Page 27 of Playing for Keeps
Rubbing the back of his neck, Justin searched for the words to explain it all in the best way possible. “I think Caroline should be here for this.”
“She’s at work. I want to know your side. Start talking.”
Here goes nothing.
“We met about thirteen years ago.”
Jordan shaded his eyes with a hand. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“Trust me, if I could say anything else right now, I would. We were in a relationship for almost a year.”
“You’re lying. There’s no way Caroline was seeing anyone—especially you—and no one knew it.”
“Skye knew. I think she was the only one,” Justin added.
“Why would she hide that from us?” Jordan asked, his voice booming against the concrete walls.
“How would you have reacted? Kinda like you’re taking it right now?” Justin asked, raising his voice to match Jordan’s.
“Yeah. Kinda like this!” Jordan threw his arms out to his sides. “What were you two thinking?”
“I can’t speak for her, but I was thinking about how I loved her.”
Jordan’s hands balled into fists. “Don’t you dare?—”
“Dare what? Tell the truth? You asked for it. It wasn’t a game, and we both knew what we were doing. I loved her. I still love her.”
Jordan took a step closer, but Justin held firm. “Oh yeah? What changed? And why is there a photo of you at her bakery floating around online? She doesn’t look like she’s in love with you.”
His grip tightened on the edge of the table until his knuckles went white. Nothing about Justin’s feelings for Caroline had changed, but circumstances had taken the happiness away from them. “It’s a long story.”
“You better start talking,” Jordan ordered.
“I got drafted! Dom was put in prison. I couldn’t ask her to come with me because her family needed her. She had dreams here, and no matter how much we wanted it to work, it didn’t.”
Jordan scoffed. “You thought she would go with you? She’s been dreaming about owning that bakery downtown since she was six years old! She can’t go two days without seeing Mom. Caroline loves it here.”
Justin slowly nodded, and his voice lowered as he said, “Exactly.”
Jordan threw up his hands. “So she wouldn’t come with you.”
“I didn’t ask her to come,” Justin admitted. The tightening in his throat was all too familiar. It choked the life out of him whenever he remembered losing her. Whenever he remembered hurting her and leaving her to face things alone.
“So, you sit here, claim it was love, but you left her behind.”
Tucking his chin, Justin knew when he’d lost. He’d been the loser long before Jordan showed up. He said goodbye to Caroline years ago, and that was all that mattered. “Yeah. Pretty much.”
“No,” a female voice said as the door opened.
Alicia Carver—well, Alicia Taylor, now—walked into the room and took her place by Jordan. She wrapped her hands around his arm before looking at Justin. “You had your reasons, didn’t you?”
Justin didn’t speak. He’d hoped to get the chance to talk to Alicia about all of this, and he’d even prayed she’d help him get through to Caroline. With Jordan as hotheaded as a Tasmanian Devil, there was no chance of that happening.
“I talked to Nick this morning,” she explained.
Wow. That was fast. He’d expected it to take at least a few days to get in touch through her team.
“He told me the plan,” Alicia said. “Count me in.”
