I couldn’t leave my dad alone for so long to go to some fancy party and watch Emery be beautiful all night. Let alone if she reconciled with Tucker or found someone else. Someone who wouldn’t drop her heart when she handed it to them with both hands.
Orion frowned. “You have to come. It wouldn’t be the same without you!”
“I’ll think about it,” I said, though it was a lie.
“That’s the spirit!”
He chucked my arm and joined other guys, whooping and hollering our victory.
“You good?” Dean asked, looking concerned.
“Yep. Just…not feeling well.”
He lowered his voice after making sure Tucker wasn’t listening. “Look, the election’s today. Emery will be with Tucker at his dad’s watch party, so you should come. Celebrate with the guys.”
“I’m just not up to it,” I said. “But go. Have fun, and I’ll see you at school.”
The locker room emptied. I was moving slowly, my arms like lead, when suddenly a heavy hand clamped my shoulder and spunme around. I had half a second to register Tucker’s left fist before he buried it in my gut, pushing the air out of me. It bent me double, and then his right fist smashed my cheek, sending me reeling and my glasses skittering across the floor.
I slumped to the clubhouse floor, knees to my chest, struggling to catch my breath. Without my glasses, the world became an airless, blurry place with two hazy figures looming over me.
“That’s for Halloween,” Tucker said. “Because I warned you, Ford. I fucking warned you to stay away from Emery.”
“You sure showed me,” I choked out. “Waiting until after the race to coldcock me like a fucking coward.”
He shrugged. “I wanted the win.”
Rhett bent down to my level, hands on his knees, grinning a sunny grin that somehow made his eyes even blacker.
“Hey, Ford. Want to hear a joke? What’s the difference between Amelia Earhart and your mom?”
“Fuck you.”
“Nothing! They both left, never to be found again.”
His and Tucker’s booming laughter filled the clubhouse as they walked off, Tucker crushing my glasses under his shoe along the way.
I pushed myself up to sitting and slumped against the lockers, my face throbbing and my breath coming short. I hurt, but it wasn’t anything compared to the ache in my heart.
When I had recovered my breath and the pain in my face dulled, I gathered my things and headed out, but no sooner had I stepped outside than the skies broke open and the rain came down.
Chapter 21
Emery
“I want to go home,” I muttered, my words drowned out in the chatter of a hundred conversations, clinking glasses, and the blaring of cable news channels from at least six different flat-screen TVs mounted on the walls of Newport’s private club, the Regency.
The mood among Senator Hill’s election watch party guests—his family, friends, and donors—was muted. The numbers coming in weren’t good; Jerome Hill was likely going to lose.
Why am I here?
The answer, of course, was simple: My father had demanded it.
He and Mom were set to come together, but Tucker had picked me up—business as usual. It didn’t matter that I’d already broken up with him. Not to him or my father. I’d tried to claim some agency over my own life, yet I was still steamrolled into coming here. A final show of support for the Hills from the Wallaces, just in case the numbers turned around.
Because Dad himself hadn’t even shown up.
He must’ve gotten wind of the early returns and decided to make aclean break, leaving me to do the dirty work of pretty smiles and goodbyes in my little red cocktail dress. What the heck was I supposed to say?
