Page 106 of Begin Again Again

She tensed. “So, you’re friends?”

“Not really.”

She shook him off, took a step back. “Thenwhy?”

But that was the problem—he couldn’t explain about Audrey. Not without explaining everything else.

“She’s from another time in my life,” he said.

“When you were still playing football?”

His gut clenched. Suddenly he wished she had left and that he’d let her go. That would have been better.

“Byron?”

“Yeah,” he said. “From that time.”

“And talking to her…?”

“I dunno… it’s something that happens.”

Beth gripped her cheeks. “Yeah, no. I don’t know what I expected from trying to talk to you, but fuck this.”

She whirled out of his bedroom. Byron followed, hoping like fuck Derek wasn’t back from picking up Tracy. “Beth,stop.”

She whirled around. “Why? Do you want to talk about us and what being together means?”

She must have read the answer on his face. She gave a humourless laugh. “Exactly. So, whenever you figure out what you want, you let me know.”

She powered down the stairs, hitting the floorboards at a stride. Byron followed, taking them two at a time. “Bethany?”

She turned, and her expression punched through his chest like cardboard. Her eyes were glossy, her mouth a pink button. All her fierceness was gone. They stared at each other, and Beth’s eyes bored into his like she wanted to dig the truth from his head. Then she turned away and strode toward the door.

“She broke up with me.” It came out without his consent.

Beth looked at him over her shoulder. “What?”

“Audrey. She dumped me to go to London after I did my leg.”

Beth went white. “What the fuck?Why?”

“Because I wasn’t… I couldn’t…” He shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. The point is, talking to her, it’s not about her. It’s about the time before. Reminiscing or whatever. But I’ll tell her to knock it off. I just don’t see what the big deal is.”

Beth glared at him. “Okay, what if I told you me and my ex were still talking? That he told me he missed me today?”

Byron’s stomach plummeted. He opened his mouth to say that would suck, but Beth’s triumphant smile stopped him.

“Is this theoretical?” he asked. “Or are you really still talking to the guy who drunk drove you off a cliff?”

Beth’s smile curled into a sneer. “Oh, I’msorry. Is your ex-girlfriend—who clearly dropped you for not playing AFL anymore—a real catch? Is she just the sweetest thing in the whole wide world?”

There was nothing adorable about this Beth. With her hard eyes and bared teeth, she looked mean. Furious. He remembered what she said about having zero self-preservation. That hadn’t been a joke. Right now, he was sure she’d explode everything between them for a chance at hurting him like he’d hurt her. He stepped back onto the staircase. “I’m done with this.”

“Great. Conflict resolved.” Beth flung her hands into the air. “Good talk! I hope you knowBabyis keeping one foot in the door in case you make a comeback, and you’re letting her, like a fucking clown.”

Byron ignored her and kept climbing the staircase, but he was still surprised when he heard the front door slam. He’d been waiting for her to follow him up the stairs and burn them both with her anger. But she’d gone. He’d been wrong.

“Byron?”

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