“That sucks,” said Kennedy. “I was hoping to grab one for my mom too. She wanted to come see both of us in action. She hasn’t been able to stop talking about it. I should have grabbed them earlier. I really need to stop leaving everything to the last minute. She’s going to be so disappointed.”
Fuck.I didn’t want to not let her mom come.
“There aren’t any strings you can pull?” she asked.
I cleared my throat. “I mean…yeah. I’ll figure something out.”
“For Felix too?”
“Right. I’ll get two tickets.”Damn it.The last thing I needed was for Felix to be schmoozing Kennedy’s mom during the whole game. Really, the last thing I needed was for Felix and Kennedy to hang out again at all.
“Thanks, Matt.” She smiled up at me.
I reached out and tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear.
And this time she blushed for me. I took a deep breath. I was just overreacting. She didn’t like Felix. Sure, maybe she had years ago. But time changed things.
“Can you really imagine marrying her when your heart still belongs to someone else?”Tanner’s words popped into my head uninvited. Okay, fine. Maybe time didn’t change everything.
And Felix was definitely looking at her like his feelings hadn’t changed. Had I really gotten in their way all those years ago? I didn’t even realize I’d been doing that. I just…needed to hang out with someone that understood my pain. I never meant to get in the way of Kennedy’s happiness.
“Are you okay?” Kennedy asked. She put her hand on my thigh.
“What? Yeah, I’m fine.”
“You sure? I think you might have spaced out for a minute there. Felix was just asking what you do. I told him you run MAC International. How all your dreams are coming true.”
I remembered telling Brooklyn that running MAC International was my dream. That Brooklyn was my dream. I’d pictured it all with her.
“You look a little pale,” Kennedy said. “Do you need some water? Where is Nigel?”
“If you’ll excuse me for a moment,” I said. “I actually forgot I have a quick business call I need to make.” I pushed myself away from the table and I didn’t even hear Kennedy’s response. I just needed some air.
I needed someone to tell me that my sadness in high school hadn’t ruined Kennedy’s chance at happiness.
I needed someone to tell me that everything was going to be okay.
I went out the front doors and breathed in the cool autumn air. And then I called Tanner.
It took him forever to answer. Which was highly unusual.
“Hey,” Tanner said when he finally picked up. “I’m a little busy, but I’ll be home in like half an hour.”
“Get out of my head.”
“What?”
I sat down on the curb and put my face in my hands. “I can’t stop thinking about what you said. About if I could marry someone else when my heart still belongs to Brooklyn.”
“Trust me, everything is going to be fine.”
“How could it be? Felix liked Kennedy all those years ago. And I was in their way.”
“Are you spying on their date?”
“No, I’montheir date.”
It sounded like he closed a door. And then his voice was suddenly a little louder. “So you’re doing the same thing you did to them when you were back in high school?”
