Breaking Away (Assassins, #5)(99)
“I was so scared I was going to mess up,” she whispered against his chest. He held her, kissing the top of her head.
“No way, you had that.”
She shook her head before looking up at him. “You think so?”
“I know so,” he said with a wink.
“I agree, I think you’re going to be three for three, Claire,” Reese said with a wide grin.
Claire looked from her to Phillip. He smiled before hugging her tight. “Now go up there and get your hardware so we can go home.”
Claire smiled as she let him go. “Can we get ice cream, too?”
“Ooh, can we? I second that request,” Reese chimed in.
He chuckled as he shook his head but, inside, he was on his knees, thanking the sweet Lord above. This was what he wanted. He wanted these moments with the two women that meant the most to him. He knew that it was only ice cream, but it meant way more to him. It was the start of something that he never wanted to end. He knew that Reese was nowhere ready to settle down and admit that she loved him, but he felt like she was getting there and he wasn’t about to stop loving her. Not when the end result was within reach. When Claire went three for three, getting the highest score, only three points away from perfect, and placing first overall, Phillip saw tears in Reese’s eyes and he knew right then that she was almost there. She only needed a little more time to see that they worked together as a unit, a team.
That they could work as a family even.
STANDING ALONE in a room with Kevin Edds was probably the last place she thought she’d be when she walked away from him three years before.
But sometimes the moments you’d think would least happen come around and bite you in the ass. Blah, she wished she were anywhere but here. She felt naked with his lazy gaze on her. He stood against the wall, looking up at her from his phone while she stood by the iHome. Despite the fact that she was fully clothed in black tights, shorts, and a long-sleeved sweatshirt, she felt like he could see right through the layers she wore. Before, she loved it. She loved how he looked at her like she was a piece of the most succulent meat he’d ever put in his mouth but now, now she wouldn’t piss on him if he were on fire. She didn’t care that he looked sinful, all tall and lean in a pair of dance shorts and a tank, because she didn’t want anything from him.
Ever again.
She had regretted her decision of inviting him to the studio a hundred times over, but she had done it and now had to live with the decision she made. The whole way home from Chicago with Phillip and Claire, she tried to figure out why she said yes. She told Phillip it was because of the kids, but was that the real reason? It didn’t feel right. She felt like there was more to her decision, but she couldn’t figure out what that was. She needed to figure it out but all she kept doing was wishing him to the millionth circle of hell. She wasn’t sure if there was one but she sure hoped so, because Kevin Edds needed to leave and make that place his home.
Reese hated how she was holding all this anger towards him. She needed to do as Phillip said and let it go. They were done, he was dead to her, so why did she allow herself to hate him so? Why was being in a room with him, alone, making her want to gouge out his eyeballs? This should be easy. Pick a damn song to show the expert class he was teaching and be done with him, but it wasn’t that easy. He wanted to show off both their skills and she had no problem doing that, but he wanted to do it together in a couple’s dance like they used to do all the time. And that was a huge problem since she hadn’t touched him in years and the thought of their bodies touching again had her on edge.
“Why are you scowling at me?”
Reese scowled even more. “Because I don’t like you, and I don’t want to be in this room with you.”
He laughed as he came off the wall, his brown eyes locked on hers. “I always loved how blunt you were, never really hid what you were thinking.”
She watched him walk towards her, tucking his phone in his pocket before standing in front of her. He was close enough to kiss or even for her to backhand him, but she decided against both as he said, “I miss that about you.”
Pushing him away, she said, “You don’t have the right to miss anything about me. Shut up and let’s get this done.”
“Why are you so mad? Shouldn’t you be over all that by now? It was eons ago.”
She glared. “How can you not expect me to be angry with what you did to me?”
He shrugged his shoulders. “It wasn’t a big deal. We had a fling. It had to end.”
She swore she was about to have steam coming out of her ears and look like one of those crazy cartoons. “Are you flipping crazy? It was no fling. I loved you, and you loved me. You told me so countless times. How dare you say that?”
This wasn’t going to work. There was no way she was going to be able to dance with him. No, she was going to break his kneecaps and throw his body out the damn window!
Holding out his hands in a calm-down motion, he said, “Whoa, calm down, killer. I know that you loved me, shit Reese, I f*cking loved you, with all of me, but it came down to what was more important. My family or you, and it was my family.”
Reese felt tears sting her eyes. “That’s fine, because I completely agree, but you should have never made me believe that I was it, that I was yours! You should have told me you had a wife and child!”