Paging Dr. Steal-My-Ex #3
Gio missed another shot, and Sadie swept in to clean up the table. “You’re getting rusty,” she teased, nudging his shoulder as she lined up her next move. The casual touch sent a ripple through my chest.
Damon wasted no time racking the balls for the next game. He had the setup down to an art, his hands moving fast and sure, and when he finished, he gestured toward Sadie with a flourish. “You’re up, champ.”
Sadie hesitated, then took the cue from Gio and moved to break.
It was a messy break, but she managed to scatter the balls well enough, and the two of them launched into a debate about whether or not the eight-ball had “phantom spun” into the side.
I let the noise of the bar fill my ears, trying not to hone in on the way Gio kept making her laugh, or the way Sadie’s guard seemed to melt whenever she looked at him.
Before the game ended, the Valentine brothers showed up, Donovan first, ducking under the door frame, followed by his wife Ella, then Gavin and his wife Gen, who was Gio’s cousin.
Gavin’s twin Jett and his wife Abby. The whole group was a burst of energy.
Abby squealed when she spotted Sadie. Ella and Gen hugged her with so much force I thought the trio was going to end up on the floor.
Gavin hit me with a nod, then pulled Gio into a one-armed bro-hug.
“Didn’t expect to see you out on a weeknight,” Donovan commented, but I could tell he already knew why I was here. Gossip traveled faster than light in this town.
“Needed a drink.” I lifted my beer. “Or three.”
“How are you holding up?” he inquired quietly, glancing at Sadie and then back at me. “It’s got to be weird, with her back.”
If anyone knew what I was feeling, it was Donovan.
He’d returned to town after being basically AWOL for a decade when he discovered that the marriage he and Ella thought was fake in Vegas when they were eighteen was actually real, thanks to them using their real licenses instead of their fake IDs.
He ended up staying in town after discovering the unrequited feelings he had for his best friend were very much requited and they were now happily married.
Unfortunately, not everyone got that sort of rom-com HEA ending. And I hadn’t accidentally married my best friend one drunken night in Vegas. I accidentally cheated on the love of my life after giving her a promise ring.
I took a calming breath. “It’s fine,” I lied, maybe less convincingly than I’d hoped. “I’m more worried about Buddy than anything.”
Donovan nodded. “He’s tough. He’ll pull through.”
That should have been the end of it. But guys like Donovan could sense when a wound was still bleeding, and he didn’t let it drop. “If you need to talk,” he said, softer this time, “I’m around. Or just get drunk and punch the ocean. Whatever works.”
I tried to laugh, but it stuck in my throat.
The next hour blurred by in a carousel of small-town rituals: pool games, darts, a round of shots for old times’ sake.
Even when I wasn’t watching them directly, I could feel Sadie and Gio circling just a little too close, like two magnets finally getting their chance.
Sadie was different than she’d been in high school—her edges were sharper, her sense of humor dry as a bone—but I saw flashes of old warmth, it just wasn’t directed at me.
Maybe that’s what cut the deepest. I kept waiting for her to catch my eye, to share an old private joke or even just a look that said she remembered what we used to be. It never came.
When the last game wrapped and the Valentine crew and Damon headed to the bar to grab more drinks, Sadie announced she was calling it a night.
I caught Sadie as she reached for her bag. “Hey, you want a ride?” I tried to sound casual, like I offered people rides all the time, like it wasn’t my nerves talking.
She smiled, polite but distracted. “Thanks, I’m actually set. Gio’s going to take me.” She tilted her head, like she hoped it wouldn’t sting.
Gio appeared beside her, keys already in hand, his smile a little too wide to be innocent. “You still need a ride?”
Say no, I thought to myself. She nodded.
“See you guys later.” I lifted my hand in an awkward wave.
I watched them leave together, Gio’s hand at the small of her back like he belonged there. She turned once, catching my eye, and for a second, I thought she might come back, might say something. She didn’t. The moment slammed shut just like the door.
I stood in the hollow that followed, acutely aware of how much I didn’t fit here. My brother and friends were ordering shots, and I had zero desire to be out. The only reason I’d been here was gone. So, after waiting about ten minutes, I left.
The damp air outside hit me like a slap in the face as I walked to my truck in a fog, the weight of everything I hadn’t said pressing down on my chest. When I fired up the engine, I watched the bar’s neon sign flicker in the rearview, the words Cupid’s Arrow blinking out one letter at a time.
I drove home with the taste of jealousy in my mouth, and the image of Sadie and Gio burned behind my eyes.