Free Inevitable by Tamara Hart Heiner Page A

it fell flat. A shiver ran down my spine. “I had a club meeting after school. So I didn’t come in until five.”
    “Oh? What club?” He sounded interested. Or was he just avoiding whatever it was he wanted to talk to me about?
    “Spanish.” I tapped my fingers on the table. “I only have a fifteen-minute break.”
    “Right.” He cleared his throat. His fingers crept across the table like they were going to touch mine, but didn’t. “I’m not going to make it to the game tomorrow. I didn’t want you to think I was ditching you.”
    “Oh.” I exhaled. So much for our kind-of date. “That’s fine. Thanks for letting me know.”
    “Jayne?”
    I almost lifted my eyes out of habit before I caught myself. “Yes?”
    “I have a friend coming into town tomorrow from England. That’s why I won’t be there.”
    I cocked an eyebrow. “A family friend?”
    “Er, no. Kind of a personal friend.”
    “Like, a girlfriend?” I blurted, jerking my head up. I knew even as I did so what would happen, but I couldn’t seem to stop myself. Did he really mean a girlfriend? How could he be flirting with me, leading me on, if there was another girl on the scene? His light blue eyes took my breath away seconds before my vision blurred.
     
    Aaron lies on a bed next to Libby, his beautiful redhead girlfriend. She has his phone open and scrolls through his contacts with one hand while the other runs along his chest, covered except where she has undone the buttons.
    “What about this one?” She pauses on a snapshot of Jayne. “Who is this?”
    Aaron rolls on his side and takes the phone, an emotion like regret filling him. “No one. Just someone I met in the States.” He hits the delete button, erasing Jayne and her memory from his life.
    Libby leans over, her straight hair falling in front of her face, and kisses his neck. “Oh good. The picture kind of made it look like she was more than no one.”
    The scene changes again. “No, this is not a fair arrangement,” Aaron argues. A wedding ring glints on his finger as he pushes his hand through his thick dark hair, streaked with gray. Wrinkles line his eyes and mouth. He glances out the wall-to-wall window, looking over a green golf course. “You leave me for a dead-beat, has-been rock star and think you’re getting the house? Don’t call me again. Have your lawyer talk to mine.”
    He slams the phone down and glares at a picture of Libby on the end table. Aaron snatches it and throws it across the room, where the glass shatters. He grabs his wedding band and starts to twist it off, and then stops in mid-motion at a crash downstairs.
    “Hello?” he calls, leaning over the spiral staircase, still clutching his ring finger. “Is someone there?”
    A man appears at the bottom of the stairs. “Sorry to bother you. Just doing your wife a favor.” The man lifts a gun in his gloved hand and shoots Aaron three times. Aaron gasps and falls over the banister.
     
    I screamed and jumped to my feet, pressing my hands to my heart.
    “Jayne?” Aaron was at my side in an instant, one hand on my elbow and the other on my shoulder. “Are you okay?”
    I gasped and shook my head, tears streaming down my face. I lowered my eyes, aware of people in the restaurant staring at me.
    Aaron’s hand reached for mine, and I jerked away. “Jayne, I’m sorry. Listen, I’ll make it up to you.”
    “No.” I pushed him away, my legs trembling. “You should’ve told me you had a girlfriend. Just go away.” I turned and fled out of JT’s.
    My mood progressively worsened on my drive home. How could I even warn Aaron about this one? “Don’t marry her! She’ll kill you!” He’d think I was just jealous.
    I let out a sob and pounded the steering wheel. Why? Why Aaron? How could I convince him to be with me instead? I yearned to be able to change what I’d seen. I threw myself from the car, stumbling toward the house. Tears fell down my cheeks, and I swiped at them with one hand