Chapter 88 KNOX

Chapter 88 KNOX
"So that's it?" Tracy's eyes narrowed. "You know her for five minutes and suddenly I'm ancient history?"

"Pretty much."

She gave a disbelieving laugh, the kind that had more panic in it than amusement. "You can't be serious."

"I'm usually dead serious when I'm trying to get rid of someone."

"Get rid of me? After everything between us?"

"You mean the part where we fucked, it stopped, and you decided the breakup was apparently a temporary pause rather than, you know, an actual ending?"

Her expression hardened. "It was more than that. You don't get to just erase me."

"I'm not erasing you." I glanced at her, unbothered. "I'm just not keeping you. There's a difference. Look it up sometime."

Her lips parted, some retort clearly building, when Hunter made a small choking sound behind me that he tried and failed to disguise as a cough. Tracy ignored him entirely, her eyes narrowing further as something visibly clicked into place.

"I know this is an act," she said, triumphant, like she'd finally cracked a code.

"Whatever this is, it's got nothing to do with her. You're doing this to piss off your dad, aren't you? Proving some point to him. That's why you're suddenly parading her around like she's the most important woman in the world.”

Fuck. She was good. Too good.
For half a second, I genuinely had nothing.

Then I let a slow, lazy smile settle onto my face, mostly to buy myself time while my brain caught up.

"I'm not acting."

"Bullshit." Her eyes swept over Juniper, slow and deliberately insulting, like she was pricing a used car. "She's your type now?"

"My type?"

"Quiet. Innocent. Easy to impress." Her smile turned cruel. "Put her in a pretty dress, hold her hand a few times, tell her she's special, and suddenly she's convinced she's won some grand prize."

Juniper's expression didn't change. If anything, her smile got sweeter — which, by now, I was learning to recognize as a warning sign roughly on par with a tornado siren.

"I'm standing right here, by the way," Juniper said pleasantly, tilting her head as she gave Tracy a slow, exaggerated once-over of her own.

"And if we're handing out opinions tonight, you seem remarkably obsessed with a woman you apparently think is so insignificant."

Tracy's jaw tightened. "I'm not obsessed with you."

"Really?" Juniper's smile widened.
"Because you've spent the last twenty minutes studying me like I'm going to show up on the final exam. You've commented on my dress, my friends, my relationship, how long I've known Knox, and apparently even my capacity to be impressed by anything." She shrugged, small and unbothered.

"That's a lot of homework for someone you claim not to care about."

"You think you've won something?"

"No." Juniper glanced at me, then back at her, unhurried. "I think you're the only person here still keeping score." Her smile sharpened at the edges.

"And judging by how upset you look about the current standings, I'm guessing you're not winning."

A couple of people near the bar snorted audibly. Tracy's eyes went hard.

"You think you're clever?"

"Not particularly." Juniper shrugged again, entirely too relaxed for someone getting verbally shredded in a nightclub.

"I just think you make it incredibly easy." She tilted her head, considering Tracy with something almost like pity.

"And for what it's worth — if a dress and some hand-holding is enough to make you this rattled, maybe the problem isn't that I'm convincing. Maybe you're just realizing you weren't as difficult to replace as you thought you were."

Hunter slowly lowered his drink, eyes wide.
Slate's mouth twitched, fighting a grin so hard I could see the effort in his jaw. I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing outright.

Juniper looked at Tracy with pure, innocent sweetness. "But please, carry on. I'd hate to interrupt whatever this is." She gestured vaguely between us.

"It's fascinating, honestly — watching a woman fall over herself trying to win back the interest of a man who very clearly, very obviously, loves somebody else."

"Why you fucking—"

"Careful." I cut in, my voice dropping, quiet in the way that meant something. Her attention snapped back to me.

"You're getting dangerously close to making me forget I'm supposed to be polite about all this."

She scoffed, though it came out shakier than she probably wanted. "Oh come on Knox..You really expect me to believe all this?"

"I couldn't care less what you believe."

"You will. When you get bored."

"Maybe." I shrugged. "But here's the part you're struggling with, Tracy. If I get bored — and I'm not saying I will — I'm not coming back to you. That chapter's closed. Permanently. Hardcover, no sequel. Definitely not getting picked up for a second season.”

Her face tightened, something almost desperate slipping through. "You always come back."

"Yeah." I smiled, and there wasn't a shred of humor left in it. "That was before I learned what a bad habit actually looked like."

The silence that followed was, frankly, delicious. Tracy stood there, furious and visibly unmoored, like the script she'd walked in with had just been ripped out of her hands.

I brushed my knuckles lightly along Juniper's arm, an idle, easy touch. "So, no. You weren't replaced."

"Then what was I?"

"Left behind." I said it simply, no cruelty in it, just fact. "There's a difference."

For a moment, Tracy looked genuinely wounded.
Then the expression disappeared beneath something calculated.

Her eyes flicked to Juniper, something sharp and mocking creeping back into her voice, one last attempt at reclaiming the upper hand.

"Knox." Tracy's voice shifted, suddenly softer, aimed entirely at me now. Too sweet, the kind of sweet she used to deploy right before asking for something.

Her fingers slid slowly down my forearm, almost absent-mindedly, tracing the muscle before settling around my wrist.

"Tracy." I kept mine flat. Whatever angle she was pivoting to now, I already didn't have the patience left for it.

“You don't have to do this.”.Her thumb brushed over my skin..“You know me.”

“I do.”

She smiled faintly. “Then you know what happens when we're alone.”

Her fingers tightened slightly. “We always end up finding our way back to each other.”

I looked down at her hand..Then back at her face. “Tracy.”

She stepped closer again, perfume cutting through the noise of the club.

“Just five minutes. Come talk to me.”
Her fingers moved higher, stroking slowly over my forearm..“Alone.”

“That's enough.”.Her expression faltered.

“Knox...I think we should—”

“No.”

I lifted her hand off my arm, unhurried, and set it back at her side like returning misplaced luggage. "Tracy."

"What?"

I laced my fingers through Juniper's instead, lifting our joined hands slightly, deliberate. "My girlfriend might object to you touching me."

A collective ooh rose somewhere behind us — Hunter, predictably, already narrating this like a sports commentator watching the final quarter of a blowout.

"Oh, come on, Knox. I wasn't—"

"I know." I smiled, pleasant and entirely without warmth behind it. "And I'd like to keep it that way."

She stared at me like she was still waiting for a punchline that would never come. There wasn't one.

Just Juniper's hand in mine, and the mildly inconvenient realization settling over me that I'd meant every single word I'd just said, no performance required.

I decided I was thoroughly done here.

I leaned down, mouth close to Juniper's ear, my free hand finding the curve of her shoulder, grounding.

"Now," I murmured, low enough that it was just for her, "it's time to get this party started."

"Uh—"

That was all she managed before I tugged her gently closer and pressed a slow kiss to her forehead, lingering there a beat longer than I needed to, making sure Tracy caught every second of it.

"Dance with me, Speckles," I said against her hair, loud enough for Tracy to catch every word.

Tracy's expression cracked, something raw slipping through the composure she'd been holding onto all night.

"Dance? You never dance. You told me dancing was pointless. A hundred times. Homecoming, my birthday, every single formal we ever went to. You wouldn't dance with me for two straight years, Knox."

I considered the accusation for exactly one beat. Then looked down at Juniper instead, something settling and certain in my chest.

"Yeah." I tucked a strand of hair back from her face, unhurried, deliberate.

"Guess I just never had the right partner." A slow grin pulled at my mouth as I turned us both toward the floor. "Turns out I don't hate dancing at all. I just hated dancing with you. Huge difference. You should really look into that — might explain a few other things too."

Hunter made a strangled noise somewhere behind me, half laugh, half genuine shock. "Jesus Christ, Reyes."

"That's going straight into the group chat," Slate murmured, already pulling out his phone like he wanted receipts.

Tracy's mouth fell open, nothing coming out of it for once.

I shrugged, all faux innocence, already walking backward toward the dance floor with Juniper's hand firmly in mine. "What? You wanted honesty."