“Seth. You’re exhausted—”
“No.” His jaw tightens, and I see it—the guilt, the helplessness, the fear. “She’s my daughter. I’ll go.”
“I told her I’d be there. You just played a full game. You need to rest your legs and rehab your hamstring. It’s dangerous for you to drive right now and you’ll be useless for practice.”
“You talked to her?” His voice is quieter now, but there’s an ache beneath it that guts me.
“Yes.”
Pain flashes across his face, like he’s waging an internal war. He wants to argue, wants to fight me on this, but he knows that I’mright. It’s his first game with the Mayhem and he’s in no shape to make a three-hour drive right now.
“She sounded calm,” I say gently. “She said she feels safe with Kelly. They got a hotel right by the airport. I’ll go up there, get a room, catch a few hours of sleep, and bring her back to you in the morning. It’s no big deal.”
“Fuck,” Seth curses under his breath, his jaw flexing. Levi’s standing beside him now, unusually quiet for once.
“I can go with Bri, so she doesn’t have to make that drive alone,” Levi offers. “My home is there anyway. We can spend the day in Boston if we need to distract Sawyer.”
Seth’s head snaps toward him. “Absolutely not. I’m going.”
Levi snorts, holding up his hands in surrender. “Chill, man. I’m trying to help you out so you can spend tonight recovering. Bri’s right, you’re going to be shit for practice if you don’t ice that hamstring.”
Seth turns back to me, ignoring his brother, his eyes scanning my face. “Are you sure you’re okay to drive?”
“Yeah,” I nod, forcing a small smile. “I’ll crank up my tunes, chug a couple Cokes, and I’ll be good to go.”
“No tunes.”
I blink, raising a brow. “What? I can’t drive in silence by myself.”
“No tunes,” he says, again firmly. “Because I’m coming with you. Now let’s stop talking and hit the road.”
He grabs his bag and takes off down the hallway without another word, like the decision is already done and he can't get away from it fast enough.
I stand there blinking. A road trip. With Seth. Hours trapped in a car with a man who can't decide if he wants to kiss me or fire me,who looked at me like I was something he was starving for and then walked away from me in a laundry room after telling meit’s difficult to be around you, who just voluntarily signed himself up to be alone with me for an extended period of time despite spending weeks trying to avoid exactly that.
I don't know whether to be terrified or thrilled. Both, probably.
Levi leans into my shoulder with a nudge. His eyes are still tracking the hallway where Seth disappeared, and I know I should be following him.
"Huh," he says simply.
"Huh," I agree.
He lets the silence sit there for exactly one beat before the corner of his mouth pulls up. "He hates road trips."
I look at him. "What?"
"Hates them." Levi's grin spreads slowly. "One time he threw up all over my dad’s new car during a cross-country trip when he was five."
He claps me once on the shoulder and walks away, leaving me standing alone in the hallway wondering what on earth I just agreed to.
Chapter 17 – Seth
I tap my foot impatiently against the cracked linoleum floor, my knee bouncing with restless energy as I check my phone for the hundredth time since my game ended and Bri told me Sawyer was stuck in Boston without me.?
The screen lights up, but there’s nothing. Of course, there’s nothing. It’s already past eleven o’clock, and knowing Sawyer, she’s probably been out cold in that hotel room for hours—the one Bri arranged with Kelly so Sawyer could rest. Knowing all that doesn’t stop anxiety from twisting in my gut. She’s still close to two hours away, with a woman I don’t even know. And she was scared. Too scared to get on her flight home.
I should have been there with her.
