“He’s not going to get physical. He’s happy way deep down. He just doesn’t realize it yet.” Leighton takes another sip of her wine.
I stare at Leighton a beat, and she smiles sweetly, but I’m not sure she’s right.
She shrugs. “Just trying to give you some encouragement.”
With a resigned sigh, I walk to the door, but Ruby almost runs into me, coming into the room with a tray of drinks. I wait at the door, and she places the tray on the table then looks at Callie.
“Take your pick… Sprite? Water? Tonic water? I have a non-alcoholic beer behind the bar.” She takes the drinks off the tray, placing each in front of where Callie stands.
“Oh, that’s sweet, Ruby,” Leighton says.
“It really is.” Callie looks at her best friend and smiles.
Are those tears in Callie’s eyes?
“It’s practical. Don’t think too much of it.” Ruby picks up her tray and walks away, stopping at the door and staring at me. “Don’t you have someone’s ass to kiss?”
“Going.”
I leave the room, then weave through the tables in the main part of the bar. The regulars at the bar are already grumbling about my pitching and saying maybe I need to “see someone.” Last week I was a diamond in the rough. Some nights I’m sparkling, and other nights I’m face down in the mud. Real inspirational crowd.
Hayes is outside the bar, and since a lot of fans are lingering around, I head to the security gate next to Peeper’s that leads to our condo entrances. “Mind?”
He follows, and we walk through the gate. The Dugout sign is still there, with more notes posted on it to grab our attention. We go halfway up the cement stairs and take a seat. Neither of us says anything for a moment.
Then, with my heart in my throat, I break the silence. “I’m sorry. I knew what I was doing. I knew she was your sister, and I did it anyway.”
Hayes says nothing.
“I can promise you that I’m gonna do what’s right.”
He glances over. “You’re going to marry her?”
Bile rises up my throat, but it’s not as bitter as it usually is when someone talks about marriage. And it should be—because I can’t be the partner Callie deserves.
The corners of Hayes’s lips turn down. “Thought so.”
“Would you even want that? Me marrying her just because she’s pregnant? That’s what you’d want for her in a marriage?”
He leans his back against the brick wall, stretching his legs out in front of him, facing me. “I’m not sure what I want for her, but…”
“It’s not me.” I save him from having to say what we’re both thinking.
He tilts his head. “What?”
I sigh.
“Foster?” He arches an eyebrow.
“You haven’t been very shy in telling everyone that Decker is the only Davis brother you’d ever want for her.”
He stares at me as though he has to think back, then bursts out laughing. “And why do you think that is?”
“I know why.”
“But she doesn’t want Decker—or at least she didn’t. I’m not going to sit here and give you some pep talk and boost your ego by telling you you’re good enough for my sister. She makes that decision. But fuck, Foster, I find out in a press conference?”
“I know.” I lean on the opposite wall so we’re facing one another. “I just didn’t want?—”
