Page 16 of Challenge Me

Her nostrils flared as she looked away from me. “Bi?”

Swallowing hard, I shook my head. “No.”

When she got to her feet, I did the same.

“Don’t walk away,” I pleaded.

“I need to think for a while.”

“You came here to talk. That’s what I’m trying to do.”

“I came here hoping that maybe . . .” She drew in a shaky breath and wrapped a slender arm around herself. When she tipped her head forward, her blonde hair covered part of her face. “Maybe I was going crazy. Maybe there was an explanation. It was fucking Photoshopped, I don’t know.”

“I’m sorry,” I repeated, unsure what else to say.

“I was doing a lecture, Amir. Fifty students. One of them saw it, then they shared it, and they all just . . . looked at me.”

“Damnit.”

“You’re in the goddamn Major Leagues. What you do affects people. It affects me. It affects Mallory. I never get to escape being a part of your legacy, Amir. Don’t you get that?”

“Of course I do.” I turned to watch Mal with her cars outside while I tried to calm my own irritation. “Why do you think I haven’t come out? I have you two to think about, but also my career. I didn’t want it blown open like this.”

“Maybe sleeping around at bars in town isn’t the best way to keep a low profile.”

The bitterness in her tone grated on my nerves, but I knew that I deserved it. Being caught at that moment was bad luck. I didn’t know if it was someone random who sent it in or what, but I hadn’t taken the time to look into it yet. I was sure I’d get an earful when I called Shawn back.

“I should bring Mal with me,” Avery said as she headed for the back door.

“Excuse me?” I followed right behind her. “It’s my week. I have her until Friday.”

She turned around, her fiery blue eyes no longer guarded. “You have a hundred things to deal with. Do you want to make all those calls while she’s here to listen?”

I considered it for a moment. “I’ll figure it out. At the end of the day, it’s a damn article. It doesn’t come before her.”

“I can bring her back tomorrow—”

“No,” I said firmly. “She’s got her day planned out. Already, she’s gone off schedule because of this, but I’m not yanking the rug out from under her. It’ll only stress her out.”

It was clear she wanted to argue, but she knew I was right. “I don’t want you discussing any of it in front of her.”

“I don’t need you to tell me how to parent, Avery.”

We stared at each other for a long minute. I wasn’t sure if there was a winner or a loser to this, nor did I really care. She was angry, and she had a right to be. But it wasn’t as if I had it easy here either.

When she went outside to say goodbye to Mal, I watched the two of them. Things had changed so much in the past year and a half, and just as I started to think we were leveling out, this happened.

I didn’t know if I blamed myself, not that it mattered. Remi and I both played our part, and he’d clearly had no idea I was anything more than a random in a bar. In the end, I was the only one affected by it while he’d go on living his life, listening to his music, smiling and dancing and laughing and playing pool without a worry in the world.

Chapter 6

Remi

The fruit hangs low, the teeth hang lower.

You bite, but who’s the feast, who’s the devourer?

The phone had been going off incessantly all damn morning. Last night had been brutal, as most Fridays were. I was used to working near a college, so it didn’t bother me. Except when I wasn’t left alone to sleep.