The Heartbreakers

“What do you mean?”

His eyes darken, becoming closer to a midnight blue. “I lost my mom two years before you lost your dad. I kept reading her last text to me and listening to her last voicemail over and over. Every time I found anything around the house with her handwriting on it, I’d save it for later. Even if it was just a grocery list or something equally meaningless. But to me it meant everything. So if he wrote you a letter, I understand why you’re keeping it for the right moment. For when you’ll need to hear from him again. Feel him close to you.”

I feel tears collecting in the wells of my eyes, pushing to come out and making my throat tighten.

Peyton looks so perfect on the outside and always so confident to the point of cockiness, but this isn’t the first time he surprises me by showing me that there’s more than meets the eye under the polished exterior of the elite athlete, the playboy, the heartbreaker.

It was the same way the night we met on the beach a couple of weeks ago; I was upset and he showed me a kindness most people who stop to look at his outer veneer, wouldn’t believe him capable of.

“I met him once, you know?” he whispers.

“My papà?”

He nods. “Yeah. A few months before his last jump. I had just gotten into wingsuit flying. Just indoors, in wind tunnels at the time, I was only ten. I wanted to jump and my dad had agreed to rent a private aircraft to allow me to do it as soon as I turned sixteen. Back then you could do it at sixteen with parental consent, before the guidelines were tightened.”

He pauses for a second, smiling at me. “You have his same eyes, you know?”

I can’t help but smile back. “Everyone says that. I’m glad I have his eyes and his hair color. Other than that, I look like my mom.”

“You do. And you look beautiful, Lenley.” He then continues his story about Papà. “Patrick was awesome. He invited me to come and train with the Angels once I was of age. He said they planned to do tryouts once the current team was close to retirement.”

I sigh at the thought that he never made it to retirement and Kyle never jumped or dived again after his accident. “Yeah, even to this day, they do tryouts every year. We have our official team but also a B-team and a C-team. So you obviously never tried out?” I ask.

“I actually did, the summer I turned sixteen.”

It feels a little awkward as he obviously wasn’t selected. “Oh, what happened? I know those tryouts are hard.”

His gaze hardens and there’s a sudden tick in his jaw. “Penn happened.”

“What—”

His hand tightens around me and I can feel the fury practically course through his hard, fit body. “My equipment went missing and anything I could’ve rented that would be suitable magically disappeared. I had to borrow someone else’s helmet and couldn’t try out with a wingsuit. So I didn’t make the team.”

I don’t immediately understand why he thinks Darrius is to blame for what happened. “So where was your stuff?”

He takes a step away from me, letting go of my waist and I immediately grieve the loss of his touch.

“What do you think happened? I found my stuff back in my room after tryouts were over, but someone had taken a pair of scissors to my wingsuit. It was a custom made one my dad had gotten me for my sixteenth birthday.”

I still don’t know why he thinks Darrius was involved. “But how—”

“I saw him come out of the elevator on my floor when I got back to the hotel. He had no reason to be there, he’s a fucking local. And he’d been talking shit to me on the first day during the induction class we had at the Angels Headquarters, saying that my wingsuit couldn’t compare to his exclusive design that wouldn’t even be out for sale for another six months.”

I have to admit that what he told me sounds pretty suspicious, but Darrius would never play dirty and sabotage a rival. The words are right on the tip of my tongue but I don’t utter them.

In the past couple of weeks I’ve seen a side of Darrius I didn’t think existed. Fuck, in the past year if I have to be entirely honest. I thought that even if he didn’t reciprocate my feelings, Darrius would’ve always loved me and protected me, not used me to make another girl jealous. Not laugh at me for my inexperience and then go on to date one of my best friends. Maybe I don’t know Darrius as well as I thought I did.

I’m about to say that, when Mom, Kyle and a tall, blond man that looks vaguely familiar approach us.

“Lenley, sweetheart.” Mom beams with her smile of the official occasions firmly on her face. I know this night has been hard for her, honoring her late husband’s memory is something that she’s always been passionate about but it takes an emotional toll.

“I see you’ve met Peyton Cox, the captain of the Cove Devils.”

Peyton nods, offering her his hand to shake. “Yes, ma’am. We met a couple of weeks ago at the Wild Horse party you so kindly invited us to.”

Mom smiles, scolding him gently. “I thought we agreed you and your teammates could call me Gina.”

Peyton rubs the back of his neck and the apologetic smile on his face looks genuine. “True. I’m sorry, Gina. Thank you for inviting us tonight, this museum is totally awesome and very inspiring. Our sport lost so much the day we lost Patrick. I was just telling Lenley that I got to meet him about ten years ago.”

Mom nods, her smile still firmly in place. “Oh, I didn’t know that. You’ll have to tell me everything about it in a bit at the after party.” She then looks at me. “Lenley, this is Peyton’s father, Kenneth Cox. Ken is the Cove Devils owner and manager.”

I shake Ken’s hand and now I realize why he looked familiar, he’s Peyton’s spitting image, just the older version of him; the main difference between the two men is that Peyton is a couple of inches taller than his father and has vibrant blue eyes as opposed to his father’s hazel ones.

“Nice to meet you, Lenley.” His smile reaches his eyes and I immediately like his firm handshake. “Your mother and Kyle were telling me about your great contribution to the guided tour we enjoyed tonight.”

We make small talk about how there’s hope that the two local teams could improve their relationship and maybe even be co-organizers of the Star Cove Sky Fest that’s part of the state qualification circuit for Nationals.

“I don’t see why we should organize the event together.” Darrius’ voice cuts into our conversation as he joins our group, inserting himself in the space between me and Peyton. “We’ve always been the event’s organizers and last time I checked, we weren’t hurting for money. Especially since Wild Horse became our sponsor.”

Embarrassment immediately descends on our group as I can feel Peyton stiffening next to me.

Kenneth intervenes with a calm, diplomatic tone. “Your father and your CEO thought that it would be great for the town and for our sport if our two teams could coexist in a friendlier climate than last year. I—”

“It would definitely be great to be co-organizers. That would give your team great publicity,” Kyle interrupts before looking at his son and Peyton. “You two should concentrate on competing and leave the PR to management.”

Darrius has never known when to let something go and cut his losses as he insists. “Oh I’m going to wipe the tarmac with the Devils after showing them how a real Angel flies. After all, we all have our areas of expertise. The Angels train hard and win trophies while the Devils enjoy the party!”

I don’t miss Mom’s embarrassed giggle and Kyle’s scowl when he responds to his son. “Talking about parties, that’s what we wanted to tell you. There are a couple of limos waiting to take us back to our house to end the evening in style. The Devils are quite welcome to ride with us.”

Mom smiles, trying to ignore the hostility created by the way Darrius and Peyton are scowling at each other. “Shall we?”

“I’m going to be just a second,” I say, giving Mom’s hand a supportive squeeze. “I need to freshen up, just in case there’s more photos as we leave. My lipstick wasn’t as waterproof as promised and I think I left most on it on the rim of my champagne glass.”