Page 6 of Rematch (Stingrays Hockey #3)

Preston sank deeper into the cushions, pleased when she followed suit, the two of them quite cozy on their couch. “Why did he let things go so far? I mean, it was your fucking wedding day.”

“He met someone else at work. He swears he never cheated on me—physically—but I guess it turned into an emotional affair. We didn’t speak for months after the…” She blew out a long, sad sigh. “Jilting.”

Preston frowned. “Months?”

“He ghosted me. Blocked me completely on everything.”

“Fucking coward,” Preston muttered.

“Totally,” she agreed. “While I was at the church, waiting around in my white dress, he was packing all his shit and moving out of our apartment and in with Ms. Emotional Affair. I probably could have tracked him down at work or at his parents’ house, but Ethan and Allyson insisted seeing him would only drive the knife deeper. ”

“What’s Rick’s last name and where does he live now?”

She laughed at his questions, but Preston wasn’t fucking joking.

“Turned out, my best friends were right. I bumped into Rick on the street a couple months ago. He was with Vanessa .”

Preston was amused by the way she said Vanessa, pursing her lips like the name was made out of shit.

“It was a quick conversation, where I failed to say one single fucking word. Why is it you can only come up with zinger lines afterward? I mean, I had a ton to say to that asshole and none of it came out.”

“It was the first time you’d seen the guy, and as you said, it wasn’t a planned meeting. You had no time to prepare yourself. I suspect the next time you run into the prick, you’ll find your voice.”

“I hope that’s true. It feels like I’ve gone through every stage of grief since the almost-wedding—angry, depressed, sad.

For a while, I was stuck in the bargaining stage, trying to figure out how to win him back.

Thankfully, that stage was a short one because Ethan and Allyson were NOT having it, telling me they would never let the shithead back into my life. ”

“They’re good friends. So how do you feel now?” he asked.

She didn’t respond right away, and he liked that she was taking time to consider the question. “I’ve finally hit acceptance.”

“Oh yeah?”

She nodded. “Yeah. Lately, I’ve even started to think he was right.”

Preston frowned. “To leave you standing at the altar?”

“No. Not that part. That made him a total asshat, but…” She shrugged. “I’ve spent most of the last six months in a fetal position…when I wasn’t devouring pints of Ben and Jerry’s New York Super Fudge Chunk. It turns out, that position gave me a lot of time to think.”

He chuckled. “And what did you discover?”

“With distance comes perspective, and once the pain faded, logic kicked in. I can see now that it wasn’t the perfect relationship I’d convinced myself it was.”

“Lot of fighting?” he asked.

She shook her head. “Not at all, which is probably what blinded me to the truth. The lack of fighting was the problem.”

Preston stroked one finger up and down her arm. “You want knock-down drag-out battles?”

She laughed. “Maybe not that extreme, but some emotion is better than none. At least it would have told me he cared enough about me to have a feeling, any feeling, even if it was just me pissing him off over something stupid. Rick never got mad, and I believed that was because he was so stable and steady, but it occurs to me now…it was less about his nature and more about the fact that he simply wasn’t plugged into me or anything I did.

I mean, we’d known each other our whole lives, and we’d hit a level of comfortable that was boring and predictable. Maybe we were both just phoning it in.”

Preston heard a hitch in her voice that told him she hadn’t been phoning it in. “We? Or him?”

She shrugged. “I want to say him, but the fact that he went looking and found someone else makes me wonder if I hadn’t done enough, either.”

“Stop. Stop right there. Don’t lump yourself in with that asshole.”

Joy grimaced. “Maybe I overstated it when I said I’ve accepted everything.”

“I think you’re closer than you think. It’s natural to seek answers when shit goes sideways. And it doesn’t sound like Rick’s been very forthcoming with the whys.”

“Wow. Everything you say makes me feel so much better. I’ve been a mess for months, and now, just a couple hours with you, and it’s like you’ve helped me make sense of all the chaos swirling in my head. How do you do that?”

“I’ve got all kinds of mad skills.”

She laughed, but Preston wasn’t finished. “Rick wasn’t right for you, Joy. You deserve a relationship filled with excitement and passion and fun, and the occasional fight even.”

She shifted closer, and he could feel the heat of her breath against his cheek a moment before she kissed it. “You’re good for the soul, BFG.”

He was tempted to turn his head, claiming that kiss of hers on his lips rather than his face. “Preston,” he whispered.

“Preston,” she repeated. He waited for her to share her name, narrowing his eyes when she gave him a mischievous grin that told him she was still holding out.

“We’ve talked too much about me. What’s your story?” she asked.

“My story?”

“You’re a super-nice and apparently romantic guy, Preston. So why don’t you have a girlfriend?”

She’d been completely open with him tonight, and he wanted to give her the same, even though he wasn’t quite ready to let go of his anonymity. He liked this opportunity to get to know a woman without his career getting in the way.

Puck bunnies were a dime a dozen, and during the times when he had been between girlfriends, he’d taken advantage of their advances.

He was far from a saint, but as he got older—and wiser—he’d become more discerning about choosing lovers.

His preferred status was boyfriend, and he’d had several long-term relationships, but, sadly, none of them had gone the distance.

“No one’s ever wanted to play the permanent role of Preston’s girlfriend. I go out on dates, always with women I’m not just attracted to but who I genuinely like. I love to be in a relationship. It’s just, every time I meet a woman I start to fall for…she leaves.”

Joy frowned. “Seriously?”

Preston’s relationship history was a source of great amusement for his teammates, because while most of those guys were true hound dogs—looking to get laid and nothing more—he didn’t mind having a girlfriend.

He actually preferred it, which was why he’d become known as the team romantic, his buddies teasingly calling him Romeo.

A couple of his former teammates had met women and fallen in love, Alex Stone and Elio Moretti, both now married with kids.

The last time they’d gone out for drinks, he’d spent the entire evening listening to his friends talk about their wives and showing off pictures of their kids, while Preston sat there, aware to the depths of his soul that he wanted exactly what they had.

“I had a serious girlfriend in high school, but that ended after graduation. Then I dated a woman for a year or so when I was in my early twenties, but Julie got a job offer in New York and left. We both had,” he paused, then brushed over the real reason with a vague term, “careers that added an extra wrinkle to the long-distance relationship, because our schedules were busy enough and opposite enough that we’d known right from the start it wasn’t going to work. ”

“Were there more than those two?”

Preston linked his fingers, cracking his knuckles. “I’m just getting started. My next girlfriend, Becca, came along a couple years after Julie. We dated for ten months, until her ex came back on the scene, and she realized she was still in love with him.”

“Oh no. That sucks.”

He lifted one shoulder casually. He’d been equal parts pissed and hurt at the time, but he was over it now. “After Becca, I dated a great girl, Jenn, for a year. We had a ton in common and I really thought she was the one…right up until she came out of the closet.”

Her eyes widened. “No way!”

“My friends still give me shit about that one. Say I should have known, even though none of them did.”

She grimaced. “Anyone else?”

“A few short-term deals that never jumped the line from casual to serious. It’s been a pretty long, painful dry spell since Jenn. Which sucks, because the dating game is fucking brutal.”

“You can say that again.” She reached out to take his hand, giving it a squeeze. “I respect your resilience because that’s quite a history.”

Preston lifted her hand, kissing it. “I’m starting to think it’s not so bad, because if any of those relationships had worked out, I wouldn’t be sitting here with you.” He wiggled his eyebrows, laying on the charm.

She snorted—actually snorted. Goddamn, she was adorable. “Again with the smooth lines. You should write a book since you’re such an expert. You can call it Love Lines from a Hopeless Romantic .”

He laughed. “Maybe I will.”

“But I guess I understand the hopeless romantic description better now.”

Preston shrugged. “I haven’t thrown in the towel yet.”

“I admire your optimism. I wish I could be half as positive as you. I’ve spent the past six months in a complete downhill spiral.

Allyson started calling me Eeyore after a couple months of listening to me bitch and moan about how I’d never meet anyone else and was destined to live the rest of my life alone. ”

Now it was Preston’s turn to roll his eyes. “Never gonna happen. You’re beautiful and funny, and despite the fact you’re clumsy, I have no doubt you’re going to meet a guy who’s perfect for you.”

“Clumsy?”

“I wasn’t the one who tangled you in my Christmas lights,” he teased.

She grumbled but didn’t defend herself. Instead, she did something much better and sweeter. “Thank you for hanging out with me tonight,” she whispered. “I can’t tell you what the last couple of hours have meant to me. My confidence has been shaky at best since June. Tonight…with you…well…”

She didn’t finish that thought with words.