Chapter Two

Quinn Thatcher sat in his locker in the Detroit Sturgeons clubhouse and stared down at the screen on his phone. It had been months since he broke up with Jaclyn, or rather months since Jaclyn broke up with him. She told him it was because she had decided to go back to her husband and try to make her marriage work.

Quinn didn't even know she was married.

And then out of the blue, she texted him last month.

I'm moving back home. Come by to get your box

There was a shoebox from somewhere that somehow ended up on top of Jaclyn's dresser and had collected a few things from their relationship. Keychains and postcards, concert tickets from St. Andrew's Hall, that receipt from The Monarch Club to celebrate their six-month anniversary.

There were also pictures in there. Pictures he had printed for Jaclyn that he thought she would like. She scoffed at them instead.

Who scoffs at sexy pictures of their boyfriend?

Well, there were a lot of things that Quinn questioned now that he looked back on that relationship. The pictures that she laughed at. Her insistence that a plaid sofa was sophistication. The fact that he dated Jaclyn for ten months before she broke up with him and told him she was married.

That last one was the worst.

"Dude, are you sad about your missing cat?"

Quinn looked up to see his teammate Blake Bettinger with a dumb grin on his face. He knew exactly how this conversation was going.

"I don't have a cat. I'm not sad about my missing pussy."

Bert Parkermon laughed from his locker three spots down. "Your jokes are getting tired, Betty."

"Shut it, Bert."

Bert just shrugged it off and tossed his towel in the hamper, leaving Big Buck Bert to be butt naked in the locker room as he got dressed rather than be a part of the conversation anymore.

Blake took his seat next to Quinn's locker with a more serious look at his teammate. "What's with the sad face?"

"Jaclyn sent me a text to come pick up some things at her apartment."

His teammate cringed and shook his head. "That was a certified mess of a relationship."

"No shit."

Quinn dropped the phone in his locker with a thud.

"You going to get your stuff then?" Blake asked.

"Yeah, at some point."

"You could just leave it there and never see her again."

That would be the smart thing to do. Quinn could just never go back there and let Jaclyn toss it out when she left. But he also needed to be a mature adult, suck it up, and get his stuff.

"I've been putting it off for weeks already," he said. "I'd rather have it than let her do whatever she wants with it."

"Yeah, you don't want her leaking those nudes to some gossip site."

"How did you..." Quinn's voice trailed off as he saw the shit-eating grin form on Blake's face. "I never told you there were pictures in there."

"You have now."

Blake slapped Quinn's shoulder and headed for the showers while Quinn could only stand there in frustration and embarrassment.

His relationship with Jaclyn was a mess from the beginning until the end, and it was a mess now too. He just needed to pick up that box and never see her again.

Quinn looked down at the phone in his locker, knowing the dark screen wasn't going to erase her text message. He really needed to get that stupid box and move on with his life -- well, after he destroyed everything inside of it.

The Sturgeons had the day off tomorrow so it would be a good day to finally close the last chapter on his relationship with Jaclyn. Get the box, take it home, and burn it in his fireplace. Make sure there was cold beer in the fridge. It was the perfect plan.