Chapter 35
Chapter
Thirty-Five
West
By the time we get to Minnesota, I’m beyond exhausted.
The trip to Alaska is always a bear, but starting in Los Angeles is a lot different than starting in Atlanta.
Then it feels like one game, one flight, one practice after another.
Coach Teller makes us watch video daily when we’re on the road since, ostensibly, we don’t have any other obligations.
And I have to admit it helps.
We’re undefeated so far this trip.
But today we’re back in Minnesota. Thankfully, it’s the last time I’ll go up against DeMarco this season, but now that I know he’s Joey’s father, I’m even more apprehensive about seeing him.
Coach let us sleep in this morning, and we’re just getting to the arena at four-thirty. There will be a team meal, and then we all have different pre-game rituals, but we keep everything low-key on the road.
“Dude, the girls are having a blast!” Bodi says to me as we head to the dressing room.
“What?” I glance at him in confusion.
“They’re out buying a car! How did you talk her into letting you buy her one?”
I frown. “Bodi, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“They’re buying her an SUV right now. They’re at the dealership and Jayne is sending me pictures.
” He holds out his phone, and I stare at the pictures, flipping from one to the other.
Serena leaning against a shiny red Toyota Rav-4, a huge smile on her face.
Jayne and Serena standing on either side of the car giving thumbs up.
Serena dangling what I assume is a new key fob.
What the hell is happening? She never mentioned getting a new car.
Of course, we haven’t talked at all in the last four days.
We’ve texted good morning and good night but haven’t actually had a conversation.
She did send me a picture of a pair of her panties last night—pink and lacy—but that’s as close to conversation as we’ve come.
It feels like she’s been holding out on me.
“You didn’t give her the money?” Bodi asks, clearly confused.
He can’t be nearly as confused as I am, but I’m not going to air our dirty laundry until I’ve had a chance to talk to her.
“I have to hit the head,” I mumble, making a quick exit.
As soon as I get out into the hallway, I dial her number. To my frustration, it goes straight to voicemail. If she’s actually in the middle of buying a car, that makes sense, but…why wouldn’t she have said something? Even if it was just a quick text?
That weird, uncomfortable feeling starts winding its way through my gut—the same one I felt every time I saw Briar with her ex. Every time she cut a date short because she was tired. Every time she whispered that she was with me, even though her heart wasn’t in it.
Fuck, I’m so tired of feeling like this.
I lean against the wall, trying to calm my nerves when I hear a familiar but unwelcome voice.
“Look who’s back in Minneapolis.”
I glare at DeMarco.
“Don’t you have a whole other side of the arena to be on?” I ask.
“Had a meeting.” He shrugs. “But this is good. I wanted to talk to you.”
I don’t respond, merely stand there, waiting for whatever it is he wants to say. I’m sure it’s about Serena. Or Serena and Joey. Or some other thing I’m not going to like.
“Look, I know we’ve had our issues in the past,” he says, in the most unreasonably reasonable tone I’ve ever heard in my life. “But this is different. Joey’s my son. And Serena was mine first.”
I don’t react, merely waiting for whatever bombshell he’s going to drop.
“She told me you guys are still pretty new, so I’m asking you, man to man, to walk away. Let me have my girl and my kid. It’s the right thing to do.”
“The right thing for whom?” I ask quietly. “If you truly cared for Serena or your kid, you wouldn’t have threatened her and walked away four years ago.”
He waves an impatient hand. “I was dumb, okay? My frontal lobe still wasn’t fully formed—but I’m different now. I’ll be thirty in another year. It’s time to settle down, and since I already have the kid—why not Serena?” He winks. “She’s still pretty hot, even after having a baby.”
I clench my fists at my sides, determined to keep my cool. “What’s the end game here, DeMarco? It’s not up to me or you—it’s up to her.”
“I just wired her a bunch of money and it’s in her bank account. You do the math. She’s going to pick the guy that takes care of her. I mean, I get that it’s shiny and new but you let her live in that dump? It’s on a farm, for fuck’s sake. What kind of guy lets his woman live like that?”
I’m annoyed as fuck but I’ll be damned if I let him see how annoyed I am.
“Like I said, it’s her choice, not mine.”
DeMarco claps me on the shoulder. “Good man. I knew you’d be reasonable.”
“You planning to get traded to Atlanta?” I ask, even though I know he can’t.
He smiles broadly. “It’s an option. I know it’ll be easier for Serena.
At least in the beginning. Once we get married, then she’ll be more amenable to anywhere I need her to go.
Especially once I put another baby in her.
” He winks again, like we’re friends or something and what he’s saying is completely… reasonable.
There’s that word again.
Unreasonably reasonable.
It makes no sense but fits the situation to a T.
“Dude, I still don’t know what you want from me.”
“I told you—I want you to walk away so Serena and I can work things out. It’s important for the kid to have two parents, you know? I didn’t handle it great when she told me about it, but the six figures that just landed in her account are going a long way to forgiveness.”
Now it makes sense.
The new car.
Not telling me what’s going on.
I hate being insecure, but right now I don’t know which way is up.
“It’s up to my agent and Mr. Carrier to come up with an offer. Then I’ll be down there and I’ll be able to win her over.”
I get the feeling he’s already started.
And the worst thing is, she’s letting him.
“Do what you have to do,” I say finally. “But whatever’s going to happen has nothing to do with me.”
With that, I turn and stalk toward the dressing room.
Why didn’t Serena tell me what was going on?
A cold resignation settles over me as I change out of my street clothes.
That same feeling I had the first time I saw Briar and her ex together.
Because I knew she was going to choose him. They had too much shared history, too much love, too much everything.
It’s different with Serena and DeMarco but at the end of the day, it’s going to end the same way.
I don’t know how much money he tempted her with but she’s struggling.
Taking money from me feels wrong because we’re sleeping together and it hasn’t been long, but DeMarco owes her for almost four years.
He won’t be good to her, but he can give her and Joey a good life.
And Joey will have not just everything he needs but also his actual father. Not some closed-off guy with trust issues. I’ve been careful not to bond with the kid until the last week or so, so that may have played a part in her decision.
My phone buzzes and I see that Serena’s calling.
Well, I guess it’s now or never.
“Hi,” I answer in a guarded tone.
“Hi!” She sounds happy. “I saw you called.”
“Yeah.”
“Everything okay?”
“Were you going to tell me about the money?”
“The money?” She sounds confused.
“The money DeMarco gave you.”
“He didn’t give me any money.”
“Don’t lie to me, Serena. You owe me the truth, if nothing else.”
“I’m not lying.” Her voice is suddenly defensive. “I didn’t take a dime from him.”
“Then how did you afford the new car you and Jayne just bought?”
“God dammit, it was supposed to be a surprise,” she huffs. “But I guess the cat’s out of the bag. Yes, I bought a new car because—”
I don’t hear the rest of her sentence because there’s a shrill whistle and one of our assistant coaches, Derek Quinn, is trying to get us all together.
“Team meeting!” he yells. “All hands. Let’s go!”
What the fuck?
Team meetings are always announced via the team chat. I’ve never seen anything like this but I don’t have a choice.
“I’m sorry, Serena, I have to go. Coach just yelled for us to go into a meeting.”
“I heard.” She sounds almost as frustrated as I feel, but I don’t have time to talk right now.
“I’ll text you later.” With that, I disconnect and follow the direction everyone else is going.
I don’t know for sure what’s going on with Serena, but it seems like the writing’s on the wall and this time, I’m not going to sit around begging for the woman in my life to put me first. I can’t do it again.
I just wish it was anybody but DeMarco.
That’s the part that stings.
There’s a small part of me that wants to fight for her, but I don’t think I have it in me a second time. I can compete with DeMarco as a man but not as Joey’s father.
Because I’m not.
And I learned the hard way that blood really is thicker than water.