Page 96 of The Trouble with Players

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

“Ohmigod!”

Crew and I jumped up, blinded by the sunlight filling my room.

Gina stood in the doorway glaring at us. “What’s this?” she said, her hand shooting out at us in my bed.

I pressed my palms to my eyes, pushing sleep away. “It’s nothing.”

Crew’s eyes cut to mine. “Nothing?”

“You shouldn’t be here like…this,” Gina said.

“You told her?” he asked me.

“I had to tell someone.”

Crew threw off the covers and sat on the edge of my bed.

“And since Peyton’s too nice to send you away, I think I need to do it for her,” Gina said.

“I said he could stay,” I explained. “We had a lot to talk about.”

“Then why’s he shirtless?” she asked.

“I’m shirtless,” Crew began, “because I was sleeping.”

She crossed her arms. “Exes shouldn’t be sleeping shirtless or in the same bed.”

The word exes turned my stomach. We were so much more than that. And it hurt. It hurt like fucking hell. “We slept in bed together when we hated each other,” I explained. “This was no big deal.”

Crew stood up and grabbed his shirt from my chair a little more aggressively than necessary making me think calling it no big deal hurt him. He pulled the shirt over his head then slipped on his shoes. His eyes locked on mine. “I meant every word I said last night.”

My eyes lowered, unable to look at him.

“You know where I’m staying,” he said as he walked to the door.

I glanced up in time to see him stop. I thought he’d turn and say something else, but he didn’t. He walked out.

Gina rushed over and sat beside me. “Why did he come over?”

“Because we’re the only ones who know how it feels.”

“I wish I could make it all better,” she said.

“Me too.” I fell back onto my bed. “It’d help if my feelings for him would just go away.”

“Oh, honey. How can you be expected to just switch off feelings?”

“Especially when he says he wants us to stay together because we don’t have the same mother.”

“Wow,” Gina said. “He’s got it bad.”

“It can’t happen,” I said.

“I’ll support whatever you choose to do,” Gina said.

“There’s no choice,” I said. “It’s over.”

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