Maxwell just shakes his head at both of us. “You’re ruining everything.”
I shake my head. “No, I’m fixing it. And I’m giving Drew the chance that he has more than earned.”
I move towards the door, Drew rising and coming with me.
Behind us, I hear Dad’s voice crack, “August—” But no words follow.
I pause and place my hand on the door, but I don’t turn around.
“You don’t get to run my life anymore,” I tell him. “And you don’t get to hurt the people I care about to get what you want.” I wait a beat to make sure that he’s really listening to me. “You can either accept that or lose both of your sons.”
Dad doesn’t answer. I don’t think I’ve ever rendered him speechless before.
I open the door and Drew follows alongside of me.
“That was fun,” Drew says from behind me. “I think we actually did it. Kept you with the Blaze and I get to start working on my own team. I’m really excited.”
I turn and clap him on the back. “You have more than earned it.”
For the first time in my life, I feel like I’m walking towards a future that is actually mine.
Before I leave the office later that night, I shoot Hendrix a text.
August: Meet me at the Backwoods. I want to see you.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
~HENDRIX~
Ireceived his text and managed to make it to the bar without any of the girls seeing me. I have a feeling that August wants to talk to me about the rest of his day. Sure, Ash tagged along but he is hanging out at the bar in order to give us some space.
The bar is dim and warm, the kind of place where not just the players of the Blaze drift in after long days, but where businesspeople who work in the area come to as well. The music is always kept low, you can hear the clinking of glasses on busy nights like tonight, along with the soft hum of conversations. I sit in the corner booth in the back, where we all rarely sit, instead of the high-top table that sits in the middle of the room. With the way the team was looking at me today, I’d rather August and I not be on display. I stare at the condensation that is running down my glass of beer.
I’m not anxious.
Not exactly.
Just waiting on him to get here. I haven’t seen him since before the press conference and I have no idea if he’s still my team owner.
I hear the door open, the bells that hang on it jangling at someone enters. I know that it’s him. I don’t have to look up toknow it. I feel it. The shift in the way my shoulders immediately loosen when he’s near.
August slides into the booth beside me, instead of across from me. Close enough so that our knees are touching.
He doesn’t speak right away.
I don’t either.
Finally, he exhales, slow and steady like he’s been holding his breath for years.
“It’s done,” he finally says.
My fingers tighten around the beer glass. “What did he say?”
August huffs out a laugh, tired but real. “Everything that you would have expected him to say. That I’m wasting my potential. That the Blaze is too small. That the new team needs me. That I’d be throwing my future away if I don’t leave. If I stay with you.”
My jaw clenches. “And you said?”
“That he doesn’t get to decide my life anymore.” August’s voice is firm. “That I’m staying. That Drew is strong enough to handle this team. And that he deserves the shot.”
