“Calm down.” I roll over until I’m facing him. His hair is sticking out in every direction, and I’m terrified of what mine looks like, but I don’t care right now. “I’ve been thinking about looking for another job. As much as I love visiting new places, I’m tired all the time.”
His eyes light up and the ghost of a smile crosses his lips. “Really? Have you already started looking?”
Shaking my head, I sigh. “Not yet. I want to be sure before I do anything. It’s just a thought for now.”
“What would you want to do?”
I shrug and the blanket covering us is pulled down just a little bit. “I don’t know. I thought maybe a travel agent. I’ve seen so much of the world, and I think I could be great at recommending travel destinations for others. I haven’t done any research into it, though.”
“Take your time,” he brushes his lips across his forehead. “Do what is best for you. I won’t pressure you one way or another.”
“That’s good to know.” I reach for the edge of the blanket and pull it off. His eyes go wide at my naked body, and he waggles his eyebrows. Before he has a chance to say anything at all, I put my finger against his lips. “We don’t have time for that. We need to get ready. You’re supposed to be at the airport in less than an hour.”
Instead of waiting for a response, I slide out of bed and walk toward the bathroom. I haven’t even made it to the door when he comes up behind me and sweeps me into his arms. “There’s always time. And we can scrub each other down in the shower.”
There’s no point in arguing with him. I’ll just enjoy my time with him while he’s here. There’s no use denying either one of us of what we want. I’ll save the goodbyes when he walks to security.
Twenty-Three
Bentley
“Why are you rushing to the locker room?” Jordan calls from behind me. “It’s not going anywhere. It’s in the same spot it always is.” He’s quiet as I hurry along the hallway. “Unless, it has to do with Serena…” He lets the sentence trail off. He knows damn well why I always rush to the locker room after practices and games.
“I want to see if she has a date that she’s flying here for a couple of days. My mom has been driving me crazy trying to pin something down.” She texts or calls me every single day lately. It’s not exactly unusual for her, except her calls never start with when do I get to meet Serena? And now…they do. She even has Gabby on my case. Like I can somehow magically clear Serena’s schedule for her. It’s even trickier since we both have such insane work lives. And not to mention she lives in a different damn state. It’d be a hell of a lot easier if she did have a stationary job, that’s for sure.
“You’ll get it figured out, man.” He pats my shoulder. When the hell did he catch up to me. I know he has long legs, but shit. That was quick. “I’m guessing things are going well with the two of you?”
“Yeah, it’s going pretty good.” Better than that actually. Even with the rushed phone calls between flights or after games, we manage to make time for each other. “Though I’m getting nervous.”
“Why?” Ross joins the conversation. “Every time I see you two, you look pretty confident about each other.”
“I don’t know,” I shrug as we enter the locker room. “I think this might be the real thing. I’ve never felt this way about anyone. I damn sure never took anyone home to meet my mom and sister.”
“Your mom didn’t really give you a choice since that reporter tried getting information out of you.” He heads to his locker and pulls out his gym bag. “Have you heard from her again? I mean, since you shut her down at the court that day?”
“Nope,” I shake my head and pull my phone out of my bag. “My agent hasn’t said anything and she hasn’t tried hitting me up on any of my social media. Hopefully, I won’t have to deal with her again.” Damn. No messages show up on my screen. She must not be off her flight yet.
“I hope so,” Jordan says. “She’s bad news all over. If she does come at you again. You need to call your agent or one of the managers because she will wreck your shit if she can.”
“Please don’t jinx me.” I pick up my gym bag and throw the strap over my shoulder. I’ll have to shower when I get home. It won’t be weird for me to have the phone right outside of my shower there. I also don’t want to get shit from the guys for doing that. “Anyway, I’ll see y’all at practice tomorrow. I have to go get ready for dinner at my mom’s.”
“See you tomorrow,” Jordan and Ross say at the same time as I walk out of the locker room.
“See ya,” I call back. I hope she calls me before I have to go to my mom’s. I mean, I don’t technically have to go, but she likes to make sure I’m fed regularly because she doesn’t trust me to take care of myself. I don’t know how she thinks I made it through college. I didn’t go home nearly as much as I do now, and I went to school in the next few towns over.
I open the door to my car and throw my bag inside. Damn I need a shower. It’s been a while since Coach worked us so hard during practice but there are a couple of teams in the league that are catching up to us. We need to make sure we’re on our game so we secure a spot in the playoffs.
Feeling like a teenager constantly checking my phone is getting old. And kind of impossible right now since I’m in the car. Either way, I wish Serena would hurry and call me. There’s no way her flight hasn’t landed yet. Unless, of course, takeoff was late. Then she’s stuck for a while.
I’m a little over five minutes from my mom’s house when the bluetooth on my car says I have an incoming call. I don’t wait for it to say who it is. Clicking the button on the steering wheel, I answer, “Hello?”
“Hey, sorry I didn’t call sooner.” I breathe a sigh of relief as the sound of her voice. “The flight was late, then a passenger got sick, and we had to get it cleaned up.”
“That sounds like a pretty rough day.” I definitely don’t envy her job. There’s no way I’d be able to handle someone else’s vomit. I can barely handle my own. Hell, I usually go to my mom’s when I’m sick so she can take care of me.
“Yeah,” she breathes out. “Definitely not one of my favorite days. I just hope whatever made the passenger sick wasn’t contagious.”
“I hope not.” I’m getting closer and closer to my mom’s house. I do not want to take the conversation inside. My mom will be lurking in corners trying to overhear the conversation. “So…have you figured out when you’ll be flying back into Austin for a few days? I’m not trying to bug, but my mom is driving me insane.”
