Page 14

“I never saw you come in. I thought you were sick or something.” His focus is fully on the coffee he’s making; he doesn’t even spare me a glance.

I shrug, walking over to the small fridge, reaching in to grab a Diet Coke. “I wasn’t in the mood to talk. Next time, I’ll be sure to announce my presence.”

“That’s not what I meant, and you know it. All I was saying is your presence is usually much more noticeable…wait, that didn’t come out right either.”

My eyes narrow at him while I reach for a small bag of chips to help me power through the rest of my day. “Do you want me to get you a shovel to help out with the hole you keep digging yourself?”

He finally looks at me. “You know, one of these days, we’re actually going to have to talk about what happened, Mia.” He sighs. “We won’t be able to stay productive with snarky quips and a pool between us forever.”

Fear rushes through me. There’s no way he knows what I’m really mad about, right? If he knew the truth, he probably wouldn’t even apologize. I wouldn’t matter in the overall scheme of things, but he’d beg me not to tell Bryce, because we both know there’s no way he’d be okay with someone, especially a friend, saying something like that.

“And what do you think we need to talk about?” I keep my voice even, hoping he can’t pick up on the fear in it.

He glances around, like he’s scared someone might overhear us. Then, in a low voice, he says the last thing I’m expecting. “What happened in Omaha.”

I laugh, loudly. It comes so quickly, there’s no way to get control of it before it’s tumbling out. Ronan rears back like I’d just offended him. “You…" I take a deep breath, trying to calm myself down. “You think this is about sex?” Another laugh bubbles out as soon as I ask the question. “Seriously?”

“Of course,” he snaps. I can see it, though, an emotion Ronan O’Brien doesn’t wear all that often—he’s uncomfortable. “What else could it be about, Mia? That’s when everything changed.”

But it’s not.

I want to remind him of all the ways that night didn’t change things, but allowed something new to happen. We spent the entire year between the summers of 2016 and 2017 talking. We’d text whenever we could, occasionally do video calls, and there were even a couple of times we met for dinner or coffee when we happened to be in the same city. We never tumbled back into bed together; we just enjoyed each other’s company. I would never say this to my best friend, but in those twelve months, Ronan and I were closer to a real relationship than she and Bryce ever were when they hooked up.

And now I’m learning that a year that meant everything to me, meant nothing to him. Which only makes the anger burn hotter.

“This has nothing to do with Omaha. Nor does it have anything to do with the way you led me on for a whole year, Ronan,” I snarl.

“Led you on?” If I didn’t know the reputation he had—the way he played women—I would almost believe he looked confused. “What are you talking about, Mia?”

“Does it matter?” The last thing I really want to do is bring this all up. I’m in no place to have it out with Ronan, but I want to make something perfectly clear. “If you think this is about Omaha, thenyou need to do some self-examining. I should have known better than to let my guard fall around you. Everyone warned me.”

He steps back, dark eyebrows furrowing further. “I don’t think that’s fair—”

“Isn’t it?” I cut him off. “All the warning signs were there, and you ended up doing what I always knew you would.”

“You were the one who straddled my lap.Youinitiated everything. I checked in constantly, making sure there was no regret. If you didn’t want it, I would have stopped the second I knew. Hell, I stopped so many times to make sure you wanted it!”

That night comes back to me in flashes. Blunt nails trailing up my thighs, dark hair buried between my legs as stars lit up behind my eyes. The feel of him sinking into me. How it felt to be in this man’s strong and comforting arms. How, for a blink, I believe I could have someone like him want me in return.

For twelve months after that night, I thought we were building something amazing. Something real. Laying the foundation for something that could last. Screw the reputation, screw the doubters—I knew Ronan O’Brien in a way no one else did and he was never going to hurt me.

What a fucking joke.

“You know what I want now? I want you to leave me alone, Ronan.”

“Well, that’s going to be hard when we work together.”

“We work at the same swim club, but we don’t actively work together. All my marketing goes through Bryce and Carter. You’re a coach. You stay in your lane, and I’ll stay in mine.”

In the back of my head, I can hear Josie giggle. Of course, I would make a swimming pun to an Olympian in the middle of a heated argument. Ronan doesn’t find it amusing, though.

“Do Bryce and Josie know about what happened?”

It’s not a question, but a demand. He wants to know where he stands in the eyes of our friends. Which makes me think maybe he knows more than he’s letting on. Neither one of them would care that we hooked up, especially because that same night was the start of their friends-with-benefits situation.

If he knows the truth, though, he’d be more concerned about who else might know.

“What was there to tell, Ronan?” Looking up at him, I know what I have to do. I need to get him to drop it. I need to give him a reason to stay away from me. “You were my biggest mistake, Ronan. I need you to know that.”