Page 76 of Begin Again Again

“Bizarre, hey?” Lara said from behind her laptop.

Beth nodded dumbly.

“Crazy that your boy did psych.”

“Why? What do footy players usually study?”

Lara looked up from her work. “Law. Sports management. Whatever. But he’s the first draftee I’ve heard of doing that.”

“So, hewasdrafted into the AFL?”

“Seventh pick. That’s really high. I was in NZ in 2015 and I wasn’t watching as much football, or I swear I’d have seen his debut. Hammerheads played the Dogs in round one. He kicked a goal.”

Beth’s stomach churched. She wanted to know more,everything,but it was too easy to imagine the look on Byron’s face if he saw her reading up on him—the detached clinical satisfaction that she was no better than anyone else. Beth handed the iPad to Lara, feeling grubby.

“You weren’t wrong about him being good-looking, though. He’s pretty.”

Beth felt a little stung. Calling Byron pretty was like calling the Hope diamond a big fucking rock. She tugged her lower lip. “He’s the best-looking guy I’ve ever been with.”

“What about Mo?”

Beth pictured her ex—the long limbs and easy smile. The refusal to hold her bag while she did up her shoelaces because ‘that’s for girls.’ “Mo doesn’t have what Byron has.”

“And that is?”

“He’s… quiet.”

“And that’s sexy?”

Beth screwed up her nose. “I don’t know, it’s hard to explain. He’s chill, but you can tell he gives a shit. He just doesn’t say anything without thinking about it.”

“Ah, the strong silent type.”

“Exactly.”

“A conflicted hero.” Lara furrowed her brow and jutted her small white chin. “He sits in the corner and watches you without blinking. And he might push back his chair, bend you over the pool table and fuck you until you can’t walk, or he might turn away and get drunk alone in a dive bar because he can’t handle how you make him feel.”

Beth pressed her hand to her chest. “It’s like you’re reading his mind.”

Lara stood, violently shoving her chair back. She glowered at her. “Bethany…”

“Um, yes?”

Lara stalked toward her, shoulders back, arms wide. “What are you doing out so late at night? You should be in bed. Safe. Protected.”

“I mean… it’s nine-thirty in the morning?”

Lara extended a hand to Beth’s face, then turned away. “What are youdoingto me, Bethany?”

Beth giggled. “Lara!”

“You’re all I’ve ever wanted. Everneeded.”

The performance was camp, but there was an intensity to Lara’s eyes that really did remind Beth of Byron.

“Bethany… I can’t stop thinking about you. Aboutus.”

“Okay, you’re kind of scaring me, dude!”

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