Page 79 of Don't Burn Bridges
The admission hung between them. Troy still didn't interrupt, and somehow that made it easier to keep talking.
“She showed up in town a few weeks ago. We hit it off right away. I thought...” He gave another humorless laugh and rubbed a hand across the back of his neck. “Hell, I don't know what I thought.”
But he did know.
He'd started picturing a future that hadn't interested him until she'd come along.
“She wasn't who she said she was.” He swallowed hard. “Turns out she'd been hiding who she really was from the day we met.”
Troy rested an elbow on the bar and shook his head. “That sucks. I'll tell you one thing—you can't trust women. Every one I've ever known has been playin' some angle or lookin' for a payday.”
Nodding in agreement, Seth took another drink before continuing. The alcohol made it easier to say out loud what had been tearing him apart all evening.
“I keep wondering what was real.” His grip tightened around the bottle. “Every conversation we've had. Every date. Every damn kiss.” He snorted. “Now I don't know what to believe.”
For the first time since he'd walked into Bar None, he said the words he'd been trying not to think. “I don't know if I can ever trust her again.”
“I wouldn’t,” Troy said as he waved Alyssa over for another round.
By the time last call was announced, Seth had polished off several more beers, two more shots, a basket of barbecue wings, and told a man he'd met only a few hours earlier far more than he'd ever intended. Troy mostly listened, occasionally offering a comment or a nod of understanding, and somewhere along the way, the conversation became easier than the silence had been.
When Seth reached for his wallet to settle his tab, Alyssa held out her hand. “Keys.”
He blinked at her.
“Now,” she said. “Don’t argue with me, Seth. Lou would have my head if you wrapped your truck around a tree tonight.”
With a resigned sigh, he fished the keys out of his pocket and dropped them into her palm.
“Smart man.” She tucked them behind the bar before pulling out her phone. “I’ll call Smitty for you.”
A few minutes later, while they waited for Hazard Falls' only taxi to arrive, she poured Seth a cup of coffee. Troy paid his own tab, said he'd walk back to the Moody Moon, then shook Seth's hand before saying good night.
When Smitty finally pulled into the parking lot and gave a quick honk, Alyssa handed Seth his keys, making him promise not to come back for his truck until morning. She walked him outside and waited until he'd climbed into the back seat of the SUV before heading back into the bar.
Seth leaned his head against the window and closed his eyes. The gentle sway of the SUV as it rolled through the quiet streets of Hazard Falls gradually lulled him toward sleep, his thoughts finally growing mercifully quiet.
Tomorrow, he'd wake up single again.
And if he had any sense, he'd keep it that way.
Chapter 28
Someone pounded on his apartment door hard enough to rattle the frame. “Seth! Get your ass up! We gotta work!”
The racket drilled straight through his skull. He groaned and buried his face deeper into the pillow, but another round of pounding made the entire room seem to vibrate.
“Tucker,” he muttered.
His head felt as if someone had driven a railroad spike through it. His mouth was so dry it might as well have been packed with cotton, his eyes burned, and his stomach rolled a warning whenever he moved.
He cracked one eye open and winced.
Bright sunlight streamed through the gap in the curtains.
Shit.
He'd overslept.
