Scored(63)

“But Aiden said he wasn’t cheating.”

“I know.” She smiles wider. “That does make me feel better about marrying him.”

“Good thing since we’re down to nine days.”

“Eight days. It’s already tomorrow, remember?” Looking happier than I’ve seen her in a long time, Layton starts to sashay to her room. I can’t blame her. I’d jump for joy if I’d discovered my fiancé wasn’t cheating on me, too.

Right now, I’d give anything to definitively know that Dallas isn’t cheating on me. Or to go back in time and say yes when he’d invited me in the first place.

*

I fall asleep after another hour of feeling sorry for myself, only to wake up alone in bed. After getting up, I move to the bathroom to do my morning thing. Since I’m not worried about looking sexy for Dallas, it doesn’t even take me ten minutes to fix my hair, put on makeup, and get dressed.

Grabbing my phone, I send a text to Layton, asking if she’d be willing to leave today instead of Monday since neither of us are enjoying ourselves anymore… and then one to Dallas to let him know my plans.

I’m not one to play games, even if he’s the ultimate player.

Layton: Give me fifteen minutes and I’m ready.

Me: I’ll get an Uber. Meet you downstairs at 7:30.

She sends me a thumbs-up.

After ordering the Uber, I check my texts one last time. Nothing. There’s nothing from him. Not an apology. Not even an ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ type of thing.

Apparently, I’m not worth even the time for a text from him.

“Why did I let you do this to me?” I whisper, refusing to fall into another pity party over him. I vow instead to never date another athlete. I’ll find a nice, tech-type who works at RTP. Those guys in the research park don’t exactly get a lot of women in their offices, so it stands to reason there will be a boatload of them looking to have a good time.

Not immediately, of course, but maybe two or three years from now.

With a groan, I pick up my carry-on and move to the door. I hear someone just outside and my heart speeds up, but it’s most likely Layton.

The doorknob twists and I stand there, unmoving, as the door swings open. Dallas is standing on the other side. He’s wearing the same outfit he went out in, but he doesn’t look like it at all. Everything, from his hair to his shoes, looks perfect. Almost like last night didn’t happen.

He takes one look at what’s in my hand and leans against the door, so casually that I want to scream. “Where do you think you’re going, bright eyes?”





CHAPTER 26




Dallas


Last night, it was easy to fall back into quite a few of my old habits at the club. Habits that made me the center of attention.

Made me drink a little too much.

Party a little too hard.

Stay out a little too long.

Now I have to pay the piper… and she doesn’t look happy or relieved to see me.

“If you’d bothered to read the text I sent, then you would know,” Paige says. There are dark shadows under her eyes, and the whites look suspiciously red. Either she threw down with Layton, or she stayed up worrying about me and what I was doing without her.

“Someone bumped into my table and knocked my phone off. The screen’s shattered, and I can’t get beyond the home screen.” I take it out of my pocket to show her. “I haven’t been able to read any texts or take any calls since five this morning.”

“Convenient.”

“Not really.” She moves to brush past me, but I step in her path. “Don’t you want to hear my side?”

“That sounds a lot like the prelude to a confession that ends with if only you’d gone with me, I wouldn’t have done what I did with that woman, or in your case, Drake’s Dolls,” she says bitterly.

Tread carefully, I remind myself. She’s not coming out of left field with her fears, no matter how innocent I am. However, I’m not going to let her slip out of my fingers either.

“There were no women.”

She arches a brow.

“Let me rephrase that… there were no women who had any access to me at any time. I kept it zipped up and my mouth to myself.”

“But not your hands?”

“I’ll give you that. I did dance. There was a time or two that I had to maneuver some ladies away.”

She sets her luggage down, and I breathe a bit easier. “You expect me to believe you?”

“I’m sure you can find at least a hundred videos of me on the dance floor last night.” I shake my head. “Did our conversation in the kitchen not register in that smart brain of yours? I always have the opportunity to be with women who aren’t you. Every away game. Every home game… Hell, when I shop for fucking paper towels, I’ve got women slipping me their number. If you were with me, instead of hiding from the world, I’d say ninety percent of that would stop. Dead on arrival as soon as they got one look at your fine self.”

“You might have a point,” she grumbles, then fixes those baby blues on me. “Why didn’t you come back before now?”

“Because I was in a meeting with one of my longtime club promoters to part ways with him.”