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“Yeah. The asshole,” I mutter, sadness filling me despite my anger. That my dad could be so heartless and do something like this to me.
It sucks. Our relationship is beyond repair. At least for now. I can’t even fathom talking to him again, sharing anything personal with him, even speaking to him casually. Hell, I wouldn’t send the man a fucking Christmas card. He’s ruined everything.
He’ll have to grovel on his hands and knees before I’d consider talking to him again.
“And Bryn left,” Gage says.
“She did.” I nod, my head a little dizzy. I can feel the alcohol coursing through my blood and I wait for the numbness. I welcome the fucking numbness. “We can call off the bet, you know.”
“Wait... what?” The confused expression on Archer’s face could almost be laughable if I wasn’t drowning in my misery.
“Call it off. I won’t collect. I can’t.” I pick up my glass, remember it’s empty, and set it down again with an irritated growl. “Bryn and I had sex. Amazing, fantastic, never-to-be-had-again sex.”
“You sly, lying dog,” Gage starts, but Archer shoots him a look. Gage shuts up.
“And she left you anyway. That’s tough, bro. I’m sorry,” Archer says cautiously. Funny how knowing he’s about to be a father makes a man suddenly turn compassionate. The Archer of old would’ve given me endless crap about this.
The new Archer who’s madly in love with Ivy and excited about becoming a dad has become... considerate of my feelings.
Yes. I’m having a total Oprah moment. I blame the vodka.
“Tough doesn’t come close to what it is.” I smile, but it feels like my face is cracking in two. “Do you know that stupid site ran the article and then they said nothing else? Some other sites picked it up, but then another scandal broke out, I can’t even remember what. Rendering me and Bryn long forgotten. That’s how much of a nonentity I’ve become. And you know what? I love that. I don’t miss the fans and the photographers and the crap. I miss playing ball. I’ll always miss that, but otherwise, yeah. I’m over it. I have a new life. A new career that I love and I found a woman I could love too. Instead she leaves me.”
Damn, I sound pitiful and morose even to my own ears.
“All right. We’re calling off the bet,” Archer says, his expression full of worry. “But—”
“You’re going to let her go, huh?” Gage asks, interrupting Archer. “Just let her walk away and forget all about her?”
I glare at them both. “What do you mean?” The waitress delivers another shot glass in front of me, much to the disgust of my friends, and I smile gratefully up at her, actually looking in her eyes versus her tits. I wonder if she appreciates that.
Probably not.
“Go after her,” Gage urges. “Go to her hometown and tell her you want her back.”
I grimace, finish off the contents in my shot glass, and then grimace again as the vodka slides down my throat. “You make it sound so easy.”
“That’s because it is,” Gage says with a slight smirk. I’d like to wipe it off his face with my fist. Must be the vodka still talking. “Just hop on a plane and go to that little Podunk town of hers and find her. Can’t be that hard to figure out where she lives, her address. When you see her, tell her how you feel.”
I let his words sink in and swirl around in my brain along with a heavy dose of vodka. I could do that. Maybe. “What if she rejects me?”
“Then at least you tried,” Archer adds. “Then you won’t have any regrets or what-ifs. Those what-ifs will kill you, man. Trust me.”
Huh. He’s right. I wonder how I would even get to Cactus, Texas. Fly into somewhere and rent a car, I assume. I don’t know her grandma’s name. But I bet everyone would know who Bryn James is. The most beautiful, sweetest, kindest, sexiest woman ever.
“I’ll do it.” I curl my hand into a fist and pound it on the table, making my shot glasses and the now-empty beer bottles on top of it rattle. “I’ll go make flight arrangements right now.” I start to stand, but both Archer and Gage wave their arms at me like they’re trying to flag my ass down or something.
“Slow your roll, my friend,” Gage says, shaking his head with a chuckle as I fall back into my chair, my head spinning. “You need to sober up first. Look at you, three shots of double vodka and you’re done for.”
“Whatever,” I mutter, my mind filled with images of Bryn. Smiling Bryn. Beige Bryn. Naked Bryn. Sad Bryn.
I frown. I never want to see sad Bryn again. I need to find her.
I need to go make that woman mine once and for all.
Chapter 14
Bryn
