“You’ll have to buy a ticket to get to the gate,” Rio said.
Jim held up his phone. “Already done. Same flight.”
Dunk was disgusted. “That’s definitely not a good idea. To harass her at the airport—”
“I won’t harass her,” Jim promised. “I just need to talk to her—”
“Said every man, everywhere, who ever had a restraining order taken out on him,” Thomas pointed out.
“I got the news last night that I’m out of the Teams,” Jim told his friends. “Medical’s not gonna try to fix my knees anymore. It’s over.”
“Ah, shit,” Dunk breathed. “Jim, I’m so sorry.”
“And I know that’s not an excuse for what I said to Ashley,” Jim said, “but… Dunk, please, you gotta fire me. I promised you I wouldn’t quit, but I made her believe that I didn’t care about her, at all, and that’s such a fucking lie, because, God, I’m in love with her…”
His voice broke and he knew that he sounded insane—to his own ears as well. But as those words left his lips, he realized it was true. This feeling of wanting, of sorrow, of motherfuckingagonyfrom knowing just how badly he’d hurt her…
“I swear to you,” Jim promised the senior chief through eyes that—Christ!—suddenly swam with tears, “I just want to tell her that I lied. I honestly don’t expect it to change anything, not for me, but maybe it will for her, because I know her, and she’s… hating herself right now. If she tells me to get lost—whenshe tells me that—I won’t push. I promise you, I’ll back away.”
Dunk sighed. “You can’t call her? Talk on the phone?”
“I tried,” Jim said. He’d added Ashley’s cell to his phone’s list of contact while they were at the hospital—in case the doctor came out to talk to them while she’d been searching the vending machines for food. “She didn’t pick up.”
Dunk sighed again.
“Ah, come on, Senior,” Lucky said. “Give the man a chance.”
Dunk looked at Jim. “I do this? You owe me.”
Jim nodded. “You know that I already do.”
“You’re fired,” Dunk said. “Asshole.”
And Jim ran, out of the mess and back to his trailer to pack his bag.
***
Ashley left the ladies’ room, pulling her carry-on bag behind her.
Her running shoes were silent on the tile floor—it was strange but liberating to travel without heels and she’d probably never travel in anything but sneakers and jeans again. But the wheels of her bag clicked and clattered in a reassuring cadence along the now-familiar path back to the gate.
“Ashley.”
Someone stepped in front of her, and she stopped short, looking up at…
Jim.
He was carrying a duffel bag and wearing the same clothes he’d had on last night—before he’d taken them off to… how had he put it?Fuck her in Dunk’s office.His brown hair was a charming mess and the stubble on his chin was GQ-photo-shoot worthy.
Fucking men. They could roll out of bed looking sexy and perfect, and she hated him for that, even as her stupid heart leaped. It actually leaped and danced in her chest because he’d followed her here. What kind of fool was she…?
“Please,” he said, as a crowd of harried travelers streamed around them on both sides. “Can we talk…?”
“No,” she told him even as she made the mistake of looking into his eyes.
He was chagrined and apologetic—and she saw it again. That same fear and vulnerability he’d let her glimpse last night.
Which was just part of his pathetic act.
