Playing the Game (Providence University #6) - Ali Parker Page 0,7
way and gotten what used to be her childhood favorite. I hoped that by offering her foods from our past that still had great memories attached, she’d be more likely to eat it.
“I just ate a TV dinner,” she said. “You should have called first.” She pointed to the coffee table where her plastic food tray was still sitting with a fork and napkin.
“Oh, well, you can always freeze it and have some for lunch tomorrow. It’s your favorite. Pepperoni and ham with onions.” I was starving and carried the pizza into their kitchen, where I wasted no time getting a slice. “Practice has me starving. I hope you don’t mind.” I bit into it and sighed. It was so good.
“No, go ahead,” she said with a laugh. “You eat like Dillon, always coming in after a hard practice and stuffing his face.”
“Have you heard from him? How’s the training going?” It had to be exciting being on the Olympic team. Dillon’s dreams were coming true.
Clara raked her hand through her hair and sighed. “He says it’s tough. He called me earlier and fell asleep on the phone. I told him not to do that in the pool, or he’ll drown, and I won’t be there to save him.”
Dillon had pulled my sister from the brink of death twice when she nearly drowned. “I bet he didn’t find that funny.”
Clara giggled. “Not even a little. But I did. He’ll come around and be able to joke about it one day too.”
“I think that’s wishful thinking. He was devastated. I remember the look in his eyes at the hospital. That’s when I knew he really loved you, and I wished I’d find that with someone.”
“Well, you are free to move on and find someone who will actually treat you that way. You know I don’t think Seth Mills was capable. Better for it to stop before anything got started. He’s like one of those serial killers where they have no emotional grid.”
“Seth isn’t that bad,” I snapped before shoving in another bite.
Clara crossed her arms and looked down at me. “You still like him, don’t you?” She sounded as if that was the worst thing in the world.
“So? What if I do? You don’t even know him. You know about him, and that’s not even the full truth. Think of all of the rumors that went around about you. None of those were true, and at least you had the chance to prove it.”
“Well, you can call and ask Layla what the truth is. I’m sure she’ll fill you in.” While my sister was in recovery, Layla and I had talked a bit, but I wasn’t comfortable calling her for such a reason.
“I’m not calling Layla. I don’t know her well enough.” Not only that, but I knew Seth had really liked her once, and I didn’t want to upset him by doing that.
“Fine, I will.” She picked up the phone, but I snatched it out of her hands.
“You are not calling her. Stop butting into my business.” I had never had to tell her that before, but she was acting ridiculous.
“Your happiness and safety are my business. But fine, I won’t call her. If you see her around, talk to her. No one knows him the way she does. If you want the truth, get it from the source.”
“She knows her side of him. Not mine, and Seth doesn’t act that way with me. No one ever asks how she treated him.” I wasn’t going to ask Layla anything. Their relationship didn’t pertain to ours. “I miss him.”
“You sound as if there is more going on than you two taking a break.” Clara gave me a narrow-eyed look.
“I can’t talk to you about it. You’ve already made up your mind that he’s the devil, and you’re never going to change your mind.”
“I just don’t want you to get your heart broken. So, if there is something going on, yes, you can talk to me.” And get all of her opinions in the meantime? No thanks.
I dropped the half-eaten slice of pizza back into the box. “It was a mistake coming here. I’m not good company.” I didn’t want to upset her back into starving herself. My problems with Seth weren’t worth causing that much grief.
“Hey, I’m sorry, okay? I just care. I don’t want you to have a hard time like I did. Things could be easier for you.”
She would just never understand. Just because someone had hurt her doesn’t