Page 10 of Wild About You
“Ooooh, shit.” Ash gets a wicked grin on his face. “This is your girl. Theonethat got away? It’s all coming back to me now.”
I might have gotten drunk and mentioned her a time or two.
“She’s a teacher at Everly’s new school.”
Piper’s face fills my mind. I’ve missed her every day for four years, but something about seeing her again has the pain of losing her as fresh as the night it happened.
“Oh shit.” Ash rubs his palms together. “Drama and angst, lost love. Tell me more.”
Leo shoots him ashut the fuck uplook before he glances at me. “What happened?”
“Nothing, really. Piper was perfect. Beautiful, fun, the best girlfriend. She’d send me these long texts on game days, pumping me up, telling me how great I was going to be and how she was so proud of me.”
The guys are hanging on my every word. “You know what it’s like. If it wasn’t eating, sleeping, hockey, or school, I barely had time for it.”
Ash nods thoughtfully. “She got sick of it?”
“No. Well, yeah, I’m sure she did, but she never said as much.” I stare at my hands. “I got tired of not being there for her. It ate away at me. She invited me to stuff, and I had to say no, then she’d act like she didn’t want to go either. She was missing out on all the parties and dances, normal high school shit because my schedule made it basically impossible to travel to see her most weekends. I could see how it was wearing on her. I was never going to be the boyfriend that she deserved.”
“Fuck,” Ash says, his voice serious. “Yeah. I get that.”
“How’d you two meet in the first place if it was long distance?” Leo asks.
“Tim Vaughn is her uncle. I lived with his family while I was playing with the Gamblers.”
“No shit?” Leo’s brows rise. “That dude was a hell of a hockey player.”
Piper’s uncle, Tim Vaughn, was a pro hockey player, too, and basically my idol. Living with him was the golden ticket. The fact that it led me to Piper was the cherry on top. Hands down, the best thing that ever happened to me was living with the Vaughns.
Even so, I don’t regret breaking up with her, not for a second. I kept tabs on her through Tim and his family. I saw how she flourished without me, went to prom, attended parties, had a life that she was never going to have with me.
“How’d she look?” Ash asks.
“Like the hottest woman alive.” I rub at a knot in my chest. “I forgot. I mean, I didn’t, but fuck.”
“And? What’d she say?” Leo asks.
“Not a lot. She mostly glared at me. I don’t think she remembers our time together quite as fondly as I do.”
Ash gives me a sympathetic nod. “That’ll happen when you break up with a chick. Hell hath no fury and all that.”
Leo clears his throat. “I have to tell you something.”
“What?” Ash and I say at the same time.
“Scarlett knows Piper.”
My heart races.
Ash chuckles. “This gets better and better.”
“They met randomly and have hung out a handful of times. Neither of them knew the connection right away, and I just found out myself last month about the time Everly showed up. I wasn’t sure if I should say anything. I didn’t realize what she meant to you. Now I’m thinking I should have at least given you a heads-up. I’m sorry, man.”
“No, I get it,” I say. “You couldn’t have known.”
I’ve kept details about Piper mostly to myself. Talking about her just made me want her that much more.
The sliding door off the kitchen opens and Everly comes inside clutching her phone in one hand. “Are we going soon? River is supposed to pick me up in an hour.”
