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“Come on, Sprinkles. I’m not that bad of company, am I?” He refilled our glasses, effectively killing the bottle. “Besides, now I have you right where I want you.”
I gulped, raising my head to look at him. The intensity I found in his features scared me. It was like he held a whole storm in his eyes alone. It didn’t make me afraid of him, it made me nervous about what he might want from me.
Without thinking, I brought my hand to his chin and rubbed his scruff with my thumb. He looked so handsome like that. Rougher too. He’d lived a lot in our time away from each other. I watched his Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed slowly.
I dropped my hand and decided to start with the questions I had for him.
“Tell me about college and going pro.” I needed to drive the conversation, steer it away from why I left the way I did and learn about what happened to him since. Learning about his investment in this place floored me. While I didn’t follow sports, I’d read stories about players going pro, making tons of money, and blowing it on cars and women. And when their careers ended, whether by choice or by injury, they were screwed.
But then, Jack had always been smart. Clearly, he made some smart moves by getting himself a real job and an investment passion project.
Jack looked like he wanted to say something, but then thought better of it.
“You know I went to OU.” He shot me another intense look, one that made the heat pool in my core. I instantly became insanely jealous of all the women he’d went to school with. I’m sure they treated him as a god on campus, and I could only imagine the number of women he had been with.
It made me sick.
It also made me feel guilty for not sticking to our original pact. We were supposed to visit each other regularly during college. We had a schedule worked out and everything. I wouldn’t need to even ask these questions if I had stuck to the plan.
“Did you end up studying econ like you planned?” I had been able to track his football career, that information was public knowledge, but the commentators never said much about Jack’s academic endeavors.
Jack coughed. “Not quite. I changed to business. I knew it would come in handy someday. I’ve been dreaming of this place for a long time.” He looked into his glass and took another drink, the tips of his ears turning a little red.
It was weird for me to hear about his dreams and plans, and to have not been a part of them.
I started to feel the wine. I didn’t drink often, my childhood hadn’t made it too appealing, but I had to admit that it helped me with my nerves. I’d always felt comfortable with Jack and the little liquid courage helped me to push past the pain so that I could get to know the man Jack had become.
“I didn’t know you wanted to have your own business. Since when?” I turned my body towards him, mirroring his position. My shoulder sank into the tufted backrest.
“Since freshmen year when I realized that I needed to seriously think beyond just football. I needed to have a plan in place if I wanted to be successful. If I wanted to create something that could support a family.” He paused to comb a hand through his hair.
My voice got quiet. “Even then you were thinking about it?”
His gaze once again found mine, locked on it. “Even then.”
I took a shuddering breath but needed to ask. “Was it because you met somebody?”
His eyes never wavered. “Yes.”
It’s like all the air in the room was sucked out by a vacuum. He met someone in college that made him want these things. I placed my hand over my heart, a real pain shooting through it.
“I think we need another bottle.”
He hesitated. “You sure?”
After I gave him one concrete nod, he stood up. “I’ll go get us one.”
I watched him leave. I watched every single muscle in his toned body as he turned away from me and I couldn’t help but replay him walking away from me when we were at that party. When he had Katie Kooney in his arms, and he took her with him into that bedroom.
When he left me behind.
Forgot about me.
His supposed best friend.
Left me forher.
When all I wanted was to tell him how much I loved him.
