The Game Changer: A Novel Read Free

do it again.” I wanted that sassy little mouth back in my life.
    My eyes refocused on the Mason jar; the handwritten note that read “Kitten’s Quarters” was still attached. She didn’t take it with her. Why the fuck didn’t she take it? This was a bad sign. She moved all the way across the freaking country and left a piece of us here. A very important piece.
    The jar in my hands mocked me, boasting its fullness while my heart remained empty. I turned the glass with my fingers, running my thumb across its smooth surface. I thought about smashing it against the wall and watching it burst into a hundred pieces so it mirrored my fractured emotions, but knew I’d instantly regret it.
    The roller coaster of my relationship with Cassie needed to stop. It’s not that I wanted to get off the ride. I simply wanted it to be less likethe bone-rattling, headache-inducing, rickety wooden roller coasters of the past, and more like the fluid smoothness of the state-of-the-art steel coasters of modern day.
    I set the jar back in its place and walked out of her room, leaving what was left of my heart somewhere between the nightstand and the bedroom floor.
    “How come some of her stuff’s still here?” I stared into Melissa’s blue eyes as I reentered the living room.
    “We figured it would be easier to leave it here for now. We don’t know how long she’s staying there, and I’m not moving anytime soon. Besides, finding a fully furnished apartment in New York is easy.”
    “What do you mean that you don’t know how long she’s staying there?” I asked, eager for every piece of information I could gather about Cassie’s future plans.
    “She might hate living there. Or the job might not work out. She just didn’t know for sure, you know?”
    I nodded, averting my eyes as my mind replayed memories of being in this apartment with her. A quick vision of her in that white sundress before I brought her home to meet my family for the first time flashed in my head and I winced, squeezing my eyes shut against the sharp pain that followed.
    “Are you OK?” Melissa’s voice forced my eyes to reopen.
    Swallowing hard, I said, “Just fighting ghosts.”
    I needed to leave.
    I needed out of that apartment where Cassie’s scent and my memories of her lingered. It hurt to be there without her, and I suddenly realized what it must have been like for her when I was gone and living with someone else. How painful it must have been to live here with the knowledge of everything I’d done to us. How much she must have suffered for my actions. She was innocent in all of this, so why had she paid the highest price?
    “I gotta get back to my hotel before they freak out and think I’ve gone AWOL or something.” I headed for the front door, my head throbbing with each battered beat of my heart.
    “You need me to drop you off?” Dean asked, his eyebrows pinching together.
    “Unless you want me to take your car back to the hotel. But, you’ll have to pick it up first thing tomorrow so it doesn’t get towed,” I noted, gently reminding him that the team was scheduled to head back to Arizona in the morning.
    Dean glanced at Melissa before flashing me a smile. “Nope. I’ll take you.”
    “Jack? Don’t forget that I’m here too. You can call me anytime, and I’ll help you if I can,” Melissa said with a sympathetic smile.
    “I’m gonna hold you to that.” I forced a half smile in return.
    “Good. Because even though you’re a stupid jerk-face, you’re her stupid jerk-face and you two belong together,” she whispered, before wrapping her arms around my waist and squeezing me with more force than I realized her tiny frame could provide.
    “You’re killing me, Funsize,” I choked out, and she giggled.
    Dean tossed an arm around her shoulders and squeezed as he looked down at her. “I’ll see you later, OK?”
    “OK,” she said, and I didn’t miss the look in her eyes. Or his.
    I grabbed the keys from the table, pulled