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“Excuse me?”
“It’s okay. Don’t be embarrassed or worried. I’m not mad.”
“You’re not?”
She shakes her head. “You poor thing. He played you, too.”
“Nobody’s played me.”
“Seriously?” She arches a brow and rolls her eyes. “Do you not remember the first time we met? When you were comforting me and told me that you were here to kick his ass?” She laughs bitterly. “And yet here you are, obviously having slept with him.”
“Amy, Hunter isn’t here. But I’ll tell him you stopped by.”
She curls her lip in disgust. “You do that.” She eyes me up and down. “And tell him to lose my number. I might have been willing to forgive him and come running once, but not again.”
“Wait. He called you? When?”
“Just yesterday. He said he wanted to get together again. But apparently he couldn’t wait. Lucky you, you got that honor.” With that, she walks past me and out the door.
As she disappears down the hallway, humiliation boils through my veins. Humiliation that quickly turns to anger at the knowledge that Hunter called her. I slam the front door with all the strength I can muster. A glass picture drops from the wall and lands with a shatter against the hard floors.
Once a player, always a player.
I’m an idiot. I’m not special to Hunter. I’m just one girl in a long line of women who can’t resist him and his stupid charms, and in the end, I’ll be thrown over for a newer model, just like my mother was every time my father found someone else.
* * *
My phone rings but I ignore it. When it rings again, I check the screen. It’s Hunter, probably wanting to see where I am. He’s got a lot of nerve. After he leaves a voicemail, I switch off my phone. About an hour later, someone knocks on my door because of course after Amy stopped by, I didn’t hesitate to get out of Hunter’s place as fast as humanly possible.
“Dani, it’s Chad. Open up.”
He sounds happy. Excited. It’s probably because of Hunter and their meeting, and I don’t want to interfere with that, so I force a smile on my face when I answer the door. “Hey there. What’s up?”
“I tried calling you but it went straight to voicemail.”
“Oh. Um, yeah. My battery died.”
“That’s what I figured, so I came over to ask if you want to go to the Lakers game tomorrow. I’ve got two courtside tickets.” Grinning, he holds up a small white envelope.
“What? How did you get courtside tickets? More importantly, how did you pay for them?”
“They were gifts,” he says, not quite able to meet my eyes.
“Anonymous gifts? Like your phone?”
“Uh-huh.”
I nod, then shake my head. “Chad, you can’t just accept gifts from an anonymous source. What if you’ve got a stalker?”
“Maybe it’s just a secret admirer. I’m not worried. Just go to the game with me.”
“No. We need to find out who’s sending you this stuff. Where are they leaving it? Are they sending you stuff in the mail? Are they—”
Chad runs his hand through his hair. “Jesus, Dani. Can you stop worrying for just a little while? All I know is that I have these tickets and I miss spending time with you, so just say you’ll go. Please?”
I stare at him. I’m touched he wants to spend more time with me. But I can’t shake the feeling Chad isn’t telling the truth. That he’s hiding something. That he’s getting the tickets from someone specific and he just doesn’t want to tell me who.
“Okay.” I nod. “I’ll go with you.”
“Awesome.” He gives me a hug then a kiss on the cheek.
Chad is the one person that always keeps me grounded. He’s my reason for everything I’ve done, and everything I do.
I’ve always wanted to do right by him, but maybe I’d done just the opposite when I’d encouraged him to meet with Hunter on his own.
Because even though there’s no proof, suddenly I can’t shake the feeling that I was right about Hunter all along. And that he’s continuing to bribe Chad with gifts.
