Page 12 of That Moment
I sip her coffee again, the sugar sticking to my tongue. Too sweet. Too much. Exactly like her.
And still, I’m already picturing her hair pulled back, cheeks flushed, bent over the hood of that Mustang.
God fucking dammit, this was a mistake.
My garage will never be the same, and neither will I.
The smellof burgers hits me before I even get through Ranger’s screen door. Dolly’s laugh carries from the kitchen, their daughter Amethyst talking to her toy, and the place feels like it always does: loud, warm, a little chaotic. The kind of noise that usually keeps my brain from chewing itself alive.
Ranger is at the grill out back, spatula in hand, grinning like wolves. “There he is. Don’t think I heard about your day, Bescher.”
I arch a brow and step onto the porch.Of course, Dolly told him Adrienne stopped by.
“Pretty sure the only reason you ‘heard’ is because your wife’s turned my office into town gossip central.”
From the kitchen, Dolly calls, “Somebody’s got to keep everyone in the know. There’s some fresh fruit in here to enjoy before dinner.”
Ranger barks a laugh, flipping a patty. “She’s not wrong. Let’s grab a beer.”
I grunt, but follow him inside where the table’s already set. Dolly hands me a plate of the fruit. Amethyst is already chatting at my side about her new favorite princess. I let the kid distract me while I eat. Until Dolly says, too casually, “Ran into Adrienne earlier this week at that new café. She was with Milly and Brooklyn.”
My fork pauses midair. I force a shrug. “Is she and her Rockies boyfriend planning their million-dollar wedding yet?”
Ranger nudges me with his elbow, smirking. “Careful, man. You’ve been a Rockies die-hard since you could walk. Don’t go turning on your team now.”
I take a swig of beer, hide the tight twist in my chest at the thought of Adrienne falling all over the player she’s been dating. A fact I like to never acknowledge around her.
“Keegan Fuller?” Dolly pipes up, brows raised. “That ended a while ago. I thought you knew that?”
The words drop like a wrench on concrete. My grip tightens on the beer bottle.
Ended?
My stomach drops, a slow, stunned twist of realization.
I thought she was still with him. That’s the only reason I said yes to the damn Mustang. If she’s single now… Jesus. What the hell did I just sign myself up for?
Ranger catches my eye, that knowing look that says he’s waiting for me to react. I don’t give him the satisfaction.Just grunt, spear another strawberry, and keep eating like my appetite hasn’t already flatlined.
It’s none of my damn business what Adrienne Slade does with her time. Never has been. That’s the line I repeat while Ranger tells a story about how he and Tyler nearly got into a fistfight with a stubborn fence post in their front yard that refused to stay straight.
“Swear to God, the thing had a vendetta,” Ranger says, waving his beer bottle like it’s a weapon. “Tyler’s yanking one way, I’m shoving the other, and Dolly’s on the porch hollering about how we’re both idiots.”
“Because you were,” Dolly cuts in, eyes sparkling. “I told you to soak the ground first. But nooo, you men had to wrestle it like cavemen.”
Ranger grins, unbothered. “Post still went in.”
“Crooked as hell,” she shoots back, laughing. “Don’t worry, I’ll make him redo it tomorrow morning.”
Amethyst pipes up from her booster seat, mouth full of mashed potatoes. “Daddy said bad words.”
That sets Dolly off again, hiding her laugh behind her hand. Ranger just shrugs, “Yeah, I kind of lost it for a little bit, said every damn word in the book while I kicked the shit out of the thing.”
Dolly eventually shifts the conversation toward Amethyst’s antics at preschool, Ranger piles another burger on his plate, and the easy rhythm of their family fills the kitchen. The kind of thing a man ought to feel lucky to sit in the middle of. But all I can hear, underneath it, is Dolly’s voice earlier. “That ended a while ago.”
By the time the plates are scraped clean and Dolly is wrapping leftovers I don’t need but she insists I take, my chest feels tight enough to split as my thoughts begin to spiral.
Why didn’t she tell me that things ended between them?
