End Game Read online

  End Game by Dee Ellis

  © 2019 by Dee Ellis. All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any written, electronic, recording, or photocopying without written permission of the publisher or author. The exception would be in the case of brief quotations embodied in the critical articles or reviews and pages where permission is specifically granted by the publisher or author.

  Cover Design: Dee Ellis

  Interior Formatting: Dee Ellis

  Publisher: Hummingbird Press

  First Edition

  Dedication

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Epilogue

  Connor & Haliee’s Endgame Playlist

  About the Author

  More from the Author

  Dedication

  This is for Rhonda. My Rhoda. Who taught me how to be tough, who took me to my first bar—after I hyperventilated for four hours at the very idea of PEOPLE at a BAR—who told me I could say no to people and still love them, and who showed me how to be a fucking warrior. I miss you and I am so lucky that I got to know you and got to have you in my life. You were a warrior and Hailee is only half of the champion you were.

  Love, Dawn Marie.

  Prologue

  Looking down the barrel of death makes you consider life.

  It makes you think about how you ended up there and if your choices and decisions ever really mattered at all. Or if those choices and decisions were never really yours to make. If maybe you thought the many choices you made through your life really had already been decided for you.

  Life doesn’t give you do-overs and now is a shit time to realize that. I suppose most people have plenty they would do-over. And maybe I have a few, but only one of them is important. Only one of them hurts worse than ending up here at the end and knowing how much I missed.

  If I could have just one choice back, get just one do-over, I know which one it would be.

  I would tell the man I love that I wanted him to choose me.

  I would tell the whole entire world that I chose him.

  I met my soulmate when I a teenager was and the worst part of that truth is, we both knew it. We knew the moment it started what it was going to become. Neither of us ever pretended there would be any other outcome.

  But what we did do was waste time. God, we wasted so much precious time. Time we can never get back and time we gave away to please everyone else. We always promised each other being together was our end game. But first, we kept promises to other people.

  We made one promise time and again that we both broke time and again. We promised each other a happy ever after together. I always believed we would get it because we never broke our promises to one another. I knew how our ending was going to look and I believed it included the promise of a happy ever after.

  Too bad I won’t get any kind of ever after.

  Not even an unhappy one.

  Chapter One

  Year One

  Hailee

  Life is always full of both good and bad. But if your life has been full of so much good, I suppose the bad might seem that much worse. I guess that makes me lucky, really. That most of my good is so goddamn good it makes it seem that much harder when it gets bad. An even trade, maybe.

  Plenty of people have a rough go at life. Broken families, addiction, abuse, or just days so dark that a little light seems like a rare gift. But when you have it good most of the time, the dark makes you realize how damn good that light is. How lucky knowing light makes you. And I know I am lucky. That is not something I ever take for granted.

  At seventeen, my family and I are moving for the final time after my father retired from the army. Before that, dad had moved mom, my two older brothers, and me almost every two years. I could almost set a clock to the transfers he accepted and mom became a pro at preparing us for it and getting us ready to switch schools, move across country, and start all over again.

  “It’s a good life though.” Mom always said as we packed up our lives all over again.

  And, she wasn’t wrong, really.

  We love each other and even though my brothers are two and four years older than me—blame it on those clockwork moves—we are close. Mom and dad are the most disgustingly in love parents I have ever seen. We aren’t exactly the Cleavers but we do indeed have a good life.

  Mom took care of us until I was in school and then she found a career that fulfilled her but being a mother and wife always comes first. Dad is an army man through-and-through so he is firm with us. But he is also the first one to laugh with us and be there when we’re hurt or just need guidance.

  We all know how good of a life we have even if sometimes it gets lonely. After he decided to retire finally, dad told us our final move would be to Texas. He has an old army buddy he wants to partner with on a ranch there. It doesn’t matter to us where we end up as long as it is together—and we finally get a chance to call wherever we land our home.

  It turns out our final move is to his hometown and the home of Baylor University, his alma mater. My oldest brother, Hyde, just graduated from Baylor with a degree in athletic training, my brother Reed has taken correspondence classes for the past two years, and I was just accepted for my freshman year on a full-ride track scholarship.

  After spending most of my life moving, I figure I have seen it all. We have lived in six states and three countries by now. We have traveled the world for my dad’s work and I feel cultured by the time we land in Texas.

  But Texas is unlike any place I have ever been before.

  Right away my brothers settle in to their lives here as if they were born to be Texans. They fit right in with the cowboys and football. But really, they fit in anywhere, it seems; it has always been easy for them. I thought it was always easy for me too even though I am different from my charming and easy-going brothers. Something that until now I have only barely noticed.

  Not different bad, exactly. They laugh easy and long, act a bit reckless, and sometimes get a little wild. But they never get out of line or let our parents down. Both are good students and stars on any sports team they join.

  By the time we get to Texas, I am used to following in their huge shadows. School comes easy to me and sports do too. But not as easy as it comes for them. I think about everything longer and feel things a little differently than they do. I accept I am just a bit different—and by now I have even started to like being a little different.

  Until Texas.

  On my very first day of college, I know I am too different for the likes of this college, this town, and these people. I wear tattered jeans and hoodies. My dark hair is chin length and wavy and I once thought maybe I was cute. Different cute, but still cute.

  I believe this until I walk into Baylor.

  Every girl is blonde and busty with tons of bright make-up, tight jean skirts, or tiny jean shorts. Lots of denim. If this place has a dress code, they sure don’t abide by it. It’s like
dropping a dark spot of ink onto a bright neon acid wash painting.

  “Who’s emo-girl? What’s she trying to be? Where did that come from?” Are some of the comments I hear as I walk through the busy quad. I am a tough girl who has seen the world and yet a few words make me feel like nothing.

  “New girl,” a soft voice calls above all the others, “Come here new girl.”

  Stopping in the middle of the quad—it should be crowded this time of day but instead it parts like the red sea—I turn to see who is talking to me.

  Before Texas, we never stayed anywhere long enough for me to want to make friends or even like a boy. Not that I don’t, of course. I just never tried to fit anywhere because we would be gone before it would matter.

  Standing here now, locking eyes with this boy, I feel like I am in the right spot for the first time.

  With deep olive skin, dark brown eyes, and a crazy haircut—buzzed to the scalp on the sides and long on top—he stands out from the others. At the same time, I know without having to ask he is one of them. He belongs. Maybe that’s why I like him right away.

  Because for the first time in my life, I want to belong somewhere, too.

  Before I get a chance to go to him as he asks, he comes to me. Even at seventeen, I don’t know how to act around a boy as handsome as he is. I don’t have a lot of life experience involving handsome boys. In fact, I think standing here peering up at this boy is the first time I have even considered a boy handsome at all.

  Since it is the first time I notice such a thing, I have no clue how to respond to him. I don’t know how to act around boys at all unless they’re my brothers. Mostly because they are the only boys I have ever really been around. They are stupid, goofy, sweaty boys who make it easy to be myself.

  Nothing at all like this handsome, intense boy who took it upon himself to barge his way into my first day here.

  “Tell me your name new girl.”

  A bright smile and laughing eyes look down at me as he crowds into my space. Tall for a seventeen-year-old-girl, I am not used to people his size. Unless, again, it’s my monster brothers. He towers over me and even at his age—which I guess to be a little older than me—he’s huge. Bulky, thick arms strain the sleeves on his t-shirt, and the flannel tied around his waist showcases how wide his chest is before it tapers where his jeans hang loose.

  “Hailee. Hailee Waters,” finally I sputter my name as he steps closer.

  Dark eyes slide over me slowly. Meeting mine, they still and hold for a long time. It is the strangest feeling as we stand here in the sunshine. Like I know him and he knows me. A wide smile lights up his handsome face and I have to look away because I flush.

  “Hailee. I’m Conner Mitchell. Your new best friend,” he says it without any room for debate.

  Sliding a thick arm around my neck, he tugs me with him into a building and down a long hall. Conner gives me the grand tour as he leads me from class to class. He introduces me to his friends and promises they will be my friends too. He is funny and charming and it’s clear the entire place is enamored by him. I can’t say I blame them.

  By the end of my first day, I feel like I’ve truly found my first best friend.

  “How do you like it so far, Hails?” he calls out the nickname like it’s nothing but my entire world stops.

  A cute nickname. I’ve never had a cute nickname before.

  “I like it fine, I suppose. Haven’t been here long enough not to.” I bounce a shoulder and look away from him and the way he watches me.

  All day Conner rarely takes his eyes off me. Rarely lets me get more than a few feet away from him, in fact. It turns out he is a junior—I am a freshman making besties with a junior—but after asking me my schedule, he walks me to every class and is there waiting when I get out. I don’t know what to make of it or of him.

  “Well, Hails, I am going to make sure you more than like it. Get used to you and me,” he says the words as if he means them.

  I learn soon enough that Conner always means what he says.

  Chapter Two

  Conner

  My entire life I knew what was coming next.

  I have a great family who support one another even though we barely get by running a fledgling ranch. After leaving the military, my pop dumped all his money into it and he has yet to see a profit.

  We have never had much but I am okay with what we do have. We have the good stuff. The stuff that matters. My parents are amazing, giving, and loving parents who never let my little sister or me feel our struggle.

  Because of that, it might surprise people to know I was always a lonely kid. I love my parents and I adore my little sister. I have plenty of friends, but I just never felt like I fit anywhere, really. Two things changed that. The first change happened when I was just a kid—I picked up a football.

  Football is life in my little town in Texas. If you don’t play it, you cheer for it, or you root on the sidelines. As a kid, I found out I was good enough to play it. More than good; I was better than the other kids were even when I didn’t try. When I did try? I was untouchable.

  Growing up with a gift like that in a town like mine can teach you one of two things. Humility or arrogance. My pops would whoop my ass if I thought I was something special. I know better; I am no more special than any other dude who can throw a ball.

  But it gave me a direction in my life.

  Football is how I will take care of my family. I know—and the entire town knows too—I am good enough to go pro. Before I was even in high school, I had scouts talking to me. Teachers and classmates— and plenty of hot cheerleaders—make sure I do well in school and stay healthy.

  My entire life is aimed towards one goal. I might not be all that special, but I am good enough at something to use it to better my life. All my plans got me through high school and earned me a full-ride scholarship to the college of my choice. I always know what comes next, ever since I started playing football.

  Until the first day of my junior year of college.

  Until I see the new girl on campus.

  From the moment I see her, my entire life plan changes. Just like that. Sounds crazy, right? Some girl throws off my entire life plan without me even knowing her name?

  Oh—I get her name, believe that.

  Before I get her name and her smile, I think I know what’s coming next for me. I am such a foolish fuck. I had no fucking clue what was coming for me once Hailee Waters comes into my life.

  Like a moth to a flame, I go right to her. I see her on the quad looking lost and lonely and I can’t stop myself. I want to fit her into my life so neither of us feel lonely anymore.

  By the end of the day, I think I might be laying it on too thick, though. I follow her around all day like a lost puppy. I set my sights on her and I am not about to let someone else get in my way. I don’t let the girl out of my sight if I don’t have to.

  “What is with you and the new girl, bro? She’s a fucking freshman,” Bran North snorts as I wait for her outside her final class.

  Bran is my best friend and like a brother to me. Hearing him talk about Hailee like that flares something inside of me so fierce I grunt out my words to him.

  “Hailee,” I say her name soft because I fucking like it before I glare at him, “is one of us now, Bran. Get right with that, you got me?”

  As I stare him down, his eyes go wide and he throws his hands up. I don’t need to raise my voice for him to get that I mean my words. Most people know when I say something, I mean it.

  “Shit, I got it bro. One of us. Okay, your girl is one of us,” he smiles as he says it as if he knows what I know.

  It doesn’t matter to me that she is only seventeen and I just turned nineteen. Not to me, it doesn’t. It also doesn’t matter that before she walked into my school, I could have had my pick of the hottest cheerleaders. I don’t even care that she seems to be a brain while I know I am just a dumb jock who plans to ride my throwing arm to glory in the NFL.

  All
that matters to me is that I looked into Hailee’s eyes and she gave me a smile that I know she never gave anyone else before. She is different in a way that speaks to me—in a way that I want to selfishly keep for myself.

  From her cute bouncy bob that she fusses with all day, to her bright blue eyes, and freckled fair skin, I am hooked. He got it right, what he said. Hailee is my girl and I will do everything in my power to make sure she is not the only one who knows it.

  When she comes out of her last class to find me waiting and flushes up at me with her eyes sparkling, my chest goes tight. I throw my arm around her neck again, snag her books, and tell her I want to walk her home. As she presses her little curves into my side and nods that she wants me to, I sigh and smile so wide it hurts.

  “Let's get you home, Hails.”

  We walk home together and it is the first time in my life I don’t feel that usual bite of loneliness. We don’t even talk at first and I think we both know we don’t need to. I don’t know what it means yet, but I know for the second time in my life, I feel like I found somewhere I fit.

  I feel like I fit with Hailee and she fits with me.

  As we walk, she giggles softly and my dick wakes up. I know it’s not proper since she’s younger but I can’t help it. I like her because I like her but I also know I like her because she manages to be cute and hot at the same time.

  “You seem pretty bossy, Mitchell,” she speaks up as we walk back roads to stretch out our time together.

  “I am. Get used to it,” teasing her feels good and she laughs again and hell, that feels even better.

  Hailee is tall with an athletic figure—I found out today she’s a track star which is at the same time adorable and sexy as shit—and I appreciate the curves and lines of her body. Dressed in dark colors she seems to be hiding the softness of her breasts and the wideness of her hips but I like it all and so does my dick.

  I know I should behave because she’s just seventeen. It is officially illegal for me to want her for at least a little while. Drawing her closer to my side, I touch my nose to her dark hair, breathing her sweet feminine scent in. Again, she giggles and I grunt as my jeans get tighter.