“I love Baylor. More than I can even describe to you.”
“What are you doing?” she yells, but I continue.
“We’ve been together for almost four months now, and I’ve loved her the whole damn time. I thought she loved me, but apparently, I was wrong. I know this may mean my career, and I hope it doesn’t, but I won’t lie to you,” I say, standing and looking down at him. “I love your daughter, and I will protect her until my dying breath. I’m sorry I’ve kept that from you, and I hate the way this just went down. But watching what she just said to you made me realize that I could have been wasting my damn time. So you’ll probably have nothing to worry about once I walk out that door. Now, if you’ll excuse m
e.”
I turn and head for the door, gently moving her to the side when she steps to stop me. I ignore her tear-filled, pleading eyes and softly say, “Move.”
“But—”
“No, not right now. Let me walk away and pull the knife out of my fucking back before I even try to talk to you,” I warn.
She tries to say something, but I walk around her, heading for the door just as Coach stops me. I shouldn’t stop, I should just go, but it isn’t his fault that Baylor is like this. Well, shit, maybe it is, but either way, I can’t be rude to him because I’m hurt by her. I have been lying to him too.
“Jayden?”
Looking back, I meet his grateful gaze as he nods. “Thank you. For everything.”
“Any time, sir,” I answer and then walk away.
Feeling like what I guess I’ve been the whole fucking time.
A doormat.
Shit, shit, shit, shit!
I turn to go after him, but my dad calls me back. “Baylor.”
“Jayden, wait,” I say, reaching for the door as he slams it.
“No, Baylor, you wait,” Dad says sternly, but I shake my head.
“No, I need to talk to him,” I say, pulling the door open and having it crash against the wall.
“You need to wait a damn second,” he yells at me, but I whip around, glaring.
“No, give me a fucking minute to talk to him, and then I’ll deal with you!” I yell back, and then I take off out the door and through the rink just as Jayden goes through the front door. Blinking away my tears, I beg my heart to stop beating so hard, but it isn’t listening. I think it knows we are in some deep shit. And really? This has to happen now? I mean, come on! As if dealing with the McCarthy shit isn’t enough, really, why did Jayden do that?
When I reach the door, I call his name again just as he reaches the parking lot.
He stops and then shakes his head. “Why am I stopping?” I hear him ask himself as I approach. Turning, he looks back at me, blatant hurt in his eyes. “I can’t right now, Baylor.”
“No, wait,” I say, stopping in front of him. “We need to talk about this!”
“No, you need to go home and sleep or something because obviously you’re in shock or whatever.”
“I’m fine. What happened is no big deal. But what is a big deal is the fact that you just told my dad about us.”
His eyes widen as his lips part. “Are you fucking kidding me? I know you’re not mad at me for that!” he yells, and I take a step back from his outburst.
“Well, I’m sure as hell not happy! He wasn’t supposed to know about us.”
“Everyone knows, Baylor!”
“Not him, though. I was trying to protect you!”
“He knew! As soon as he asked, I could see it in his eyes. He knew I loved you, and he knows you love me. The only person who doesn’t know that is fucking you. So please, go somewhere else with that bullshit-ass stuff, okay? I just beat the fuck out of some dude because he touched you and had ill intent, and you lie? You should have screamed at him that you are with me. It was your chance!”