Playing the Game (Providence University #6) - Ali Parker Page 0,84

“You have to hear each other out, and I’m sure he’ll want to fix it too.”

“I know he does. He looked pathetically ruined over everything last night, and I’ve never seen him that way. He’s wanted to talk for days, but what if he doesn’t want to anymore? I don’t know what I’ll do.”

“Well, you’re about to find out.” When we pulled up at the apartment, Seth’s Jeep was parked out front. “He’s here.”

Chapter 30

Seth

As the water washed down my back, I turned the bottle up and let it wash down my throat. The shower was hot, and it was just what I needed to balance the numb feeling inside me that was about to get duller.

I was so desperate to get away but only got as far as the cemetery where my brother was buried. After reflecting there a while, I spent the night sleeping in my Jeep and drove back to town when I woke up.

After a quick stop by the liquor store, where I stocked up, preparing to drown my sorrows alone, I came home.

I turned in the shower and let the water wash down my front. Avery and I were over. My life was never going to be the way I wanted it ever again, so I might as well get used to it.

I was halfway through the first bottle when I heard someone pounding on my door, and I imagined it was someone spoiling for a fight.

I decided to let them have it. I needed a good ass beating, and I was prepared to take it like a man.

I turned off the water, put the towel around me, and stepped out. “Just a minute,” I said, turning up the bottle for another swig of fire.

If I couldn’t drown my problems, I’d burn them.

I threw the door open and was surprised to find Dillon standing in my hallway. “What the fuck are you doing here? I never laid a hand on Ben.”

“I know. I’m here to make sure you’re alone.”

“Yeah, I’m utterly and painfully alone.” I turned the bottle up again as Dillon looked behind him.

“He’s all yours,” he said.

Avery stepped up to the doorway, and suddenly, my arms went limp beside me, and it was all I could do to keep the bottle in my hands.

“Take my sister home,” she told him. “We’ll be fine.”

Dillon hesitated. “She’s not going to like that, but okay.”

“Just don’t tell her about the towel,” she said, looking me up and down. “Or the vodka.”

Dillon nodded. “Yeah, I’m not crazy.” He shook his head and walked away without another word.

Avery was quiet a moment as she shut the door. Finally, she turned and met my eyes. “I’m sorry. I was wrong for not believing you. I should have trusted that you wouldn’t do anything to hurt me.” Her face turned red around her eyes, and I could see the mist of tears there glossing them over.

I nodded. “You want to know something I never said to Layla?”

She shrugged. “Sure, fire away.”

“I never told her I loved her. You see, I don’t just give those words away without meaning. I don’t use them lightly. And even at the time when I thought I loved her and needed her back, I knew deep down it wasn’t true. Not in the way it should be. I mean, I do love Layla as a friend. We’ve been through a whole lot, but I’m not in love with her.”

She was about to speak, but I shook my head and took a step forward, closing the distance between us as the beads of water ran down my back, giving me a chill.

“I get why you thought what you did, and I know that you didn’t want to believe that. It was just my stupid past making it worse. And that’s my fault.”

“But I hit you,” she said as the tears ran down her cheeks. “I shouldn’t have done that. It’s my fault you reacted how you did.”

“No, that’s my father’s fault. Not ours. He made me that way. He used to make me and Bryan fight when we were kids. He would egg Bryan on until I begged for mercy, and when we both got older, we made a pact not to ever do that again. We turned on him when we were big enough, and we beat him and beat him, and it still didn’t make him quit.”

“I looked all night for you,” she whispered. “I came here, I drove across town, but I figured