Briggs - A Carolina Reapers Nove - Samantha Whiskey Page 0,67

my love life was up for discussion?

“Oh, he’s him,” Sawyer quipped. “Just the old pre-Bristol, more morose version.”

“Not helping,” Axel whispered the length of the table to where Sawyer sat.

Sawyer shrugged one shoulder.

“Right. Since my future brother-in-law isn’t here to…” Caz titled his head, obviously searching for the right words.

“Remove the stick from your ass,” Maxim offered, then swiveled in his seat to check out a woman who walked by.

“Yeah. What he said…just not how he said it.” Caspian shot his best friend a glare. “It’s the offseason, you know. There’s nothing stopping you from hopping on a flight to New York tonight.”

Another grunt of approval sounded around the table.

“Things with Bristol aren’t that easy.” Fuck, even saying her name hurt. I mentally picked up the shredded pieces of my heart and tried to shove them back into my chest. When that explanation didn’t seem to appease the guys, I sighed. “Look, we had a huge fight, and I left. That’s all there is to say about it.”

They all just kept fucking staring.

“What do you want to hear? That I got pissed that I never should have been up there in the first place? That I knew better and only did it because I knew that’s what she needed? It was an impossible, impractical relationship that we forced, thinking we could beat the whole long-distance odds, and guess what? We couldn’t! I hadn’t seen her in a month, so I gambled and we all lost. There? Are you happy?”

Someone scored. No one at our table even looked up at the monitor.

“We can all tell that you’re not,” Sawyer said softly. “My guess would be that she isn’t, either. We’ve all seen the way you two stare at each other.”

“We only make each other happy when we’re in the same area code, and that isn’t very often.” I grabbed my bottle and continued peeling the label.

“Are you in love with her?” Axel asked, leaning forward slightly.

“You think I would have been in the Catskills the night before that game if I didn’t?” I fired back.

Of course, I loved Bristol. I loved her wit and humor, her intelligence and grace. I loved the way she bit her lip when she was thinking about something, and how her eyes lit up the second she saw me. Hell, my entire soul lit up like a Christmas tree whenever she walked into the room. I lived for the moments we were together and savored every single second I had with her…well, except that last day when I’d been disgusted with my own choices and blamed them on her.

Love wasn’t the problem. Distance and priorities were.

I’d made her my priority. I’d shown up when she needed me. That wasn’t her fault.

“Fair point.” He nodded. “Then maybe instead of resigning yourself to a life of misery, you should look at some ways to be in the same area code.” His head nodded slightly toward the monitor.

Where New York was playing on the screen.

My entire body tensed and my heart jumped, the beat picking up until it was racing almost as fast as my thoughts. Was a trade to New York a possibility? Did I even want that? The idea of being in the same city as Bristol was flat-out intoxicating, but the thought of leaving the Reapers felt like a shot to the chest.

“We’d miss you,” Sawyer said slowly. “But we’d understand. I bet Silas could work something out if it was what you really wanted.

One by one, they all nodded.

“I’m not even sure we’re still together. I didn’t exactly say goodbye.” My thumbnail worked off another section of the label. Not that she had reached out, either, but we were both gifted with a surplus of stubbornness.

“I bet you have a way to find out, don’t you?” Caspian dropped a meaningful gaze on my phone, which was face-up on the table.

It wasn’t that I was against talking about Bristol. I just didn’t know what to say. I stared at my phone for a good breath or two, then grabbed it and nodded. “Give me a second,” I said to Caspian, who immediately slid out of the booth so I could get out.

Pulling up her contact info, I stepped through the door into the back hallway and the noisy bar faded into a muted background noise. Taking one more turn, I entered the room where I’d kissed Bristol all those months ago. Fuck, she didn’t even live here, but she was still everywhere. Our season was over,