Page 97 of Wildcat
I open my stance as Scarlett steps to my side. “Is everything okay?”
Ash doesn’t speak, and Scarlett glances between us.
“Show her,” I say.
Her brows pull together as Ash moves closer. I look anywhere but at the phone. I don’t need those images burned in my brain again.
I know as soon as she sees it. She inhales sharply, and her hand flies to her mouth. “Oh my gosh.”
She swipes his phone and scrolls frantically. I focus on her expression, which is horrified. That seems like a good thing.
“It isn’t what it looks like,” she says. “He kissed me for a millisecond. I didn’t see it coming. You have to believe me.”
I nod. “I do.”
Or I want to. I can’t think of a good reason that she’d lie about it.
“I need to call Rhyse.”
“What?” His name on her lips makes white-hot jealousy course through my veins. “Why?”
“This isn’t good for him.”
It isn’tgoodfor anyone.
She starts off, and I follow, gripping her bicep lightly. “Wait.”
We move into one of the bedrooms out of earshot. The news must be making the rounds because we have more than one set of eyes on us.
“I should have asked this earlier, but I just assumed I knew the answer. Maybe I don’t. Do you still have feelings for him?”
“Not like you mean, but I do care about him, and if he hasn’t already seen this, he needs to know.”
Shit. Maybe it shouldn’t sting that her first reaction is to call up the guy she was photographed kissing today, but it does. I shove my hands in the pocket of my jeans.
Scarlett closes the distance between us. “I am crazy about you. I want to be with you. Seeing him made me more sure of that than ever.” She moves before I’m ready to let her go. “I’ll only be a few minutes.”
I leave her alone and head back out to the living room.
34
I’M IN DEEP AVOIDANCE
SCARLETT
Rhyse has already madeit to Austin, and his team is in damage control when I speak to him. Neither me nor Leo are in the mood to party anymore, so we head back to his house. Ash eyes me warily as we say goodbye to him and Talia. Leo might believe me that nothing happened with Rhyse, but it’s obvious that Ash isn’t so sure.
The time it takes to get back to his place, the Internet has exploded. There are several more articles, and each headline is worse than the last.Wildcat Head Coach’s Daughter in Love Triangleand my least favoriteWho is Scarlett Miller, The Woman Dating a Wildcat and Pregnant with Formula 1 Driver’s Baby?
Being photographed outside of a baby store was not the most ideal location. My phone starts ringing incessantly, and then Leo’s. I knew it was bad when I saw it, but with every call, it gets bigger and bigger.
My mom tells me everything will be fine, and it’ll blow over. When I ask how Dad is, she gives me some bullshit answer that tells me he’s pissed.
“I’m so sorry,” I say as I lean into Leo. He hasn’t answered any of his calls. We’re sitting on the couch at his place. The TV is on, but neither of us is paying any attention to it. “I wasn’t thinking when I agreed to see him.”
“You couldn’t have known it’d go like this.”
His words are exactly what I want to hear, but he’s distant.
