Page 54 of Bad Wolf

His eyes soften, his jaw relaxes and my breath catches in my chest, swirling with the hope this one unfiltered gaze brings.

The moment seems to drag on for an eternity. Him staring at me, me staring at him, the bubbles dissipating as our eyes lock.

That is, until I see his blue orbs widen and then swim with pain. He shakes his head, totally thrown, and then without a word, spreads his large hand across the small of her back, leading her down the street with a whisper in her ear.

Whatever he says makes her giggle as she rushes to keep in step. I feel the hope I have for this whole situation burst just like the bubble that lands on the bouncer’s shoulder with a silent pop.

“I have something to say to you.”

I whirl around at the sound of his voice, “To me? Where’s blondie?” The pretty girl he left with is nowhere in sight.

“Yes, you. And she’s no concern of yours,” he says coldly.

I know my mouth opens and closes a few times as my brain tries to take in Knox as he stands before me, but I’m in shock.

“Oh. Oh, okay. Yeah, we can talk. I actually have something I need to explain to you. It’s difficult and it’s been a long time coming, but it’s really important.”

“Were you pregnant?”Say what now?

“Preg—what? No!” I shake my head, “No I didn’t get pregnant. Is that what you think this is? I’ve come to reunite you with your five-year-old child? Fuck no. I’d hope that if I were in that predicament you’d be the first person I sought out, not the very last, and not after all this time. Jesus, Knox what do you take me for?”

He sighs as if his patience is wearing thin. “Like I said, Wren, I want to say something and you’re going to shut up and let me speak.”

“Okay, I’ll be quiet, but can we just… I don’t know, go somewhere. Somewhere that’s not bitterly cold? Where we’re not going to be interrupted?”

“No, we can’t do that,” he frowns.

“Why not? We could—”

“Because Wren,” he says through gritted teeth, “I literally cannot find a fuck to give.” He runs his hand over his day-old stubble.

“Look. I’m not so emotionally stunted that I can’t admit that you didn’t, at one point, mean something to me. If not everything.”

“Yes, and that’s why—” He holds up his hands and levels me with a look of indignation that has me frozen on the spot.

“You can stay here in New York and go about your little life however you choose, our paths barely have to cross. Christ, you can even stay friends with everyone, and when I do see you, I’ll never make a scene, it doesn’t bother me. But what does bother me is that you somehow think I owe you the time of day. You somehow think that I want to listen to how you screwed up. That’s on you, Wren.Allyou. In all our time together, my head was never turned. Not when Stephanie Ridden offered me a blow job after practice because she knew you were in a meeting. Not when Bianca and Billie Wilkin offered me a three-way when you were at that overnight dance tourney. And definitely not when Alicia French handed me a pair of her panties every day for three weeks straight. So no, Wren, I don’t wanna talk to you. I don’t wanna hear your sorrys, or how you’ve rationalized that night, and it just doesn’t matter anymore, because…”

He pauses and scrubs a hand over his face, “You are now utterly irrelevant.”

I jolt back, his emotionless words a punch to the gut and I choke on my sobs as I try to fill my lungs with air.

“I didn’t do it, Knox,” I choke out as he walks away and heads back into the crowded bar. He doesn’t turn around or flinch even a muscle as my ass hits the cold, wet pavement. My heart breaks as I watch the man I thought I knew, leave me in a heap on the sidewalk.

He might wear the same carefree smile and the same worn leather jacket. He might still be hell on skates when his blades hit that ice, but he’s not the boy I’ve mourned the loss of all these years and he’s certainly not the love I’ve grieved.

No, this Knox is something entirely new.

The bouncer helps me up off the ground, a pitying look set in his eyes and I brush myself off.

“You want to go back inside and dry off a bit?” he kindly asks.

I shake my head.As if I can go back in there. I can see Knox through the fogged-up windows laughing and joking with his teammates like he didn’t just obliterate me on the spot with his callous words and cold stare.

I should never have come here. I should have stayed in Miami with my dad, finished my degree, and made something of myself. I should have buried this pain down deep. Hell, it might have started to feel better if I’d let it.

Instead, I stewed and boiled and burned in the agony of losing him.

Six years! Six fucking years of my life pining and wanting someone that ultimately doesn’t belong to me anymore. I feel sick and so, so stupid. Was it just puppy love?

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