zane feeling guilty about not telling on them, so she headed around toward the back of the house to the deck and French doors off of the master suite, where Coy was staying. She tapped on the door, loud enough—hopefully—to wake Coy without waking Zane in the room just across the hall. It took a few sets of taps before the curtains shuffled to the side and Coy stared out at her, wide-eyed. He pushed open a door, pulling her inside.
“Bells? Something wrong?”
