Page 19 of The Problem with Players

“I’ll talk to your boss. I’ll make sure he knows it was my mistake,” I told her. “I know I shouldn’t have followed you out here. I just wanted an opportunity to talk to you and apologize.”

“Cool. You did that. Now, if you could just leave me alone, that would be marvelous.”

“Av—”

“Gah!” she shouted as she pushed herself away from the wall. “What is it with you, huh? Are you on some kind of redemption arc? Are you trying to come back to town to right all your wrongs? What do you want from me, Nathaniel? You want me to forgive you?” She tossed her hands in the air out of frustration. “Fine. I forgive you. You want my coaching position? Okay. It’s yours. I just don’t see why you keep trying with me. We’re never going to be friendly with one another, okay? Just make peace with that.”

That felt like a knife to my gut. A knife that stabbed repeatedly.

Before I could even conjure up a response, the locked doorswung open, and Easton popped his head out. “Oh shit! There you are,” he said to me.

“Keep the door open!” Avery shouted as she darted over to the door. She hurried inside, not looking back once. I stood there a moment, still trying to recover from the word bullets Avery shot me with. I didn’t blame her for her coldness. If anything, I deserved every single word that fell from her mouth. Still, it didn’t make it easy.

“Did you two get locked out here?” Easton asked with narrowed eyes. “Are you good, brother?”

“Yeah.” I walked toward him and patted his back. “I’m good. Let’s get another drink.”

5

AVERY

Whatever Laurelin and Reed Pierce mixed when they birthed their five sons, it must’ve been laced with gold. The Pierce boys were the definition of fantastic genetics. All five of them—including Nathan, unfortunately—were beyond good-looking. I’d known the boys since they were kids, as I worked at Honey Farms as a teenager. That was how I’d met Nathan. Though, at that point, everyone knew who he was. He was the all-star athlete who attended college on a full-ride baseball scholarship. He was a celebrity to us in Honey Creek. During that time at the farm, I was able to get to know Nathan. It only took one summer of young love for me to fall for him on Honey Farms, and then it only took one day for him to shatter said love into a million pieces.

Seeing all the guys in the bar that evening was odd because it was clear that both pairs of twins were no longer the little boys who used to help me around the farm. They were fully grown men who each looked as if they should’ve been featured on the cover ofGQ.

Evan emanated a grown-man-who-didn’t-care-about-anyone energy whenever he walkedinto any room. He was the hermit of the group—the grumpy one, most would say. It seemed the only things he cared about were his work and his teenage daughter, Priya. I always thought he had to grow up a little faster than the others, seeing how he had a kid at eighteen, but he stepped up to the plate. His twin, Easton, was the poet of the group. The most romantic man I’d ever witnessed and a massive flirt with any and everyone. And I meant everyone. Whether a man or woman, Easton would give said person a stare that made them feel flustered.

The younger twins, River and Grant, were a ball of fun. They never took anything too seriously, other than making sure their haircuts were always fresh and neat. Women in town were in love with those two guys, but they didn’t seem too interested in the attention. River, I heard, just ended things with his girlfriend, and Grant… Well, he had a few situationships of his own.

Outside of the guys looking like Greek gods, they were some of the nicest individuals I’d ever crossed paths with—even Evan and his grumpiness. He wasn’t rude—just…reserved. I understood that. I liked to keep to myself and my family, too.

And if I didn’t have my own feelings toward Nathan, I would’ve thought he was one of the most charming people in the world, too, like his brothers. Maybe that was the issue, though. I knew Nathan on a personal level, which tainted my viewpoint of him.

I wished I could look at him the same way I viewed his brothers—as if he was simply a handsome, remarkable man who could make any person blush with a simple “hello.” I was almost certain half of Easton and Evan’s business at their butcher shop came from women coming in just to hear Easton compliment them on their looks.

The Pierce charm was a real infectious illness that a lot of people fell for. Luckily for me, I had my vaccine.

After I closed O’Reilly’s that night, I was left on high alert.The interactions with Nathan were more than I was ready to deal with, and I could not for the life of me understand why he got under my skin so much.

When I got home, I showered, washed my face, and climbed into my bed, where Wesley was already sleeping. As I lay down, he snuggled closer to me, wrapping his arms around me, as he did every night I crawled into bed with him.

He gently kissed my shoulder blade and whispered, “Good night.”

I didn’t fall asleep right away.

Instead, I lay in my fiancé's arms, thinking about another man.

6

AVERY

Get up, Avery.

Every now and then, I would wake up in bed and be unable to move.

I had never told anyone about the struggles of not being able to physically pull myself out of bed, but lately, it had been happening a lot more than I felt comfortable with. On those mornings, I felt breathless. It was as if the weight of the world sat heavily on my chest, and I couldn’t remove it, no matter how hard I tried.

That morning was one of those mornings.

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