Chapter 47
FORTY-SEVEN
reeve
The next morning I’m up before dawn for my flight to New York.
The Heisman ceremony isn’t until tomorrow night, but as a finalist, I’m expected at some media events this evening, and as the sharpest-dressed player on the scene, I need time to lay out my suit so there’s not a wrinkle in it.
I also need to chill out alone in my hotel room for a couple of hours before I’m ready to face whatever’s going to happen this weekend.
Cash, Lorenzo, Cam, and Lenni are all coming in on a later flight. Minnie came in on my flight, so we grab lunch together at the French restaurant inside her posh hotel.
“You’re certain you won’t let me get you a room here?” she asks between bites of her salade Nicoise. “I asked the concierge at check-in, and she assured me there are several left.”
“Thanks, but you know me: I’m a man of the people. I can’t be caught here like some uppity celebrity. Besides, that room was paid for, and I’m not trying to look like an ingrate.”
After lunch, she hugs me and gets a little teary telling me how this is the kind of moment mothers don’t have words for and that I’ll just have to trust that she’s beyond proud of me, no matter what happens tomorrow.
I’m not religious, but walking back to my hotel, I send a word of thanks up to the sky for landing me on Minnie Forrester’s doorstep.
Then I take out my phone and pull up my mother’s number—the last one I had for her, anyway.
My fingers are itching to text something to her, but what?
Tell her I’m a Heisman finalist? She always says she follows my football career, so she should know already.
Tell her she could have been here if she’d just bothered to ask?
No. That would hurt her, and in spite of everything she’s done, I’ve never wanted to hurt my mother.
I slip my phone back inside my pocket. There’s nothing I want to say to her, and I’m not going to spend my weekend waiting to hear all the things I wish she’d say to me. There’s only one wish I need to come true in New York.
I swallow down my bitterness. I’m the luckiest dude in the world. I came from nothing, and here I am getting ready for the biggest ceremony in college sports with Minnie, Cam, and all my friends behind me.
My heart pangs thinking about Jade. It feels wrong that she’s not here too.
If she were, I wouldn’t care about the Heisman.
I wouldn’t need anything but her. And Monday, as soon as I’m back in town, I’m telling her so.
The possible outcomes of that conversation make my guts churn even harder than thinking about the ceremony tomorrow.
Back in my room, I hang up my suit and steam the wrinkles out of it like Minnie showed me in high school; then I take a nap. Cam and Lenni are staying in my hotel, so I head downstairs when they get in to say hi and thank them for coming.
Since the breakup, Lenni’s worked hard to act like nothing has changed between us, and I’m grateful; we’ve had enough awkwardness.
Cam offers to hang out and grab a beer, but I tell him to enjoy the hotel room with Lenni, and I take a walk around the city instead.
It’s been a long time since I walked around a spot this busy without being recognized.
It’s disappointing at first, and then not so bad; relaxing, actually.
The city streets glow with strings of golden Christmas lights, and every store window is like a miniature work of art with reds and greens, glittery fabrics, and silky ribbons and bows.
It’s exactly the way I’ve been imagining it, except that for the last couple of months, I’d let myself imagine Jade here at my side.
I wanted to take her shopping for something special, something she’d never buy for herself, and max out my only credit card, knowing in a matter of months, I’ll—hopefully—never be in debt again.
Would she be here with me right now, wrapped in a puffy coat with her gloved hand in mine, if I’d gone to her the minute I knew I couldn’t let her go without a fight?
Ever since that conversation with Minnie, the words I want to say to Jade have lived on the tip of my tongue, desperate to get out.
I told myself to wait until the Heisman ceremony was behind me so I could talk to Jade without distraction, but the truth is, I wasn’t just distracted.
I was scared. As long as I haven’t told her how much I still want to be with her, I can hold on to hope she feels the same way.
But here in the city without her, my regret at putting it off is crushing.
When I get back to my hotel, I run into Lenni in the lobby.
“Hey. Where are you off to?” I ask, taking in the backpack hoisted on her shoulder and her flushed cheeks.
“Oh. Um, just doing some shopping.” She pastes a perky smile onto her face.
“By yourself? You know where you’re going?”
“Yup,” she insists. “I’ll see you later for dinner.” She starts for the door, but I catch her.
“Hold on, Lenni. What are you being so weird about?”
“I’m not,” she says, her voice a full octave higher than usual.
“Does Cam know where you’re going?”
“Yes, nosy, now let me go. I want to be back on time.”
“All right, see you later. Be careful.”
I watch her cross the lobby and push through the revolving glass door before glancing back at me. Something’s definitely up. What’s she all nervous about? Either she’s cheating on my best friend or . . . suddenly it hits me. She’s seeing Jade.
I take off running. The street is crowded with people hopping in and out of cars and taxis, toting luggage, swiping at their phones. Did Lenni already get in a taxi? Then I see her half a block up.
“Lenni!” I call out and run toward her. She turns around, guilt written all over her face. She’s caught. “Jade’s here this weekend, isn’t she? For that interview?”
She presses her lips together, which is all the answer I need.
“I can’t believe this. Same weekend? That’s wild. That’s almost like . . . fate, don’t you think?”
She shrugs. “Not really.”
“I want to come with you.”
“No. No way, Reeve. Her interview is in less than an hour, and this is too big of a deal for her. I’m not going to be responsible for that.”
“I need to talk to her. She’s here, I’m here, that has to mean something. I know it does.”
“That’s ridiculous. You live five minutes from her back home.”
“Please, Lenni. Tell me where she is.”
“She’ll kill me if you screw this up for her.”
“I’m not going to screw anything up. I just need to see her. Please. I need to see her while I have the fucking balls to tell her what I need her to hear.”
Lenni stamps her foot. “Come on, please don’t put me in the middle of this. You can’t wait until we’re back home? Or call her tonight?”
I sink to my knees and take her hand between mine. “Please, Lenni. Give me the address. I’m begging you.”
People walking by turn and stare while Lenni’s cheeks take on a neon shade of red and she hides her face behind one hand. “Oh my god. Get the hell up,” she hisses. She smacks my shoulder with her purse and resumes covering her face.
“Tell me you’ll help me. Please, Lenni. I love her.”
Lenni lowers her hand, her eyes gone soft as she looks at me. She sighs. “Fine, I’ll help you. Please just get up.”
I stand and brush off my jeans as Lenni turns her back to the people watching us and taps furiously at her phone. “There now,” I say when I receive her text with an address on it. “That wasn’t so hard, was it?”
“I don’t know how she puts up with you.”
“She doesn’t, remember?”
She grabs my arm and leans close. “You need to promise me one thing.”
“Don’t worry, I won’t tell her I got the address from you.”
“No, you need to promise me you won’t go fucking up her life.”
“I’m just going to talk to her.”
“Then wait until the interview is over.”
I pause. “You actually think Spain is a good idea?”
“No, but it’s what she wants, so I don’t mess with it. Let her figure out it’s a total mistake.”
“That’s some faith you’ve got in your best friend’s dreams,” I say sarcastically.
“With the faith she has, she doesn’t need mine. Now please, go back inside and take a few breaths. And if you decide you still have to make some big dramatic dash downtown to talk to someone you could reach by phone anytime, anywhere, then give it an hour or two. Promise?”
“Thanks. You’re the best.”
“Reeve? Promise?” she asks as I turn away.
I hold up my hands. “I’m going back inside, see? Nothing to worry about.”
She starts to say something, but a car honks next to her, and I take advantage of her distraction and hustle back to the hotel.
I skip the elevator and dash up the stairs to Cam’s floor, where I pound on his door.
He opens up, half dressed and looking alarmed, then relaxes as he sees the grin on my face.
“Lenni told you, didn’t she?”
“I’m gonna go talk to her, so listen, Cam, I need you to cover for me if I get back late. The press thing is at four, so I should have time, but I don’t know.”
“Pretty sure the reporters are gonna know I’m not Reeve Dalton.”
“Yeah, dude, you don’t have to impersonate me, just figure something out. I’ll call you when I’m on my way back.” I dig into my back pocket for my hotel room card. “Here, take my key. You might have to bring me my suit.”
Cam pockets the key but shakes his head. “Come on, don’t risk this. You have to be there. Just wait until tonight to talk to her.”
“You know I can’t do that.” I squeeze his arm and turn for the stairs. “Thanks, man,” I say over my shoulder. “I owe you big. My firstborn son? All yours.”
“Hold up, how am I supposed to cover for you if you’re late?”
“Don’t know, man, sorry. But you’re a genius, you’ll come up with something.”
I take a taxi downtown, which takes forever in Friday-afternoon traffic, then waste time trying to explain to the receptionist at the hotel where the interviews are hosted what room I’m looking for, because I don’t even know what this event is called or who’s hosting it.