“Right. I know you were.” Stella smiles, but it doesn’t quite reach her eyes. “But you broke my brother’s heart.”
Her simple words gut me, but I champion through it. Fake it till you make it, right? “He’ll be fine. Seriously. He’ll go back to California and forget all about me.”
“I don’t think so.” Stella shakes her head and takes a step closer, her voice lowering. “He came over to my house last night, and we talked for a while. I swear he was going to cry.”
Oh my God. “Why would he cry?” I’ve never seen Tucker cry.
Ever.
“He misses you. Like I said, you broke his heart, Maisey. And plus, he was hanging out with his friends and their girlfriends and he said it made him realize he’s never going to find someone who’s perfect for him. Well. He did say he found her.” She sends me a pointed look. “But she doesn’t feel the same.”
I feel the same way, I want to scream at her.
“It won’t work,” I tell her, grabbing hold of her hands and squeezing hard as I stare into her eyes. I’m trying to convince her that I’m right. I’m also trying to convince myself. “I want it to, but it won’t. It didn’t before.”
“That’s because you two were young and he stupidly broke up with you,” Stella reminds me.
“The circumstances haven’t necessarily changed. He lives and works in another state. I live and work here. My life is here,” I say as I release Stella’s hands.
She pulls me into a quick hug and asks quietly, “But where’s your heart?”
My entire body prickles with awareness and I know someone is watching us. Watching me. I know who that someone is too.
Glancing over my shoulder, I spot Tucker across the room, flanked on either side by men who are just as tall, broad, and handsome as he is. He’s wearing a black suit, and he looks incredibly gorgeous. So gorgeous, just staring at him is making my entire body ache.
His intense gaze is locked on me. His expression like stone, his eyes…
Like fire.
That fire, passion, emotion, is all for me.
I turn away, my gaze meeting Stella’s once more, who’s watching me with a knowing look. I’m sure she just witnessed that little moment, and I need to act like it meant nothing. “He’ll be better off without me.”
“Yeah. Keep telling yourself that,” Stella says with a sigh and a shake of her head, just before she walks away.
Leaving me all alone.
I grab a glass of champagne from a passing server and down all of it in one swallow, setting the empty glass on a nearby table. I’m standing on the sidelines of the dance floor, watching everyone laugh and shout and have a good time. Brooke and Brody are dancing, and the smile on my sister’s face is one of pure, unadulterated joy. I’ve never seen her look happier. It’s all because she found her true love, fought for it, waited for it, and he came back to her.
They are meant to be.
Me? I’m miserable. Thinking about what I said to Stella. What she said to me. My life is here, but my heart is with Tucker.
And when he leaves, he’ll take my heart with him.
Chapter Sixteen
Tucker
“That’s her, huh?” my friend and 49er quarterback Jordan Tuttle asks me, indicating Maisey with a casual nod in her direction. She’s across the room, my sister has just walked away from her, and I can’t stop staring. I want to go to her. I’m desperate to go to her.
But I can’t. She told me how she felt. She doesn’t want to continue this.
She doesn’t want me.
“That’s her,” I murmur, bringing my champagne glass to my lips, but I don’t drink. Instead, I’m staring at the golden, bubbly alcohol, fizzing like it’s a living, breathing thing. You drink champagne to celebrate something, and though yes, my parents have something pretty major to celebrate, I don’t.
I’m not feeling this party, the joyous mood, none of it. I can’t even make myself drink champagne. It all feels like a lie.