Heartache and Hope (Heartache Duet #1)(35)

“All damn night, baby!” Rhys whoops, ruffling my hair.

From the sidelines, Coach Sykes calls out to me, “Are you done?”

“Not even close!”

My opponent stands beside me, hands on his knees. He’s the sixth one to cover me tonight, and he’s done. Roasted. Me? I haven’t even warmed up yet. He turns to me, shaking his head. “Where the hell did you come from, Ledger?”

I shrug. “Florida.”

“Well, go the fuck back.”





“You killed it tonight, Ledger,” Oscar, a sophomore says, punching my shoulder while I sit in front of my locker.

“Thanks, man.”

“Yeah, way to show us up,” Mitch calls.

I ignore him, but Rhys doesn’t. “Last I checked, basketball was a team sport. Go run track if you want to get noticed, or I don’t know… up your fucking game.”

Mitch scoffs. “You cup his balls while you’re down there kissing his ass?”

Rhys laughs. “No, but your mom does.”

I grab my phone from my locker, the post-win adrenaline spiking when I see the text from Ava:

Ava: Triple double on your first game? Way to show off, #3.

Connor: Stalk much?

Ava: What can I say? I’m a fan.

Connor: I pretended you were there.

Ava: :( I wish I were.

Connor: You kind of were.

Ava: How?

Connor: I popped that balloon and shoved it down my shorts.

Ava: Gross.

Connor: Yet endearing, right?





Rhys says, “Hey, the team’s going to the diner to celebrate. You’re coming, right?” at the same time a message comes through from Ava.

Ava: Mom’s already asleep. I can probably come outside for a little bit if you want to tell me all about it…





I look up at Rhys, the way his eyes shift from my phone to me. He sighs. “Do your thing, Ledger. But at some point, you’re going to have to act like you’re a part of the team, too. It’s a two-way street, and I can only hold the guys off for so long.”

I slam my locker shut, thank Rhys, and text Ava on my way out.

Connor: I’m leaving now.





Ava rushes down her porch steps, her arms outstretched as she pounces on me. I catch her just in time, falling back a step while she laughs quietly in my ear. “Superstar!” she whispers. There’s something to be said about being able to literally sweep a girl off her feet. I spin her around, refusing to let her go. She doesn’t seem to want that, either, because even when her feet are planted on the ground, she’s still holding on, her arms around my neck. On her toes, she looks up at me, her eyes lit up by the streetlamp. “Tell me everything,” she says, her smile contagious. “From the second you walked out until the final buzzer. And don’t skimp on the details. I want a play-by-play so I can feel like I was there.”

I laugh at her rambling, then say, “It was… was…” I pause, trying to remember the way I felt less than an hour ago, but the details are blurred, the moments insignificant. Because this… being with her and seeing her like this, seeing the pride in her eyes, the excitement in her voice—it outweighs everything else. And knowing that all of her, right now, is all for me... I pull her closer. “It was just a game, Ava.” And as the words slip from my lips, I feel the heaviness of their truth dig deeper inside me.

“It wasn’t just a game. It’s, like, you’re coming out, you know? Your world’s about to change, Connor. I hope you’re ready for it.” She pulls away from me, releasing me completely. Then she smiles, but it’s not the same smile she greeted me with. “Don’t forget the little people who got you here,” she says, only half in jest. “And by that, I mean me. Promise you won’t forget me?”

With a heavy sigh, I take a step forward, ridding us of the space she so strongly believes she needs. “It’s kind of hard for me to forget the one person I can’t stop thinking about.”

Her eyes lock on mine, her lips parted, and I wonder if she can hear the magic beating wildly inside me. She sucks in a breath, then seems to refocus. A smile plays on her lips as she looks down at her phone and mumbles, “I wonder if they have any game video yet.”

She’s tapping away at her phone, and I’m tapping away at my mind, my bravado. “Ava?”

“Yeah?”

“You’re so fucking beautiful.”

And it’s killing me.





Connor: You asked me yesterday if it would be enough; meeting you and getting to know you, and I cracked a stupid joke when I should have told you the truth. And the truth is this: yes. In the simplest of terms and the most complicated of circumstances, yes. You are enough. I wake up every single morning looking forward to the couple of hours I get to spend with you, to the few minutes I get to see you smile and hear your voice and feel you next to me. Even on the days when our time is limited, just knowing you’re there and you exist is worth it. And even if I have to spend the rest of my life wondering what it would be like to kiss you just once… these moments with you… they’re worth everything. YOU are worth everything.





Chapter 25