I bolted down the hall and didn’t stop moving until I’d reached the exit, pushing through the door into the parking lot.
I dropped my keys twice before I got my car door open. The driver’s seat felt too small when I collapsed into it.
My father had thought it was funny that people were talking. The idea was so silly to him that it didn’t even register as a possibility.
The parking lot stretched out in front of me, mostly empty at this hour. City sounds filtering in from the street beyond. Everything looked completely normal.
But in less than three hours, I’d sit at my father’s dining room table, destroying the one thing he’d been certain would never happen.
I made it home and collapsed on my couch, still in my work clothes.
Seven o’clock. Dinner with my father.
The apartment was too quiet. I could hear my neighbor’s TV through the wall. Someone laughing. The hum of the refrigerator. All normal sounds while my life was about to implode.
I picked up my phone and stared at Tolrek’s last text.Everything alright?
No. Nothing was alright. My father thought I knew better. He thought I’d never put him in this position. He believed Tolrek was too good a guy to cross the line we’d crossed weeks ago.
My fingers hovered over the keyboard.
I should tell him that Bryant had already mentioned us to my dad. That my father had laughed because he found the idea of me compromising my position funny.
But if I told Tolrek, he’d want to come over. Or he’d insist on coming to dinner with me. And I needed to do this part alone. My father should hear it from me first, without Tolrek there as a target for his anger.
I set the phone face down on the couch cushion without responding.
Six fifteen. Forty-five minutes until I had to leave.
I should change my clothes. Fix my hair.
Instead, I sat on my couch, staring at the wall.
How was I going to tell my father I’d fallen in love with Tolrek?
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
TOLREK
Beau sat on my lap while I stared at my phone, studying footage from my last practice. I looked alright. No hesitation or guarding my left side.
My phone buzzed. Beau’s ears perked up. I expected Haley to confirm she’d made it to her father’s place safely.
Her text made my stomach drop.He knows. Someone told him. I don’t know what to do.
I called immediately, but it only rang twice before going to voicemail.
Frowning, I called again. It went straight to voicemail this time.
The third call went the same way.
My hand tightened around the phone hard enough that the case creaked. She never sent calls straight to voicemail. Something was wrong.
I grabbed my keys before I’d fully decided to move, Beau’s whine barely registering as I headed for the door.
After crossing the road to her building, I took the stairs two at a time because waiting for the elevator wasn’t an option.
She’d given me a key three days ago. We’d been cooking dinner at her place when she’d set it on the counter between us.
