Page 36 of Filthy Player
He rattled off the name and I shoved my phone into my purse.
“Raleigh Regional, Beaux. I have to go.”
“What happened?”
“My dad is hurt.” I glared at him. He was taking too long. Hurrying as fast as me but damn it. I shouldn’t have done this. One night. I took one night for myself and this was what happened.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
BEAUX
By the time we hopped into my truck and I’d set the GPS for the hospital, Paige had already shut down. I saw the moment it happened, when she realized while she was off enjoying herself, her dad was somewhere else, injured.
The moment she glared at me, her walls had slammed back up.
I got it. I did. I understood the guilt and the responsibility.
Didn’t mean I liked it and it didn’t mean it didn’t tick me off.
Fuck. I had one night of her. One night where all she gave me were smiles and her body and her playfulness and I was hooked.
No way in hell was she taking it back now.
She was sitting next to me, arms crossed over her chest. The gesture was obvious. Another back-the-hell-away from me stance and I gave her that play, my mind on the end zone, not the fifty-yard line. When we pulled up close to the hospital, only a few turns left until I knew she’d hop out of my truck before I came to a stop, I couldn’t take the silence anymore.
“You know this isn’t your fault, Paige. There’s nothing for you to feel guilty about because you went out and had some fun.”
Her eyes slid to me, a glare so chilled I felt it in my balls.
I sighed and pulled into the parking lot. Emergency in red and white flashed like seconds on a game clock. “Let me park and I’ll wait with you.”
“You’ve done enough, thanks.”
I slammed on my brakes. Thank fuck there wasn’t another car behind us. She yanked forward in her seat and fell back, the seat belt locking immediately.
“What the hell!”
“Don’t,” I growled. “Don’t fucking tarnish what we had tonight. Don’t do that to us. I get you’re mad. I get you’re blaming yourself, and most of all I get why you feel so damn guilty. You forget I’ve been where you are, Paige. Don’t fucking forget I spent most of my teenage years watching my mom die. I fucking get it. But don’t for one damn second think you get to take what happened between us tonight away from me, or you. I won’t let you.”
Tears spilled from her eyes before I was done lashing out.
For a moment, I thought she was going to soften, but she rolled her shoulders back and wiped tears off her cheeks. “You don’t have a say in it. I need to get to my dad.”
She flung open the door. I reached for her other hand but she pulled it from my grip. “Paige—”
“I told you the first night we met I wasn’t available, Beaux, and this is why. My dad will always come first, and he needs my help and attention more than I need to be getting off in a field.”
“That’s not all that was and you know it. And you don’t have to do this alone.”
“I’m not alone. I have my dad.” Tears were falling from her cheeks and she viciously swiped them away, shaking her head. “He’s all I have, Beaux.”
God. Her pain was as evident as her anger and guilt.
She had me. All she had to do was reach out and take it.
There was no way she’d listen to me, not as upset as she was and blaming herself.
She hopped out of the truck. “Thanks for the ride.”
