Winning my Best Friend's Girl - Piper Rayne Page 0,81
college.
“It’s all good,” I say.
He eyes my shoulder. “Still, I felt horrible about your shoulder and ruining your scholarship. I mean, we grew up wanting to play ball and you lost your opportunity because even after Stella and I broke up, I couldn’t stand to let you have her. If the two of you would’ve started dating, that would’ve proven my theory correct.” He shakes his head.
“What theory?” My forehead wrinkles.
He looks up. “That when she was with me, she really wanted you.”
I’m not sure what Stella’s feelings ever were for Owen. She’s not the type to get involved with someone she doesn’t like. Maybe a small part of her loved both of us in different ways.
“But I’m happy you two figured it out. I should’ve never stood in the way.”
I nod and fiddle with my keys in my pocket. “I should’ve stood back and given you a fair chance.”
He chuckles and shakes his head. I laugh too.
“You’ve loved that girl since the first day she walked into our class. She picked you from day one. It was a sign.”
“You going all sentimental on me?”
“Hell no. But you and Stella, there’s something there I can’t explain because I’m obviously the better guy.” He clasps me on the shoulder. “Now stop standing around here before you go back to your girl smelling like fish and she thinks you’re fucking around on her.”
“We cool?” I ask.
He nods. “We’re cool.” He grabs the door handle to go back into the bar and I step off the porch. “And Bailey?”
I turn back around. “Yeah?”
“You give me that sympathy look one more time when I run into the two of you and I’m gonna punch it off your face.”
“Noted,” I say and chuckle.
He opens the door, loud voices pouring out before the door shuts and it’s quiet again.
Finally some closure. That was a long time coming.
Thirty-One
Stella
Today is the day. The day I have to stand by quietly and watch Kingston fly to the top of a mountain in a helicopter and parachute down on his skis. We drive up to the guide place, where some Tim guy Kingston keeps talking about is. He’s going with Kingston and Tank. Everyone is here with us—Allie, Stump, Lou, and Samantha.
I sit on a park bench outside the tour place where Kingston is laughing with Tank and the guy who looks way too much like his dad—and ironically, bears his dad’s name. I’m really trying to appear all smiles and carefree, but the closer it gets, the more I want to drag him by his arm to safety. Panic and anxiety are like rubber bands around my chest and I feel like a watermelon almost ready to burst under the pressure.
A golf cart rolls down the shoveled brick pathway, someone waving their arm out the side. It stops a few yards away from the small building. I raise my eyebrows when Dori steps out after leaving a smear of red lipstick on the teenage driver’s cheek. Ethel’s with her. Both of them might be wearing boots, but not snow boots.
“Dori, what are you doing here?”
“I wanted to see Kingston. Allie told me what was happening today.”
I blow out a breath and glare at Allie over my shoulder. She shrugs as if she has no control and bites into a big salted soft pretzel. Lou bends over to get some and she circles away from him, mumbling to get his own.
“Oh, Dori, it’s going to be up and down. It’s not going to take that long. You came all this way.”
She peers around. “Where is he?”
I point at the guide tours shop and she beelines in that direction. I go with her, holding her arm to make sure she doesn’t fall. Once we’re on dry ground again, she takes no time to walk inside and reach Kingston.
Dori comes to an abrupt stop when she sees Tim. “Now I know I only had one baby, and unfortunately he’s passed. Who are you?”
Kingston glances at me over her head, which is still as blue as when Sedona delivered.
“I’m Tim.”
“What?” She seems taken aback by his name but recovers quickly. “What kind of game are you playing? Trying to talk my grandson into doing this thing by pretending to be some resurrection of his father?” She waves her finger in front of the poor man’s face, inching closer and closer.
Tim steps farther and farther back.
But the light changes or something, because Dori’s expression eases and she says, “Oh, you don’t look like him.