Page 140 of The Problem with Players

River hurried over and stood next to the two of them. “Me too, brother.”

I grumbled. “Stop being dicks and get on with your own lives, will you? At least Evan has enough nerve to mind hisown…” My words faltered as Evan stood in front of my car, too. I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Not you too, Evan.”

“Sorry, brother. It’s just you’ve been grimacing more than me this past week. I can’t have someone taking my sultry looks. I got that copyrighted. Tell us what happened,” Evan said.

“Yeah. What did you do?” Grant asked.

I narrowed my eyes. “What did I do?” I barked. “What makes you think that I did something wrong?”

They shrugged in sync as if they were quadruplets instead of two sets of twins.

“Avery just seems…perfect,” River said.

“Well, she’s not!” I blurted out, tossing my hands up in frustration. I paced the space with irritation filling every inch of my being. “She’s messed up and hard and confusing and abrupt. She makes rushed decisions and sees everything as black-and-white with no middle ground. It’s an all-or-nothing mentality with her, which leaves almost no room to let other people in. She’s hardheaded and mean. She’s so damn mean to me sometimes, but even meaner to herself. She’s damn rough around the edges, too. She’s so rough that if you even look at her wrong, you’d end up with papercuts somehow, and I, I, I?—”

“You love her,” Easton expressed quietly.

I paused my footsteps.

I took a few deep breaths.

I felt a tug of my heart as I nodded. “More than breathing.”

“Then go get her back,” Evan said, patting me on the shoulder. “I don’t believe in that love stuff for myself, but I believe in it for you, Nate. You’ve been a completely different person since reconnecting with Avery, too. You’ve been happy. Don’t lose that.”

“It’s too late. She wants nothing to do with me. This whole week, we’ve had games, and she has hardly looked my way. It’s torturing me, and I can’t take much more. I know she has herissues, but fuck. She won’t let me in. What the hell am I supposed to do?”

“Keep trying,” a voice said from behind me. I turned to see Priya standing there. “You’re supposed to keep trying, Uncle Nate.”

I sighed and shook my head. “It’s not that easy, Squirt.”

“I didn’t say it was easy. I just said you had to keep trying,” she replied.

Evan started toward Priya. “Listen, Pri, this is grown folks stuff and?—”

“No offense, Dad, but you’re a guy. And guys are a little stupid when it comes to what we women need.”

“Women? I thought she was a little girl,” Easton whispered with a pout.

“Well, I’m not, Uncle East. I’m a grown woman, and I know what Avery is going through. We’ve talked a lot over the past few weeks of her being here, and I think I get her. She has trust issues.”

“I know. Because of what I did to her when we were younger, but?—”

“No.” She shook her head. “It’s because her mom left her when she was a kid. We talked about that together…losing our moms.”

Evan’s brows lowered. “You’ve talked about that with Avery?”

“Yes,” she said.

“You never talk about it with me,” he urged.

“That’s because I know it hurts you still, Dad. Even if you say it doesn’t.” Priya turned back to me. “But that’s not the point. This is about Avery, not me. When she lost her mom, she lost her trust in the world. She had flashes of trust, but it’s easier for her to run away from something good because she has a belief that nothing can stay that way. That things can’t stay…good. That’s why she pushed you away. She got scared.”

“Yeah. I know. It still doesn’t change the fact that she doesn’t want anything to do with me,” I expressed. “I’m not going to pressure her to let me in. That’s not fair to whatever it is that she’s going through.”

“I’m not saying to pressure her,” Priya said. “I’m saying keep trying. Maybe not as a romantic partner, but as a friend. Sometimes people don’t need romance. Sometimes they just need someone in their corner.”

I crossed my arms over my chest and lowered my brows. “When did you get so smart, huh?”

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