Page 2 of Replay (Toronto Blaze #3)

Like a Hobbit after an Extended Visit to Mordor

Katie

Staying up to watch one more episode of Outlander was a mistake. The hall light almost blinded me, dragging me out of Scotland and back to the condo. Madeline was home. I quickly hit pause and pulled out my headphones. Someone crashed into the wall, and I heard the sounds of kissing and moaning.

Shit. She’d brought someone home, and here I was, sitting in the living room like a voyeur.

If they took some time—another moan—I could still make my getaway.

I quietly closed my laptop and pulled out the power cord.

With my free hand I pushed back the afghan I’d been curled up under. I shoved my feet into my slippers.

“Katie?”

Damn. Not quick enough. I looked up at my roommate/landlord, a half smile on her face, hair mussed and lips kiss swollen.

She was standing at the corner where the hallway reached the kitchen, open to the living room.

No sneaking away now. Her hookup stood in the shadows behind her.

Not my business and I’d intruded enough, so I dropped my gaze.

Laptop in my hands, I stood, ready to hide out in my room. With earphones in.

“Sorry, I should have been in my room already. I’ll just—” I threw a thumb up in a dorky move toward my room.

“Katie?”

I froze in place. This voice wasn’t Madeline. It was male and impossibly familiar. I never thought I’d hear it again in this lifetime. I’d been counting on that. My eyes opened so wide I must’ve looked like Bambi. What the fuck?

Hookup guy stepped around Madeline and I immediately regretted every life choice I’d made that brought me to this moment.

Most especially the ones that resulted in the hobbit slippers and baggy sweats I was wearing, as well as the hair that needed washing and the lack of makeup.

Damn it . If I was going to meet Josh again, I was supposed to look hot, in a skintight dress with heels, perfect hair and makeup, not like a hobbit after an extended visit to Mordor.

And damned if that devastated, heart-ripped-out feeling wasn’t trying to make a replay in my chest. Fuck no.

“You two know each other?” Madeline leaned back against the breakfast bar.

Even tousled, she was sleek and put together.

Josh was wearing a short-sleeved button-down with jeans, his brown hair a mess.

He was taller than I remembered him, and the shirt didn’t hide how broad his shoulders were or the biceps stretching the sleeves or the sweetness in those brown eyes…

Ugh .

I needed to salvage this situation. I’d only been rooming with Madeline a couple of weeks so far, and I liked this place, especially the discounted rent. Housing prices in Toronto were stupid. If Josh messed this up for me, I’d throttle him with my power cord.

“Yeah. We knew each other in high school.” There was no reason to tell her that we’d dated for two years.

“We went out for two years and then broke up.”

Thanks, Josh, for making it as awkward as possible . Madeline looked between the two of us, eyebrows raised. I, however, got stuck on that phrase. We broke up.

I didn’t want to drag this out. I wanted to hide in my bedroom and try to pretend he wasn’t about to hook up with my roommate. But some things I couldn’t let slide. “No, Josh. We didn’t break up. You broke us up. I didn’t get a say in it, remember?”

His brow scrunched in his I’m thinking expression. I snorted.

Madeline chuckled. “Oooh. Drama. I’m here for it.”

I didn’t know her that well, and I didn’t want to air my dirty laundry in front of her. I took a step to slink away, but no. Josh was busy rewriting history and not thinking about my situation at all.

“Katie, it was the right thing to do.”

I exerted admirable control by not throwing my laptop at his earnest, confident face. It was a close call though. My knuckles showed white as I reminded myself of the cost of a new laptop.

“Was it, Katie?” Madeline asked.

I couldn’t let him congratulate himself on his wisdom. I’d just clear that up so I could leave, Josh and Madeline could get back to what they’d been doing, and I wouldn’t find myself looking for a new place to live.

I narrowed my eyes at my ex, hoping to laser my displeasure into him with my glare. “Josh thought so. He was being scouted for the NHL draft, so I guess he didn’t need his tutor anymore.”

He made a hurt noise in his throat.

Madeline turned to him. “Wanted to be free to fuck around, Josh?”

I could have cheered. Madeline was on my side, even though I wasn’t the one planning to give her orgasms. Maybe I should, because right now I loved my roommate.

“No!” He almost shouted, which was pretty rich. He was here precisely to fuck Madeline.

The only reason the two of them weren’t already naked was because of Claire and Jamie and my stupid decision to watch one more episode. “Oh, really?”

With me and Madeline staring at him, he finally realized just how precarious his position was. He ran his hands through his hair and rubbed his face. I didn’t let the familiar gesture fool me into lowering my guard. Or my laptop.

“Okay, this looks bad. And yeah, I’ve hooked up. But that’s not why we—” A growl from me had him course-correcting. “Not why I broke up with you.”

Madeline looked like she only needed popcorn to be having a full movie experience. “Why, then?”

He looked at me, as if asking for permission. I lifted my chin. Up to you, buddy .

He turned back to her. “It was our senior year of high school. Katie was accepted to a bunch of schools, and some of them were offering her scholarships. I didn’t want her to make a decision on a school because of me.”

There was a moment of silence. Madeline looked at me, and I nodded. “Yep, that’s what he said. In a text. ” The pain of reading that still hadn’t faded as much as I wished.

Madeline’s eyes rounded.

“Because obviously, having a vagina, I couldn’t have made a decision in my own best interests.”

“Oh, Josh. You didn’t.” Madeline shook her head at him.

Josh’s cheeks flushed. “I— Okay, yeah—I should have talked to you. I was afraid I couldn’t go through with it if you were right there.”

Now I was really angry, and all that hurt and rage could finally be unleashed on the guy who was the source. I no longer cared that I looked like I spent my free time reading romance novels and accumulating cats between visits to the shire.

“Yeah, Josh, you should have talked to me. It’s not like I didn’t know you were going to be drafted. And maybe we could have decided on a long-distance relationship, or maybe we would have broken up. But you could have respected me enough to let me have a say in a decision that affected me.”

Josh’s jaw fell open. He swallowed. “You would have wanted to break up?”

I rolled my eyes so hard it hurt. “We’ll never know because you didn’t bother to talk to me .”

I reminded myself that Josh wasn’t cute, he looked like a goldfish. “I just— I never thought?—”

Before I could explode again, Madeline patted his arm. “You’re not irresistible.”

His cheeks heated up as he stared at the floor. “I know.”

That seemed like my cue. “Well, I’m going to my room. Have fun.”

“Katie?” Josh was wearing his kicked-puppy expression. “I’m sorry.”

I stopped in my tracks. I deserved an apology, damn it, but the right one. “What are you sorry for, exactly?”

“That I didn’t talk to you. I thought I was doing the right thing.”

“Really?” I wanted to cross my arms or put my hands on my hips, but I was still hanging on to my laptop. Instead, I let my tone show just how much I doubted that. “And that’s why you started going out with Rhonda?”

He looked down again. “Mom said I needed to make it real.”

“What a bitch!” Madeline said the words, but they were exactly what I was thinking.

“Yeah, I knew she never liked me.” There was an unsettled feeling in my stomach.

When he took Rhonda out, I’d been angry and hurt and mortified.

Convinced he’d really wanted to fuck his way through the puck bunnies when he got to play hockey.

Not that his “best for you” argument was any better.

I didn’t want to think his mother had manipulated him, that maybe he’d really believed breaking up was in my best interests. I wanted to keep hating him.

“That’s not right. She liked you.”

I rolled my eyes again. Madeline tilted her head in a question. I shook mine. “You dodged a bullet, Katie.”

There was an awkward pause. I wasn’t going to discuss Josh’s mother, and Madeline was waiting for us to entertain her.

“Uh, I’m going to go.” Josh’s eyes were flicking from me to Madeline to the hallway.

Madeline nodded at Josh. “Good idea.”

“And again, I’m sorry, Katie. I didn’t want to be an asshole.” He turned and headed to the doorway.

Madeline followed and locked the door behind him. “Wine?” she asked when she came back.

I nodded and finally set my laptop down.

She pulled a bottle out of the fridge and reached for the corkscrew. “They never want to be an asshole, and yet…”

“Exactly.”