Me: Dinner?
Colby: What did you make? Is there enough for Haley?
Me: Of course.
“How is Kylie?” I asked.
“She’s okay. Still not telling Luc. She also hasn’t told Kelsey and Sam that Luc is the father. She doesn’t want to put Sam in a difficult situation.”
“Why do I feel like this bomb will go off at the worst possible time?”
“You’re probably right. But I’ll do what I can to keep my family’s business from affecting the team.”
“Do you honestly believe that Luc would abandon his kid? It doesn’t seem like something he’d do.”
“I don’t. But Kylie does, and that’s what’s important.” Luckily, Colby and Haley arrived and provided a distraction. I had already voiced my opinion and thought someone needed to tell Luc, and I think while Kendra agreed, she would support her sister no matter what she decided. There was too much history between her and her sisters.
“If he abandoned her,thenI would fire him.” At that, Kendra softened, and anything we planned to say was interrupted by Colby’s loud arrival.
Hours later, we fell into bed, a little wine drunk after several hours of playing Cards Against Humanity and laughing hysterically all night.
THIRTY-SEVEN
kendra
It was still darkwhen I started my run. The plan was for fourteen miles today. While I never worried about safety, I could see Jonathan’s concern when I set out.
If he could pay for a car to follow me, I think he would. Newsflash, he could, in fact, pay for the car to follow me, but he seemed to understand that it would piss me off. Instead, we met in the middle, and I shared my location with him.
“No earbuds, right?”
“Just one, I’m listening to a book today.”
He had flipped the fuck out when he found out that I was running around the city with noise-cancellation headphones. Since then, he’d continued to remind me it wasn’t safe. If there was one thing I hated about training, it was that I had to constantly worry about where I ran, when I ran, and even if I had run the same path too predictably.
“When should I start to worry about you?”
“Umm, never?”
I smiled when I remembered his annoyance at how I responded to him. Yes, it drove me nuts, but it had been along time since anyone had worried about me. My parents always joked that I was born a thirty-year-old woman, and they never had to worry about me. It meant that I always had the independence I craved, but it might take days for someone to notice I was missing.
Jonathan would find me.
It took more than a mile to warm up, which is not where I wanted to be on my long run. I couldn’t get my breathing pattern right, and my head wasn’t in it. Fuck, it was going to be a long morning, and I blamed the wine from last night. But no, I’d run hungover before and had some of my best runs.
When I was about thirty seconds from giving up, I heard footsteps approach from my left.
“Well, well, well.” Ice ran down my spine as the voice from my nightmares became part of my current reality.
I stumbled and quickly recovered my step. “Tucker.” I bit out, harnessing every bit of strength I could to appear unbothered. He always thrived on my fear.
“You’ve moved up in the world. Billionaire team owners now, not just the star prospect on the college team. Nice work.”
“Stop.” His steps matched mine, and my eyes darted left and right, looking for someone on the street or for a place to escape. The sun had only just broken on the horizon, and the city streets were silent. My heart pumped, but I knew I couldn’t outrun him. I also knew how much he loved to chase—and win.
“Oh, you always loved to pretend. God, you were fun.Stop, Tucker, stop.”His voice mocked and mimicked my crieswhen I was begging him to stop.“Man, it makes me wish I hadn’t written you off years ago.”
My breath shook, but I forced the words out that I had spent years holding in. “You mean when yourapedme?”
