Sidelined: A Wilde Players Dirty Romance by A.M. Hargrove, Terri E. Laine Read Free Book Online Page B

on that TV show?” I ask.
    “I don’t watch TV. Go the fuck away.”
    Knowing I’ve run out of options, I lay it on the line. “What if I’m Fletcher and I’m here to enlist your help in getting Cass back because I am now and have always been madly in love with her? I desperately want her back in my life. And I think if she’s honest with herself, she wants the same. And I swear to you on my life I will never hurt a single hair on her head.”
    Dead silence. I don’t blame her since I have diarrhea of the mouth. When I’m about to head down the stairs in defeat, I hear the lock click and the door crack open.
    She looks like she stepped out of a hurricane as she rubs at the corners of her eyes like I woke her up. Though she’s dead serious when she says, “How can I believe you?”
    “It’s the truth, Gina. I have always loved her. And only her. I’ve only been with three women since we broke up, and none of them meant a single thing to me other than a bed warmer when needed.”
    She swings the door open wide and says, “Come in.”
    I walk through, and before I can open my mouth, she points a finger at me and says, “And not a word about my place or the way I look.”
    And I can understand why. It looks like there was an all-out battle in here or maybe that hurricane did happen, and it was confined to her place. A chair is overturned, couch cushions are on the floor, an empty liquor bottle sits on the coffee table, and Gina looks like she’s been well fucked. It all adds up, the messy hair, swollen lips, not to mention the small hickey on her neck, and her cheeks look abraded from some guy’s scruff. I hope she had a great time.
    “Not a word,” I say, grinning.
    “So, you want her back, huh? After how you left her?”
    “That’s not how it went, and you know it.”
    She crosses her arms and gives me that uh-huh look. “Then tell me your rendition, Fletcher.”
    “She didn’t want to leave because of school and her dad. At the time, I didn’t quite understand, but now I do. But when we could’ve been together, she misunderstood what was happening, all the staged media attention. And I was too green to say no when they pushed me, and I did everything they told me to. She assumed all the pictures were real, and they weren’t. The damage was done in her mind, but I didn’t know. It was catastrophic for us. And I tucked my tail and went away to lick my wounds. But, Gina, you have to believe me when I tell you this. I’ve never stopped loving her. It took me years to go through a day without constantly thinking about her.”
    “But you weren’t there when she cried days on end over you. I thought she’d join a nunnery until she met Fuckdud. You left her primed and ready for that piece of shit to pick up where you left off.”
    Damn. She holds up a hand. “I’m not done. As much as I hate your ass, you’re right. There is some part of her that never let go of you.” She shakes her head in disgust. “You two. Can you not just figure your shit out once and for all?”
    It guts me thinking about Cass in tears. If she’d cried just once back then, I might have given up everything. But she hadn’t. She’d come at me with anger or resigned to us parting ways. I’d assumed she was done with me.
    “That’s why I’m here. I need you to help me.”
    She points a finger at me. “If she finds out I’m helping you, she’ll cut my boobs off. And I mean it, Fletch. She may still have a sweet spot for you, but she’s moved on.”
    “Can you not just give her a few nudges in my direction? Like maybe say how I’m trying or to think about that I might have changed or to maybe give me the benefit of the doubt?”
    She finger-combs the snarled nest of her hair, but only manages to make it scarier than it is. “She’s gonna want to know why I’ve changed my mind about you, ’cuz I’ll be honest. I’ve been your worst enemy. I’ve called you every name in the book since then.”
    “I get that.