I nod to Hunter and he winks softly, signaling he’ll handle things here while we’re gone. Of everyone in this house, I trust him the most. In less than a month, he’s become dependable.
And he’s leaving.
I stuff the sick feeling eating up my stomach back down and turn my attention to my sister as I drag her out the door with me to the Jeep. We both hop in, and after she buckles her safety belt,she tosses her phone in my lap. It’s a text string with a number I don’t recognize, and there’s a set of digital photos at the end.
“What is this?” I glance at her with a squirrely expression.
“Just open them,” she says, her voice suddenly monotone.
I look back at her phone screen cradled in my palm and open the first photo, zooming in to be sure that my eyes aren’t lying to me. Unfortunately, they aren’t. Her husband, Brandon, is in a full-on lip lock with a woman who is very clearlynotmy sister.
“Oh, Linds,” I sigh out.
“Yeah, I’ve had a feeling for a while,” she says, stretching her hand toward me and flipping through the photos on her screen. They’re all with the same woman, but the clothes change, which means the days change. The one thing that doesn’t is my sister’s husband is having an affair.
“Hey, on the bright side, if you leave his ass and move back home, the two of us can bunk in our old room again, just like when we were kids.” I slap her phone back into her open palm, and she puffs out a hard laugh.
“What’s sad is, that really is the bright side. For both of us.” She squeezes my hand in silent acknowledgement of my own aching heart.
Lindsey knows it was hard to open myself up to feeling for someone. She also knows when Hunter takes off for Texas, I’ll lock down my heart so it never feels again.
Chapter 23
Hunter
This is supposed to be the moment of my life—the culmination of years of grinding on the ball field and pushing my arm to the max on the mound—and all I need to do is get on this plane. Yet here I am at gate six in the OKC airport, my lucky glove in the bag on my shoulder and a start in Texas waiting for me in the morning, and I can’t seem to get myself to board the damn plane.
“Why don’t you come with me?” I’ve asked Renleigh no less than a dozen times to make this trip with me. I have the means to make it happen. I can buy the first-class ticket for her. I have a seat for her in at the stadium in Texas. My parents are going to be there, too; she won’t be alone. Hell, I’ll get Lindsey here, too. And her boys. It sounds like she needs an escape from Sweetwater as much as Renleigh does.
“I need to be here, for my dad,” she says, the same answer as the last ten times.
I nod, my fingers tangling with hers until she slips her hand away. My group boards next. I have onlyminuteswith her until I either come back or get her to come visit me.
“Your mom seemed willing to?—”
“She can’t take care of him,” she cuts me off. “Or I can’t rest easy for thinking she won’t. Too much history.”
Her lips quiver. She’s quitting on us. She warned me about this. Not directly, but she was clear about her feelings when it comes to long distance relationships. But it doesn’thaveto be long distance. Not if she comes with me. She can have her own life. Go back to school. I don’t need her in my apartment as badly as I want her there. I just need her fewer than five hundred miles.
“What if your mom proves you wrong? I don’t mean that to sound so challenging, but what if? She might?” I lift a shoulder, but her sour expression makes me drop it again.
“You have to board soon. I promise I’ll watch the game. And I’ll wait up so you can call me as soon as you get back in. I’ll be rooting for you.” She throws her body into mine, wrapping her arms around me but burying her face. And as she pulls back, she turns to walk away.
“Wait a second, Renleigh. You aren’t leaving like that,” I say, reaching for her arm, my fingers brushing along the back of her elbow. She stops after a few steps and buries her face in her hands, so I step in behind her and wrap her in my arms again, slowly turning her until she’s looking up at me.
“This doesn’t have to be a sad thing,” I say, cradling her face. My thumbs sweep her tears away.
“I don’t see how it can be happy, Hunter. It’s fine, though. We knew what this was. It was fun. I enjoyed being the Oklahoma side piece.”
I laugh at her dramatic words, but that only makes her eyes drop with more pain.
“No, Renleigh. Please don’t cry. You’re not a side piece. You’re the only piece. I mean my only piece. I mean . . . you aren’t a piece.Fuck, this isn’t coming out right.” I pinch the bridge of my nose, and she shakes with a single, sad sob.
“It’s okay, is all. If you can’t come back, or we don’t talk every night. You’re going to be busy, and I’ve got to figure out my life and what I’m going to do with my dad. I should be open to trusting my mom, but I simply can’t. Not yet. She’s let me down too many times.”
“I won’t let you down, though,” I say, breaking through her words and sweeping the tears from her cheeks again.
She blinks her eyes dry as they call my boarding group, her gaze shifting to the small line at the gate behind me. I shift my body to block the view, keeping her focus on me.
