Page 75 of How We End
“Why is she still on the list?”Teigen watched Emily push out of the room before turning to face me.
“I… fuck, I forgot.Wyatt, I’m sorry.I’m so sorry.”
“Teigen, could you give me and Julian a couple minutes?”Wyatt didn’t take her eyes off of me.I couldn’t tell if what I saw in her eyes was worry or pity.
“Sure.If you need me, I’ll be at the end of the hall.”Teigen shook her head at me.
The door quietly closed.“Wyatt, I can?—”
“Are you okay?”She stepped closer to me.Her eyes traced over my face and down to my shoulder.
“Yeah.I’m sorry about that.I really forgot about taking her name off the list.”I lifted my sore arm, forgetting the pain.“Oh fuck.”I swallowed the nausea.
“Is this the part where I get to live out my fantasy of fucking a sweaty hockey player?”
I snorted out a laugh, pressing my forehead to hers.“Can I take a rain check?I’m not sure how I’m going to get this shirt or these pants off.”
“You want me to help?”She pulled away, and a wicked little smile crossed her mouth.
In that moment, I knew I couldn’t do this without her.“I’m sorry about her.I’ll make sure?—”
She pressed a finger to my mouth.“Julian, I’ve been choked, arrested, had my face broken and put back together again.Your ex-wife doesn’t scare me.”
I pulled away, looking at her.The high cheekbones, the full mouth, all perfect except for two scars, one at the corner of her left eye, the other so slight under her nose.
“Oh, don’t look at me like that.This life isn’t all fucking hot hockey players.”She ran her thumb over my top lip.“And you’re bleeding again.”
“This conversation isn’t over.”I took her hand.The horn blew, announcing the end of the game.We won.
“For now, it is.”She rose up to kiss me.“You don’t smell that bad.I’ve smelled worse during bike week.”
The team was coming back to the locker room.Coach was calling my name.
“I’ll wait for you.”She winked before heading out.
“This isn’t over,” I warned her.She waved off my words.If Maverick did those things, he and I were going to have a problem.
CHAPTERTHIRTY-SIX
WYATT
December 12
“Are you going to tell me what that was about tonight?”Julian stood at the foot of my bed, struggling to get his shirt off.
No, I didn’t want to talk about it.I shouldn’t have said it, but it slipped out.“She said some shit I didn’t like.Do you want me to help you with that?”
“Yes.”He huffed out a breath.“I wasn’t talking about Emily.”
“You’re lucky I like to undress you,” I teased as I undid the buttons on his shirt, then helped him slip it off.“Pants?”I was hoping we could skip what I said and move to the sex part.I had buried that part of my life and never wanted to look at it again.
“Wyatt?”He took my hand.“You can’t drop something like that on me and think I won’t care.And don’t skip to the end.I want it all.”
I stepped away from him, the lights of the Strip shimmering on the horizon.I had been so scared of this city when I first moved here.LA had people and things, but Vegas was bright and loud.It dared you to not believe in the what-ifs.I still saw the glimmer of hope, but I also saw how broken it could leave you.
“Okay, but you asked for it.”I wondered if he’d still feel the same about me when he knew the why behind me.That there wasn’t some great tragedy, just one stupid decision after another.
“I think it all started when I got knocked up at sixteen by a boy who said he loved me.He said we’d be okay, and I believed him.Two days later, he was gone, and I sat in a clinic with my mother.She told me I was too pretty to be stuck in a dead-end town, so it was for the best.Girls like me don’t belong in small towns.I belong in places like LA and New York.So at eighteen, I went to LA.”I didn’t want to see the disappointment in his eyes.
