Chapter 7 #2
“What brings you to Quincy?” he asked. “You’re at the old gym on Lower Clark Fork Road, right?”
Wait. What was happening?
“Sorry.” Knox mistook my confusion. “Small-town gossip. Someone new moves to town, everyone talks about it. You were looking for my sister. Talia.”
Okay. Now we were getting into it. “Yes, I was.”
“Didn’t realize you knew each other.”
What. The. Fuck?
He’d heard about me through gossip? Not Talia. Small-town gossip. He didn’t realize I knew his sister? Yeah, I knew his sister. She was the love of my goddamn life.
My head spun like I’d been the one blindsided with a right cross. Knox, her brother, had no idea who I was other than a professional MMA fighter.
“College,” I said, summoning every ounce of calm to keep from seething.
“Here’s your coffee.” Lyla set a paper cup with a jacket on the counter. “Anything else?”
“No, thanks.” I pulled my wallet from my pocket and handed her a twenty.
How could Talia not have told her family about me? We’d been together for over a year. She’d been the most important person in my life. Everyone in my life had known about Talia. Friends. My parents. Arlo.
But she hadn’t told her brother? Her twin sister?
They weren’t playing dumb, were they?
Talia had pissed me off the other night. She’d made me so damn mad after that kiss. But this? This was fury. This fucking hurt.
Had I really meant so little to her that she’d kept me a secret from her siblings?
“Here you go.” Lyla held out my change.
The door jingled behind me as I took the bills. I needed to get the fuck out of this shop. Get the fuck away from anyone with the last name Eden.
Not trusting myself to speak, I dropped a couple bucks into her tip jar. Then I picked up my coffee, raising it to Knox as a farewell.
“See ya around,” he said.
I turned, ready to escape, when a beautiful face stopped me in my tracks.
Talia stared, those blue eyes wide, as they darted between me, her brother and her sister. No scrubs today. She was in jeans and a gray coat with a trimming of fur at the hood. Her boots hit at the ankle and she had a pair of thick cream socks bunched above them.
She was dressed for winter. Her hair tumbled in waves over her shoulders. Her cheeks were the same pink shade as her lips.
The woman who held my heart in her hands.
All this time, I’d thought the reason she hadn’t gotten married was because maybe, just maybe, I’d meant enough. Enough that she’d remember me. Enough that no man could compare.
Except she hadn’t cared enough to even tell her brother my name.
A happy wail erupted from Drake and he squirmed to be set down, then rushed straight for Talia’s legs.
She picked him up, kissing his cheek. “Hi, buddy.”
Another day, another time, the image of them together would have made me smile. That was what I’d hoped for once. A family with her.
Except today, I was in a shit mood.
And Talia was the reason.
So I didn’t bother with a hello or even a tight smile. I walked around her, straight for the door.
The cold air singed my nose as I marched for my truck. I had the keys in my hand when a voice called my name.
“Foster.”
I slowed, gritted my teeth and faced her. Goddamn this woman. Even though I was pissed, just the sight of her made my heart skip.
Her hands were stuffed in her coat pockets as she stopped on the sidewalk. “I thought you were leaving.”
“I’m not.” I lifted my coffee to my mouth and took a sip.
“Oh.” Talia dropped her gaze to her boots. “What did you tell them?”
“Who? Your brother? Not much. But I guess that’s about all you told him too.” There was no hiding the frustration in my voice. My blood was as hot as the coffee in my hand. “He has no idea we were together, does he? Does Lyla?”
She swallowed hard. “Knox knows I was dating someone in college and that it didn’t work out.”
“Someone.” I was just a someone. I had to force myself to relax my hand before I crushed the cup in my fist. “You didn’t even tell him my fucking name.”
“I told Lyla. And my parents.”
“Right. Forgot about your dad. At least he knows enough to come to the gym and bust my ass for showing up in Quincy.”
“What? When?”
“Does it matter? You made sure to tell him the bad. But you didn’t bother to share the good.”
The year we’d been together had been the best time of my life. I’d cherished every memory. I’d replayed countless moments. Just to keep her close. To make sure that she was always front of mind.
Maybe she’d spent these years only replaying the end.
My fault. It was my fault. But fuck, it hurt.
“Were you ashamed of me?” Because I’d been poor. Uneducated. Because I’d used my fists to make a living.
“What? No.”
I wanted to believe her. “Then why?”
She hesitated. “It’s complicated.”
“Yeah,” I muttered. “I guess it is.”
I left Talia on the sidewalk and climbed into my truck. It took effort not to glance at her as I drove away.
“Fuck.” I pounded a fist on the wheel as I turned off Main.
Damn it, I wished Jasper were here. Because today, what I needed more than anything was a fight. Anything to numb the pain and distract myself from reality.
I was losing her. I was losing her all over again.
Or maybe she hadn’t been mine to begin with.