Page 24 of Winging it with My Ex
I’d spent years building up walls to keep him out. And now, here I was—watching the man who broke my heart help a wobbly kid tie his skate and feeling like maybe... just maybe... he wasn’t the same boy who’d left me.
Maybe he really had become the man I always hoped he’d be.
fifteen
. . .
jett
I swipethe sweat from my forehead and drop onto the locker room bench with nothing left in the tank. Not just physically. Emotionally too.
It’s the last intermission in our game against the Timberwolves—a rivalry matchup that always packs the arena. But tonight, the only person I’m looking for isn’t in the stands.
Hadley’s absence will throw my game off, and our continued winning is keeping the high school kids motivated.
It’s been a long two weeks without seeing her, but she wanted space and time to think. I get it, though. That was a ton of baggage to unload in one evening. All the things I’d kept from her.
I wasn’t lying back in high school, but I wasn’t being honest either. I’d kept some important stuff from her. Alcoholism is genetic. What if it’s in my genes? I saw what my mom went through with my dad. I don’t want to put that on Hadley.
I think I’ve resigned myself that the best I’ll ever get with Hadley is friendship, but?—
“We have a special announcement tonight,” Coach Kessler says as he steps into the locker room, his face unreadable.
“Where are you, Jett?”
That voice.
My heart stops.
Hadley?
I launch off the bench, ignoring the confused looks from the guys around me. My legs are moving before my brain catches up. I push through the hallway, past the stick rack, and burst out into the tunnel that leads to the ice.
“We left things a little unfinished.”
She’s on the ice. In skates. Mic in hand.
What on earth is she doing on the ice? In skates?
“What are you doing, Skates?” I call out.
“This jerk face and my best friend conspired against me. Our relationship for the past six weeks was pretend.” Her face is expressionless.
My heart sinks.
“For those that are new here, Jett Monroe and I were high school sweethearts. We were voted most likely to get married.”
The crowd has a mixed reaction, boos here and cheers there. Soft, but I hear them.
“Jett and Vivi came up with this brilliant master plan. They’d catch me and Jett in a way that would allow social media to think we were an item again and then get me to fake date him. But all the while, he was trying to win me back.”
The boos get a little louder this time.
She waves for them to quiet. “Stop that. I’m not done.”
Not done?
Fantastic. My shoulders hunch, and I turn.
