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Chapter 29
Marcus
I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look or the words, which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun.
~ Jane Austen, Pride & Prejudice
It’s been a week since Declan and I crashed Winona’s bachelorette party. A week since I saw Cass in person. A week since I stood in the lobby of the SongTeller and stole one more kiss. Winona and Declan were kissing goodbye. Cass and I were right there. The only thing that made sense was a kiss.
Cass melted into me, like she has every time I’ve kissed her, but this time felt wrong. Not the kiss. The kiss was perfection. Kissing someone who thinks you’re faking when your whole heart is being poured into it feels like a loss.
I’ve been missing her ever since that night. We’ve got a game Sunday—one we have to win. I should be winding down, getting ready to sleep in a few hours, but I’m pacing my living room like a man in detox. I can’t sit still. I need to see her or at least hear her voice.
I call her without a plan.
I don’t do anything without a plan.
“Hello? Marcus?” Cass answers and my heart settles and races all at once.
“Carter,” I say, drawing out her name, breaking all the rules—some we haven’t even spoken out loud.
“Cold Turkey,” she retorts.
“What are you doing?” I ask, settling onto my couch for the first time since I ate dinner a half hour ago.
“The question isn’t what I’m doing,” she says.
There’s a shuffling in the background. Then beeping. Then the sound of a car door.
“Are you in your car?” I ask.
“Why are you calling me, QB?”
“I’m antsy,” I admit.
“Nerves about your game on Sunday.”
“Maybe.”
“Hmmm,” she says.
The engine starts.
“You’re going to go through my Bluetooth, hang on,” she says.
Her voice comes back. “Okay. What’s up?”
“Where are you going?” I ask her.
“Out to see someone.”
My grip on the phone gets a little tighter. “You’ve got a date?”
“No, silly. I can’t date. I’ve got a boyfriend, remember?”
“Oh, I remember. I’m just hoping you do.”
“I’m going to take a meal and some things to a family, if you must know.”
