“He told me he came by your place on Friday right before the club opened. He overheard you talking to Skyler about how he’s not boyfriend material or some shit, and how you don’t want a relationship with him.”
Darcy’s breath hitched. “Wait, that can’t be right.”
“That’s what he says happened. And after he heard that, he decided he might as well end it with you before you ended it with him.” AJ sighed again. “It’s a guy thing. Self-preservation and all that stuff.”
She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Reed had come by on Friday? How was that possible? He hadn’t knocked, and she certainly hadn’t heard him come in. And if he really had stopped by, then why hadn’t he heard the rest of her conversation with Skyler? The part where she’d waxed poetic about how much she loved him and confessed her fear that he might not love her back.
“But…but I told Skyler I was in love with him,” she stammered, feeling a tad awkward to be revealing it to AJ. “How come he didn’t hear that?”
“I guess he left before you got to that part,” AJ said flatly.
“So he decided to get back at me by hitting on another woman?” she grumbled.
“He wasn’t getting back at you. He was just kick-starting the inevitable.”
The inevitable… Reed had thought she was going to break up with him. Despite her irritation over his heartless method of protecting himself, Darcy’s heart ached at the notion that she’d made Reed believe she didn’t care about him.
“I’m so stupid,” she blurted out, swallowing a lump of frustration. “Why did I keep calling it a fling when I knew it had turned into something more?”
AJ chuckled. “You were in denial?” he suggested.
“I was. I totally was.” She moaned in misery. “Crap, I need to go and talk to him. Do you know if he’s home?”
“No, he mentioned something about hanging out with some kid named Devon today. Or maybe it was Kevin?” AJ offered a blank look. “Can’t remember the name. I had no idea he was doing that Big Brother program, but it’s pretty cool, huh? Oh, I think they’re meeting at the park behind your school.”
Darcy was already dashing to the doorway. “Can you let yourself out?” she called over her shoulder. “I’ve gotta throw some clothes on.”
AJ’s soft laughter tickled her back, but she ignored it. Her mind was already a million miles away, every fiber of her being focused on Reed and what she would say to him when she saw him.
Yes, he’d acted like a total jerk the other night, and she certainly wasn’t letting him off the hook for it, but now that she understood where he’d been coming from, she couldn’t bring herself to stay mad at him. She loved him, damn it. And she was pretty certain he felt the same way about her.
Now she just had to find out if she was right.
Darcy halted in the middle of her bedroom, a smile breaking out on her face as she experienced a stroke of brilliance.
She knew just what she had to do.
Chapter Seventeen
“That was the worst pass on the planet!” Devon’s laughing taunt floated across the field and penetrated Reed’s distracted thoughts.
Shit, he must have spaced out. He couldn’t even remember throwing the football, let alone what the pass had looked like.
“Why don’t we take a breather?” Reed called out.
He felt like an ass for putting a stop to the game, but at the moment, he was way too preoccupied to focus on football. Or Devon. Or anything that didn’t start with D and end with A-R-C-Y.
He was such a mess. He’d been wallowing in self-pity ever since Darcy had stumbled out of the club the other night. The devastated look on her face had been branded into his memory. At the time, though, it had seemed like the only solution. The only way to permanently sever the hold Darcy Grant had on his heart.
If she hated him, then she wouldn’t fight his decision to break things off.
If she hated him, then maybe he’d finally be able to get over her.
She didn’t want a relationship, and he didn’t want a fling. If he’d kept seeing her, they’d be forever in a standoff. His feelings for her would only have gotten stronger, which meant his heart would only break harder when she decided to move on. So he’d decided to end it first.
And boy, had he ended it. Reed still felt like throwing up when he remembered how he’d forced himself to flirt with that faceless girl, all the while feeling Darcy’s betrayed blue eyes boring a hole into him. It had been torture, but he’d made himself do it. Made himself live up to the selfish asshole label Darcy had pinned on him the day they’d met.
“Hey! Ms. Grant! Reed, look, Ms. Grant is here!”
Devon’s voice once again pierced through the fog, jolting Reed back to reality.
Wait—Darcy is here?