“She’ll be done in a handful of months.”
I poke at my cheek with my tongue. “I have a past.”
“Are you referring to the one everyone knows about, or the one only I and your ex know about?” Dred presses.
“Both.” I pinch the bridge of my nose. “It’s all going to come back to bite me in the ass if I start dating Tally.”
She sets her glass down and shifts to face me. “You have spent the last few years doing a lot of personal work, and yeah, if you start dating the coach’s daughter, your previous fuckboy ways will likely be mentioned, but that’s not who you are now, and you don’t have to let your past dictate your present. I think the thing that you’ll need to deal with is the one you’ve been avoiding for the last decade.”
I let my head fall back. My ex is the reason I haven’t had a relationship since I was Tally’s age. “I just want to leave Fiona in the fucking past with all my other bad choices.”
“I get it, Flip. I really do. She did a number on you, but you never really buried that relationship. It’s just a secret you’ve dragged along with you.”
“Why is hindsight always twenty-twenty?”
“Because perspective is everything.”
“How do I tell Tally I’ve been married before when I never even told my family?” We’d been high school sweethearts. She came back into my life at a time where I craved stability and Ithought I would have it with her. We were married in secret, afraid our parents wouldn’t allow it. I understood why after; she only wanted the life I could provide her. It was an expensive, horrifying lesson that left scars. A secret I wanted to keep buried. “What if we start dating, and I tell Tally, and she can’t handle it?”
“What if she can?” Dred asks simply.
“There’s so much at risk.”
“There’s always a risk. The bigger question is, can you live without taking it?”
I consider what it would be like if dinner and tonight’s kiss was as far as it went for me and Tally. The way my stomach bottoms out and a cold, uncomfortable sweat makes my neck prickle tells me what I need to know. Dinner and the kiss aren’t a mistake. “I have a laundry list of reasons why I shouldn’t try to date my coach’s daughter, but I’ll regret it for the rest of my life if I don’t at least try.”
Dred smiles softly. “Then you know what you have to do.”
“I’m going to make her mine.”
I send Tally a message:
Flip
Can’t stop thinking about you.
Tally
Me neither.
CHAPTER 16
TALLY
Ihave just rolled out of bed and put on a pot of coffee when there’s a knock at the door.
Cammie often pops by in the morning because Chase uses an obscene amount of cream in his coffee, and they frequently run out. Parsnip rushes down the hall, meowing excitedly. “No escaping this morning.” I scoop him up and throw the door open without looking through the peephole. This is my first mistake.
It’s not my pint-size friends standing in the hall. It’s Flip.
Flip who took me out for dinner and spent most of it feeding me.
Flip who kissed me and told me he wanted to take it slow.
Flip who I dreamed about last night, and in it, a hell of a lot more than kissing happened.
He looks far more awake and put together in his jeans, hoodie, and winter jacket than I do. He’s holding a takeout tray with coffees and a bakery box.
