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“She’s not seeing anyone, if that’s what you want to know,” I added in a softer tone. I patted his shoulder. “Maybe you should reach out.”

Someone coughed, making me snap my neck over.

Kappy was leaning against the doorframe, his jaw tense and his dark eyes fixed on JP.

JP smoothed away from me and rolled his shoulders again. “Where’s the birthday girl?”

Kappy jerked his chin back to the living room. “Conked out, sleeping on the couch.”

“Oh, good.” JP nodded.

“Yeah…” He held up her colorful drawing: A cat with the name Carl written above it in wobbly kid letters. Shit . “I think she told on you, Viper.” He lifted a challenging eyebrow.

Rolling my eyes, I shoved the trash can at JP and stormed to the front door. “I’m leaving.”

Kappy’s face dropped. “Piper, wait, we need to talk.”

Without looking at him, I grabbed my jacket and aggressively shoved my arms through the holes. “About what?”

“C’mon, you know what,” he said gently. “I’ll buy you an Espresso Martini.

Mer says those are your favorite,” he drawled with an enticing smile, but it wasn’t working on me.

“One drink, that’s all I ask. Please.” His brown eyes implored me, taking me back to when we were kids, and my stupid heart stumbled.

“Fine,” I snapped. “ One drink.”

_______ _

I watched as Kappy carried two Espresso Martinis through the busy bar back to our table, the glasses looking too delicate for his big hands.

“M’lady,” he said with a lopsided grin, gliding one glass across the bumpy wooden table to me.

“Thank you,” I murmured.

He waved to someone across the bar, and I took the opportunity to openly study his face.

He still had a troublemaker grin and those same brown eyes that had a mischievous glint, giving him an eternally boyish look, like he was two seconds away from making trouble, then bolting away with a loud laugh.

But up close, I could see that he garnered scars through his years of playing hockey, which added a roughness to his handsome features.

He had a little scar stemming out of his upper lip, another one under his right cheek bone, another slash across his chin.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t lie to myself.

He was still the most attractive man I ever laid eyes on.

He took a sip at the same time as me, then sputtered out a cough with a deep frown on his face.

“You don’t like it?” I asked with a laugh.

He coughed into his fist and shook his head. “Should’ve expected you’d like something so bitter—”

My heart dropped through my ass. “So that’s how we’re starting this?”

“Bittersweet! I was going to say bittersweet.”

“Yeah, right,” I dropped sarcastically.

“You didn’t let me finish.” His dark eyes heated. “You never let me finish, that’s the issue. I thought we had a good thing going back then. I thought we were both going to reach our own goals and then we’d be together. You’re the one who—”

“You started dating Brandi!” I burst out. So I guess we weren’t going to slowly wade into the past, this was a full blown dive—or belly flop, more like it—into our history.

His face cracked in confusion. “Who?”

Oh my God . He didn’t even remember her name. “You’re such an asshole, Kappy.”

He reared back like I slapped him. “Don’t call me Kappy.”

“I’m not being mean, that’s your name, dumbass,” I said simply. “Now that was me being mean,” I muttered into my drink.

“You’re doing that on purpose,” he accused, irritation etched on his face .

“Using your name on purpose?” I asked dubiously. “Um, yeah, that’s how names work.”

“You two!” the bartender roared. “Settle down!”

“No!” we both snapped.

The bartender yelled at us again, but I didn’t care, I was too busy being mad. Something about Kappy made me revert back to my teen self and I just wanted to scream, stomp on his foot, and slam doors in his face.

A muscle in his cheek fluttered.

“I’m confused, do you think I need to apologize?” I asked.

“Well, I wanted to be with you, you’re the one who turned me down back at school. We could’ve avoided the rest if—”

“Oh my God,” I cut him off, completely flabbergasted. “This is insane.”

“Fine, forget it, who cares about the past,” he muttered.

A pain ricocheted through my chest. I do. I really fucking do.

He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. “We need to get along, Piper,” he said in a gruff voice.

“Why?”

“For the kids.”

“ Kids? There’s only one.”

“No, JP counts too.” He tried another sip of the drink and grimaced.

“Baby.” I smirked.

His jaw tightened, but then he forced his own smirk. “I love it when the ladies call me that.”

I ground my back teeth. “I’m done.” Grabbing the stem of my drink, I carefully smoothed off my chair and made my way to an open seat at the bar, smiling graciously at the men to the right of me.

Seconds later, Kappy sat on my other side. He grabbed the bottom of my chair and yanked me closer, making me almost spill my drink. He turned my chair so I was forced to face him, and his large knees encased my own, making a little thrill skitter through my traitorous body.

“You promised to hear me out,” he said in a low voice.

“No, I promised one drink,” I snapped. “As soon as this is gone”—I took another sip—“I’m leaving.” I eyed my glass. “You’ve got about five minutes.”

He ran his tongue over his teeth. “Fine, but first, please let me know your recollection of events, because in my book, you’re the one who dipped out first, calling me a joke .”

I stared at him incredulously. “You had a girlfriend, but still danced with me, talked about a future with me, and even kissed me. Do you not see how that is wrong? You’ve always had your secrets, and I never questioned them, and for that I am sorry.” I harrumphed.

“I have never had a girlfriend,” he swore. “I’ve had casual situations with girls, hookups, whatever you wanna call them, big difference, Piper.”

He could’ve just slapped me across the face. “So, you and I were…what? Nothing?”

His jaw locked.

“So, what we had,” I gestured between us, “was the same as what you had with that Brandi chick?” I challenged, my eyes narrowing to slits.

“Because you’ve never had a girlfriend, just casual situations.

” I threw his words back at him. My palm slammed down on the bar.

“Do you not see how incredibly insulting that is?”

He paused, looking caught. “What we had was… It was…” He let out a frustrated growl. “What we had was different and you know that.”

My eyebrows flew up. “Do I?”

“Yeah, Piper, you do. But that doesn’t change the fact that we were never exclusive, we never discussed that.”

“This was a mistake.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “If you can’t see that what you did back then was disrespectful, then I’m out.”

“Fine, okay, yes.” He hung his head. “We should’ve sat down and talked through things like adults, but I’m trying to right now and you’re the one acting all crazy.”

Anger skyrocketed through my body. Maybe I was being crazy, but he was driving me to it.

I suddenly felt like simultaneously crying and screaming.

All I wanted was…was…an actual remorseful apology.

Because deep down, I wanted him, and it hurt so bad that he could casually be with someone else back then.

Frustration coursed through me, and I just wanted him to feel a fraction of the overwhelming feelings I was feeling.

It’s like my body acted on its own accord.

I reached for my full glass and flung the dark liquid at his face.

The old jukebox chose that second to cut out between songs and the silence in the bar seemed so incredibly loud as the drink dripped down all the crevices of his face.

His jaw tightened as he wiped his eyes, and it took everything in me not to start laughing.

“Finished my drink,” I said, giving him a cutesy smile.

He calmly wiped his mouth and flexed his jaw. “You’re forgetting something about me. I’m not Colt, and I’m not JP. Equal rights, equal fights, baby girl.”

Oh shit. I scrambled off my chair to get away from him, but he grasped my forearm and dumped his drink over my hair.

“You asshole!” I shoved at his chest once, twice, a third time.

He grabbed my wrists.

“You two! Out!” the bartender yelled.

“No!” we both yelled back.

We continued screaming at each other, completely oblivious of the rest of the bar. I’m not even sure what Kappy was yelling at me because I was yelling back louder.

“If you don’t leave, you will be escorted out,” the bartender warned, making me pause.

“We’re finishing this argument once and for all,” Kappy said, pulling me right back in. “You’re the one who walked out on us!” he yelled. “So stop acting like I dumped you or some shit. It fucking hurts, Piper.” His eyebrows pulled together. “I wanted to be with you more than anything, okay?”

“Yeah, well, you had a shitty way of showing it. I walked out because I had to! You were stringing me along.” I shoved a finger in his chest. “For years!” I fumed. “ That fucking hurt, Kappy.”

“I thought we’d be together! You wanted to get your gold first. I was letting you—”

“ Letting me?!” I screamed.

“Oh my God! You keep interrupting me and making it sound worse than—”

A handcuff slapped on his wrist.

“What the—” My neck snapped to the side.

Two cops stood there.

I gasped. “No, you totally don’t understand, we’re—”

“We totally do,” the cop responded with an unimpressed smirk. “You two are being arrested for trespassing. The owner has requested you leave the premises multiple times.”

“Kappy,” I breathed out.

His shoulders lifted with an angry breath. “Stop calling me—”

“You have the right to remain silent…”

_________

“Don’t tell anyone,” I warned through gritted teeth while rubbing my wrists, which were still sore from the tight handcuffs.

Kappy’s jaw tightened with anger as his lawyer, Johnny, signed us both out of jail. “Where have I heard that before?”

“Just shut up,” I muttered darkly.

“ You shut up,” he muttered back.

“Oh my God, you two both better shut the fuck up,” Johnny warned us.

Leaving the police station, Johnny smoothed a hand down his rumpled tie. “You assholes got me out of bed at 2 a.m. for this.”

“It wasn’t my fault,” Kappy said darkly.

I scoffed. “Oh, so I argued all by myself.”

“You’re the one who—”

“Oh, grow up,” I snapped. “Johnny, can you please drive me home?”

He gave me a kind smile. “Sure.”

“Thank you so much,” I gushed.

Kappy’s eyebrows slammed down. He suddenly looked like he wanted to fight Johnny.

Rolling my eyes, I followed Johnny to his tiny sports car.

Kappy tried to open the shotgun seat, but Johnny scoffed and said, “No way,” then jerked his thumb to the backseat.

With a sullen frown, Kappy folded his large body into the backseat beside me. We both stewed in silent anger as Johnny drove us home.

As soon as we turned down my street, I sucked in a deep breath and internally screamed at myself to be the bigger person. I wouldn’t ruin Mer’s happy little bubble just because the two of us couldn’t get along.

Swallowing hard, I said, “We’ll stay civil for the group, that’s it, deal?”

I thought he’d lighten up and agree. I didn’t expect him to glare at me. “Fine. Have a fun night with Carl.”

Shaking my head, I shoved out of the small sports car. “Ya know what? I will,” I said before slamming the door on his face.

I stomped into my apartment complex, feeling ripped off that all of Chicago had revolving doors so I couldn’t slam anything else.

The next morning, I had a message from an unknown number on my phone that read: I am truly sorry for hurting you, Piper.

It’s easier to blame everyone else instead of taking responsibility for my own past actions.

I was an idiot back then and last night.

If it’s any consolation, please know that Brandi was a friends-with-benefits situation, and she knew that.

I never ever talked—or even thought—about a future with any other girl.

I wish I could go back in time and punch my punk-ass self.

I know I don’t deserve it, but I’d love it if we could at least be friends.

Rolling onto my stomach, I screamed into my pillow. Because I was right back on that rollercoaster ride.