Page 51 of No Place Like Home

Maybe it was karma for all the heartbreak I’d caused.

Women knew the score when it came to me. The game came first, and if they were lucky, they came in second. And since no woman would ever get close enough to break my heart, football did.

Taking another sip of my bottle, I kept staring at the television until screeching had me turning my head.

“You have to be shitting me.”

Yeah, that wasn’t Emma’s soft voice. I recognized the voice right away. It was a little high-pitched with a roughness that still sounded very feminine. Maybe it was because she was the last person I thought I’d see at my place or because she looked stunning, but most likely, it was because I was so wasted that I couldn’t formulate a single rational thought.

She marched closer toward me, and the thing in my chest that had been broken over the loss of the game fucking beat.

Jess came closer to me looking angry as hell, and my dick fucking stirred to life. That motherfucker has been dead because my whole focus has not been on females, but on football. The way she looked right now, football was the last thing on my mind.

Jess has always been thin, but there was some muscle gain on her and damn if it didn’t make her look more appealing. She stopped right by me, snatched the control, and then turned off the TV.

“What. The. Fuck?” I growled at her.

“What the fuck? Dude, I spent all fucking night cleaning up your fucking mess!”

“I didn’t ask you to do anything!” I spat back.

Who gave Jess the right to come into my house and try to set me straight?

“I was trying to help you!”

She was trying to help me? I almost laughed. No one could help me.

“You want to help me?” I mocked.

What I wanted was for her to be gone. And if I knew anything about Jess, she got uncomfortable quick with any type of attention. So I did just that.

It was like she knew I would try and hurt her, which should have made me want to stop, but I kept going. I was already on a path to self-destruction, and I didn’t care who I brought down with me.

“You want to help me? I haven’t had pussy in a while. Why don’t you get on my lap and ride me?”

The crass words left my mouth effortlessly. Shit, a part of me probably meant them, but I mostly wanted her gone.

When she just kept staring at me, I patted my lap.

She walked up to me with murder in her eyes, and the broken pieces of my heart thumped.

“You want to drown in alcohol, be my fucking guest,” she spat at me.

“What the fuck, Jess?!” I yelled as she drenched my face in the remainder of my alcohol.

She left with my traitor dog following after her…yet again.

One year ago, I would have been drenched in sweat, and today I was soaked in fucking alcohol.

Removing my shirt, I used it to clean myself up.

A few minutes later, I heard steps coming down, and because I was still not myself, I yelled more stupid shit.

“If you step foot down here, I will take that as a sign that you want to fuck!”

The voice that replied wasn’t Jess's. Instead, it was one of the fuckers that I did not want to see. I should have known this would happen when I kept ignoring all his calls.

“Sorry, Hardwell. I don’t put out on the first date.”

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