I shake my head, casting off the wave of emotion that is overwhelming me. I want to give into him so badly and believe him. But I can’t.
“And yet he is,” I tell him.
“Hendrix. Please don’t. Please don’t shut me out again. Please don’t. We can fix this somehow.” He brings his hands up to either side of my face, cupping it gently. “Please let me talk to Drew. Let me see whatIcan do for us. Drew wants the WNBA team. He wants a chance to start something fresh like I got to with you. I will fix this,” he promises me.
I want to shake my head again. Instead, I just tell him what I keeping going back to. “He’s going to force you to do this. Does he know?”
“I don’t think so. I was photographed with someone last night, but you can only see your hair. There’s not a shot of your shirt or anything. So, he has no way of knowing that it was you.”
“Drew,” I remind him.
“He wouldn’t tell him. He likes you. He’s my brother. Sure, that’s our dad, but I promise you, Hen, he has my back more.” August pauses for a moment and then runs both hands through this brown locks. “I’m not making the same mistakes that I made before. I will fix this for us. I promise you. Nothing has been signed, nothing is official yet. I’m still listed as the owner of the Blaze, and I am going to do everything in power to remain that way.”
There’s so much conviction in his voice that I want to believe him so badly. I shake my head, but he takes ahold so that I cannot move it and forces me to look into his eyes.
“I will fix this. Hendrix do not give up on me because I am not giving up on you. This little stunt of his is just that, a stunt. I will fight this and I will stay with you. I promise you that much. Don’t turn your back on me, Hen. Please don’t.”
I can see that my silence is not helping him. It’s causing him to unravel with worry. I hate that I just have no idea what to say.
“Hen... what’s going on in that mind of yours. I can see that it’s working a million miles a minute. Tell me what I can do.”
I shake my head. “I don’t know what you can do, August. I’m just trying to figure out how we’re here again.”
He sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. “Because my father will always be my father. I hate this. I hate that it is affecting you again. Fuck!” He screams into the silence.
I feel the words I haven’t said out loud yet coming to the surface. I don’t want them to be true. Finally, I whisper, “You’re going to leave me again.”
“I’m not. I promise you that I’m not leaving you. I can’t leave someone so perfect and wonderful that I have just finally gotten back.” He pulls me into his arms. “You are going to have to do something that you probably have never done before—trust me. Please just place your trust in me. This isn’t over yet. I will figure this out and find a way out of this.” He squeezes me tightly for good measure.
I nod slowly. “Yeah, that is something that I haven’t had to do before.” I say it jokingly, but I can tell that it lands wrong.
“Because you don’t want to or because you can’t?” he asks me. “Can you trust me? Are we settling into a completely different issue than my father being an asshole?”
I shake my head and stop him quickly before he rambles again. “August, I was trying to bring some levity to this moment, but fuck, did I fail.” I pull him in closely because now it’s my turn to comfort him. I need to remember that this is a distressing day for him as well. “We’re going to figure this out—together. For once we are going to do this together.”
He picks me up and spins me around. “Hendrix, we’re doing this together!”
I laugh out loud. “Yeah, we’re doing this together.”
“Look at us growing up and shit.”
I laugh and let him pull me into another long kiss. He deepens it and I fight the urge to stop him from pulling my shorts down and taking me here in the locker room again. Buthe’s August and I can’t ever say no to those lips, those eyes and that cock.
Chapter Twenty-Four
~AUGUST~
“Alright, Drew, we gotta talk to Dad about this whole team thing. I’m not switching. I’m not leaving the Blaze,” I tell him as we tee off.
“Is that why you wanted to play golf on such short notice?” Drew asks me.
“Can’t I just want to see my brother?”
Drew laughs. “You hate golf. You know that I love it, so this is your way of buttering me up for a job that you already know I want.”
I shake my head, “Not why I’m buttering you up. I know you want the job. I need you to help me with Dad. How do we get him to let you have the Lightning?”
Drew swings his club and sends his ball flying down the fairway. “I have no idea how we begin to do that. I was thinking that I have to talk to him one on one. Somehow being around you doesn’t exactly put him in a good mood.”
