I couldn’t help myself; I studied him. The weariness in his posture, the dark shadows under his eyes, the stubble that had been there for days.
"Are you sleeping at all?" The question slipped out before I could stop it. The caring was automatic, like breathing, even after what he did. We were together for three years. Some things didn’t just go away. My heart didn’t ache for him anymore, but I wasn’t a heartless bitch.
He shrugged, the motion slow and defeated.
I sipped my coffee, the warmth of it burning my throat, but what I really wanted was a hot shower to ease the tension in my muscles—something to distract me from the thoughts of Teddy, those hands, and the feeling of him against me.
Clearing my throat, I set my mug on the counter with a soft clink. "Did you come here just to throw around accusations, or is there a reason you’re standing in my kitchen, Travis?"
He took a long, steady drink before finally meeting my gaze again. "My mom yelled at me."
My brows lifted in surprise. "Surely not because of me. She hated me."
He winced, the truth stinging, but it wasn’t new. "It’s about the wedding."
The weight of his words hung in the air. We were supposed to be married in a month, and yet here we were, standing in the aftermath of everything that had gone wrong.
"She doesn’t want to tell everyone it’s off." His family had always been obsessed with appearances—what people thought, how things looked. I’d never been what they wanted for him—too tall, too many muscles, a job they thought was beneath them. But a broken engagement? That was a scandal. In their eyes, it was far worse than anything else.
I leaned against the counter, staring at him, searching his face for answers I wasn’t sure he had. "I’m not sure what you want me to say, Trav."
He moved toward me, his presence crowding the air between us, and placed his mug next to mine. Too close. Much too close. “Tell me you don’t have feelings for him.”
“Travis, stop.”
“Why?” he asked. “You used to love it when I pressed you against the counter, lifted you onto it, and sank between your?—”
“I said stop.” I pushed him away, my palm landing against his chest—a chest I once knew so well, but now it felt like I was touching a stranger. The connection was gone, like a memory fading into dust. He glanced down at where I’d touched him then back up at me, his eyes narrowing.
“Seriously, Franny? You’re going to choose that asshole over your fiancé?”
“You stopped being my fiancé the moment your dick fell into someone else.”
“I’m sorry for that. You know I am. It didn’t matter, though. You’re the one I want.”
“It mattered to me.” I hurried past him, desperate to put distance between us, to get him out of my space, out of my life.
“I didn’t want to have to do this,” he called after me.
I paused but didn’t turn around.
“I saw you get into his car last night.”
My heart skipped. I stepped back, trying to keep my composure, but fear prickled up my spine. “Were you following me?”
“Yes, but it’s not what you think. I just needed to see you.”
“That’s not okay, Travis. At all. If you don’t leave in the next five seconds, I’m calling the cops.”
He reached into his pocket, and I froze, my pulse spiking. When he pulled out his phone, I exhaled, but only a little. He unlocked it, turned it toward me.
There was a picture of Teddy and me, standing together on the sidewalk—too close, too intimate. My breath caught in my throat. “I’m not sure?—”
“He’s on that crappy team you coach,” Travis interrupted, swiping to another photo. My stomach dropped. “You spent years telling me how hard it was for women to break into coaching men’s teams. Did you think I wasn’t paying attention? I know how much this job means to you.”
He put his phone away, and I felt the weight of his words in my chest. “Somehow, I don’t think the media or your bosses would be too thrilled if they found out you were having an affair with someone they trusted you to coach.”
My heart skipped painfully then slowed, a dull ache radiating through my chest. My fingers clenched into fists at my sides, a rush of anger flooding my veins.How could I have ever planned to marry him?
