He finishes his beer and signals for another. “I should have stayed home.”
“Probably. But you didn’t. So now you have to play. And that means you have to function with me and Cal on the ice.”
The bartender brings his second beer. Jax just stares at it. “Does she ask about me?”
My chest tightens. “Yeah.”
“What does she say?”
“She asks if you’re okay.”
“What do you tell her?”
“That you’re not. But that it’s your choice.”
He winces and takes another drink.
“Just come back.”
“I can’t. Not until she chooses.”
“She did choose.”
“Right.” He drinks his beer and stares at the bottles behind the bar.
I sit with him for another ten minutes. Then I leave him there and head up to my room.
Callum’s already in bed, scrolling through his phone.
“Where were you?” he asks.
“Talking to Jax.”
“How’d that go?”
“About as well as you’d expect.”
“So not at all.”
“Yeah.”
I get ready for bed. Brush my teeth, change into sweats, lie down, and stare at the ceiling.
My phone buzzes. It’s a text from Tiger.
How’s the trip?
I stare at it for a long moment and wonder what to tell her.
Callum sees me looking at my phone. “Is that her?”
“Yeah.”
“What are you going to say?”
“I don’t know.”
“Don’t tell her anything about Jax. She’ll blame herself. She’s already dealing with enough.”
