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“I’m doing it because we never belonged together, Ava. It’s only going to hurt more in the end if we prolong it.”
“We never belonged together?” she hisses. “Are you kidding me?”
I finally glance up at her and watch as she brushes away a tear. I blow out a breath. “You once said I wouldn’t have given you the time of day if I would’ve known who you were. I think maybe you’re right. I certainly wouldn’t have slept with you, and we never would’ve ended up where we are right now. We were always doomed to fail.”
“We’re only failing because you’re allowing us to. You’re running because you’re scared. I know you, Grayson. Maybe better than you know yourself. You love me, and I love you, and I refuse to believe that our love isn’t enough.”
I clear my throat. “Well, it’s not. For me, anyway.”
She nods and draws in a deep breath. “Okay. I’m not going to beg, and I’ve got a lot of work to do.” She picks up her piping bag and gets back to her desserts. “If it’s okay, I may stay while you’re gone for camp so I can use this kitchen since all my shit is here anyway. I’ll figure out a plan once you’re coming back.”
“Okay.” I watch her for a beat before I turn and walk out of the room.
Maybe it’s just her focus on her task since she has a big event she’s working on, but she seems okay with it. All of it.
But as I walk away toward the guest room I slept in last night, I’m not sure I am okay with it.
Any of it.
Chapter 54: Grayson Nash
Football is the Distraction
“Just stay away from him. Okay?” Lincoln demands, and I nod.
“Yes, Coach.” I use the term more as one of endearment than as one of respect, but it works either way.
“I mean it. Don’t get cute on me.”
“Full disclosure…you know what happened, right?” I ask.
He sighs. “Yeah. The viral video, the fight at the Gridiron…I know all of it.”
“I know you know that since you yelled at the two of us and told us to work it out like grown men. But did you also know that he was fucking around with Ava’s roommate and got her pregnant, and now the roommate is moving to Louisiana to get far, far away from Graham?”
Lincoln narrows his eyes at me as he crosses his arms over his chest. “No. That I did not know.”
“Well, now you do,” I say.
“I guess I do. And I’m still telling you the same thing. Stay away from him. I don’t need you causing issues your first year here when my other brother was suspended his first year here. Got it?”
I blow out a breath, but I mutter my agreement. “Got it.”
He confronted me the second we arrived in California, where we’re going to be for the next two weeks. The Aces always travel for the first two weeks of camp as a way to completely immerse ourselves back into the game.
And I have to say, it’s nice to be back at it.
Nice isn’t the right word. It’s incredible. It’s the exact distraction I need.
But I’ve never thought of football as the distraction. Everything else was always the distraction. Football has always come first. Everything else is secondary to that.
It’s how I was raised, and it’s how I’ve always lived my life up to this point.
It’s that exact mindset that drove me to do what I did before I left for camp.
But now…something feels off.
Something feels wrong.
