Page 70 of The Wrong Game

“What if I get hurt again?” I asked her, something stinging the back of my eyes. I knew it couldn’t be tears. I hadn’t cried since the day of Carlo’s funeral, and even then, those tears hadn’t felt like mine. “I can’t… I don’t know if I could ever come back from that again.”

Belle ran her thumb over my knuckles. “If he hurts you, then you do exactly what you did last time. You pick yourself up, dust that shit off, and keep walking. You stand a little straighter and you learn.” She paused, glancing to the left like she was thinking of something else metaphoric to say. But when she turned back to me, she shrugged. “And I’ll castrate him, for good measure.”

A laugh shot out of me, just one at first, but then she laughed and I laughed again, and before I knew it, we were both crying from surrendering to a fit of giggles.

“Ugh,” I said, wiping at the corner of my eyes. “Damn it, Belle, I wanted to kill you. You know that? Like, I was weighing the risk of going to prison for life.”

Belle smiled, wrapping me in a hug. “I know. I’m a great actress, aren’t I? Maybe I should change careers.”

“Please don’t.”

She was still smiling as she let me go, holding her hands on my shoulders. “Fine, I won’t. And I’m sorry I had to do that, but I had to wake you up somehow, and this was the closest bucket of cold water I could find.”

She watched me for a moment, fixing my hair and straightening my sweater before she smacked my ass playfully.

“Now,” she said, pulling back to assess me. “Go get your man.”

“What about Jordan?”

She grinned. “Oh, I think I can handle him.”

I returned her smile, wrapping her in one more hug and whispering a thank you. Then, I was jogging down the steps back to our seats, not knowing what the hell I was going to say once I got there.

Belle was right behind me, and when I plopped down in the seat next to Zach, he frowned, eyes questioning me before they flicked up to look at Belle.

“Hey, Jordan,” she called over my head, ignoring Zach. “Can you come help me with something?”

Jordan looked at me, but I didn’t return his gaze, keeping my eyes fixed on Zach.

“Uh, sure.”

He stood, letting Belle tug him up toward the concession stands as Zach looked back to me.

“Hi,” I breathed.

Zach smirked. “Hi?”

Swallowing, I extended a shaking hand toward him. “I’m Gemma Mancini. And I am really,reallystupid.”

He laughed, taking my hand in his. “I’m Zach Bowen. I can also be pretty stupid.”

“Looks like we already have something in common.”

I smiled, heart pounding out of my chest as I searched for the right words to say. I kept Zach’s hand in mine, but dropped it down until it rested in my lap. I held onto him like he was the one thing grounding me, trying to remember everything Belle had just said as my heart screamed at me to reconsider what I was about to do.

“I’m sorry, Zach. For everything.” I shook my head, shrugging. “I had this plan, right? Like, I had this thing that I felt like I could do. Take a different guy to every game, don’t get attached, have fun without having to risk getting hurt.” I paused. “Again.” Swallowing, I squeezed his hand in mine. “I felt like I was in control. But thenyouhappened.”

Zach cringed, but smiled through it. “Sorry?”

“You should be,” I said on a laugh, but I covered his hand that was still in mine with the other. “Stepping out of that plan, it freaked me out.Youfreaked me out,” I admitted. “You still do. And that’s why I’ve fought against the way you make me feel. It wasn’t you I was trying to prove a point to on Monday,” I whispered. “It was me.”

He smiled, touching my chin with the thumb and pointer finger of his free hand. “The way I make you feel, huh?” he asked. “And how’s that?”

I blew out a breath. “Like I’m dancing on top of the world and falling off of it into a dark oblivion all at once.”

Zach laughed.

“I don’t know what I have to give, or how crazy I’ll be while I try to figure it out, but…” I shrugged. “I do like you, Zach. And I don’t want to be friends.” I paused. “I don’t want to bejustfriends.”