The Wrong Quarterback: Chapter 32

Parker and I were walking down the street a few days later when we turned a corner…and there he was.

Gray.

He stopped in his tracks, his face turning pale as his incredulous gaze darted from the way Parker’s arm was wrapped around my waist…to my face.

“Casey?” he asked.

Parker’s fingers pressed into my side for a second, like he was tempted to grab me and carry me away…but then they softened.

“I’m going to talk to him for a second,” I whispered to him, staring up into Parker’s torn face.

There was a tic in his cheek as he closed his eyes and took a deep breath before opening them. “I’ll be over there, baby. But if he touches you…”

I smiled reassuringly. “It will be fine.”

“Just remember that I’m never letting you go,” he said, his lips claiming mine as his hand slid down to grab my ass, and he pulled me against his hard body, his dick stiffening between us.

I got lost like I always did. The world around us disappeared, and this moment became my only point of focus.

A throat cleared, and my eyes flew open as I broke away from Parker’s lips with a gasp.

Whoops.

I sheepishly glanced at Gray, a wave of shame rolling across my skin because he looked like I’d just stabbed him in the heart.

Parker reluctantly released me, a small smirk on his lips telling me he hadn’t forgotten Gray was there during that kiss. “I’ll be right over there,” he murmured before he slowly walked over to a bench and sat down, somehow making the park bench look like a throne as he lounged back like an insolent king.

“So you’re with him, even after everything I told you,” Gray spat, his fists clenched at his sides. “After everything we’ve⁠—”

I held up my hand. “I’m not letting you use Ben against me anymore,” I whispered.

Gray staggered back like I’d shot him.

“I—”

“That’s what you’ve been doing. You took me for granted, and every time you saw me slipping away, you used Ben to reel me back in.” My lip quivered as I stared at the boy I’d once thought that I’d loved.

And maybe I had loved him.

Maybe it was just hard to think of it as love because this thing between Parker and me was so overwhelming, so all-encompassing—it drowned everything else out in the world.

Maybe that had been love, and what Parker and I had was a soul-shaking obsession.

But whatever it had been with Gray…I didn’t feel it anymore. Parker’s light shone too bright. It had burned everything else away.

“Gray,” I whispered, his name catching in my throat, like it hurt to say. Maybe it did. It felt like a goodbye already, a word weighed down by a thousand memories that wrapped around my heart and squeezed tight. I swallowed hard, tasting the salt of unshed tears.

“Don’t say it,” he said stubbornly.

“I’m letting you go,” I whispered.

I stared at him, the boy who’d been my constant, my refuge, my home for so long.

But he’d also deserted me when I’d needed him the most.

And then he’d treated me like I was an afterthought instead of the love of his life.

The streetlight cast a soft glow over us, its flickering creating shadows that danced across his face, catching the deep furrow of his brow, the pain that swam in those familiar eyes.

“We’re not kids anymore,” I said, the words a knife between us. “And whatever we once had—it’s not enough now. I thought it was everything then, but…it turns out I didn’t know what everything actually was.” My chest ached, the pain raw, like I was being hollowed out from the inside. The streetlight flickered again, casting us in and out of shadow, like the universe couldn’t decide if we should be seen or forgotten.

He took a step closer, and I held up my hand to stop him.

Gray’s eyes glistened, unshed tears making them shine. “I can be better,” he said, voice cracking, raw and desperate. “Case, please⁠—”

I pressed my lips together, the tears finally breaking free and slicing hot, silent paths down my cheeks. “I love him. I love him so much that I can’t imagine breathing without him. I love him so much that it feels like he’s carved into my soul.”

He dropped his gaze, the fight leaving him, and it was like watching a light go out. The silence stretched between us, a chasm that neither of us could cross.

“Goodbye, Gray,” I whispered, the words breaking me apart even as I said them. He didn’t move, didn’t try to stop me as I turned back toward Parker. I left the boy and walked to the man who made up my whole future.

And with each step I left a trail of my memories with Gray behind me.

Parker had stood up from the bench, and he was waiting for me with outstretched arms. I fell into his embrace and let him lead me away with a soft kiss to my hair as we walked.

I didn’t look back until we were far away.

The night had swallowed Gray, and with it, the last pieces of who we’d been.