Chapter 23
Twenty-Three
Bentley
“Why are you rushing to the locker room?” Jordan calls from behind me.
“It’s not going anywhere. It’s in the same spot it always is.
” He’s quiet as I hurry along the hallway.
“Unless, it has to do with Serena…” He lets the sentence trail off.
He knows damn well why I always rush to the locker room after practices and games.
“I want to see if she has a date that she’s flying here for a couple of days.
My mom has been driving me crazy trying to pin something down.
” She texts or calls me every single day lately.
It’s not exactly unusual for her, except her calls never start with when do I get to meet Serena?
And now…they do. She even has Gabby on my case.
Like I can somehow magically clear Serena’s schedule for her.
It’s even trickier since we both have such insane work lives.
And not to mention she lives in a different damn state.
It’d be a hell of a lot easier if she did have a stationary job, that’s for sure.
“You’ll get it figured out, man.” He pats my shoulder. When the hell did he catch up to me. I know he has long legs, but shit. That was quick. “I’m guessing things are going well with the two of you?”
“Yeah, it’s going pretty good.” Better than that actually. Even with the rushed phone calls between flights or after games, we manage to make time for each other. “Though I’m getting nervous.”
“Why?” Ross joins the conversation. “Every time I see you two, you look pretty confident about each other.”
“I don’t know,” I shrug as we enter the locker room. “I think this might be the real thing. I’ve never felt this way about anyone. I damn sure never took anyone home to meet my mom and sister.”
“Your mom didn’t really give you a choice since that reporter tried getting information out of you.” He heads to his locker and pulls out his gym bag. “Have you heard from her again? I mean, since you shut her down at the court that day?”
“Nope,” I shake my head and pull my phone out of my bag. “My agent hasn’t said anything and she hasn’t tried hitting me up on any of my social media. Hopefully, I won’t have to deal with her again.” Damn. No messages show up on my screen. She must not be off her flight yet.
“I hope so,” Jordan says. “She’s bad news all over. If she does come at you again. You need to call your agent or one of the managers because she will wreck your shit if she can.”
“Please don’t jinx me.” I pick up my gym bag and throw the strap over my shoulder.
I’ll have to shower when I get home. It won’t be weird for me to have the phone right outside of my shower there.
I also don’t want to get shit from the guys for doing that.
“Anyway, I’ll see y’all at practice tomorrow.
I have to go get ready for dinner at my mom’s. ”
“See you tomorrow,” Jordan and Ross say at the same time as I walk out of the locker room.
“See ya,” I call back. I hope she calls me before I have to go to my mom’s.
I mean, I don’t technically have to go, but she likes to make sure I’m fed regularly because she doesn’t trust me to take care of myself.
I don’t know how she thinks I made it through college.
I didn’t go home nearly as much as I do now, and I went to school in the next few towns over.
I open the door to my car and throw my bag inside. Damn I need a shower. It’s been a while since Coach worked us so hard during practice but there are a couple of teams in the league that are catching up to us. We need to make sure we’re on our game so we secure a spot in the playoffs.
Feeling like a teenager constantly checking my phone is getting old. And kind of impossible right now since I’m in the car. Either way, I wish Serena would hurry and call me. There’s no way her flight hasn’t landed yet. Unless, of course, takeoff was late. Then she’s stuck for a while.
I’m a little over five minutes from my mom’s house when the bluetooth on my car says I have an incoming call. I don’t wait for it to say who it is. Clicking the button on the steering wheel, I answer, “Hello?”
“Hey, sorry I didn’t call sooner.” I breathe a sigh of relief as the sound of her voice. “The flight was late, then a passenger got sick, and we had to get it cleaned up.”
“That sounds like a pretty rough day.” I definitely don’t envy her job. There’s no way I’d be able to handle someone else’s vomit. I can barely handle my own. Hell, I usually go to my mom’s when I’m sick so she can take care of me.
“Yeah,” she breathes out. “Definitely not one of my favorite days. I just hope whatever made the passenger sick wasn’t contagious.”
“I hope not.” I’m getting closer and closer to my mom’s house.
I do not want to take the conversation inside.
My mom will be lurking in corners trying to overhear the conversation.
“So…have you figured out when you’ll be flying back into Austin for a few days?
I’m not trying to bug, but my mom is driving me insane. ”
Her laughter comes through the speakers loud and clear. “It looks like two weeks. Though, I’m not sure I’m ready to meet your mom. What if she doesn’t like me?”
I pull into Mom’s driveway and sit there.
I’m not getting out of this car until I’m finished talking to Serena.
I see the curtains in the living room shift.
It’s not like they didn’t know I was coming.
This is the day I come over every week because it’s the only day I know for sure I’ll be in town while we’re in season. “She’ll like you.”
“How do you know?” I hear a car door close and Hazel tell someone the address to drop them off at. “Most moms, at least those in the movies, aren’t crazy about their baby boys being taken from them by another woman.”
I can’t help the laugh that bursts out of my lips. “Are you kidding me right now? That’s the wildest shit I’ve heard all day.”
“I don’t know how this works. I haven’t met anyone’s parents in a really long time.”
Now the front door is cracking open. Gabby pokes her head through the tiny crack and then a hand motioning me to hurry up.
I hold a finger up in response and she flips me off.
Geez, love you too. “My mom has been asking me when I’m going to settle down for ages.
You don’t have anything to worry about with her.
” I pause for a second. “There is one thing, though.”
“What’s that?” There’s a hint of fear in her voice, and I find it a little funny she’s freaking out.
“She’s incredibly nosey. She’ll want your full life story and will feel no shame in prying it out of you.”
A giggle comes through the speakers. “That I can handle. You do realize who my best friend is, right?”
“She didn’t seem to question me too much when she was intent on setting us up.” All she saw from me was a desire to go on at least one date with Serena.
“Hazel is pretty good at trusting her gut. And if her gut said you are good people, then she goes with it.”
My sister opens the door all the way and starts down the sidewalk. Can’t she just chill? It’s not like the food is going anywhere. And Mom keeps everything warm when she’s waiting on me. “I think I need to go.”
“Was it something I said?”
I shake my head even though she can’t see me. “No. I’m at my mom’s for weekly dinner and my sister is marching to my car to tell me to hurry up.”
“Why didn’t you say something?”
“Because I haven’t talked to you all day, and they see me all the time. It wasn’t killing them to wait.” She’s silent for a few seconds, but I push on. “I’ll call you when I get home, though. Hopefully you’ll still be awake.”
“Yeah, I should be. The flight schedule I have tomorrow starts later in the day.”
“Okay. I’ll call you as soon as I get home. Maybe we can have little fun over the phone…”
“Men,” she says, exasperated. I’m almost certain she’s shaking her head at the same time.
“Bye, Serena.”
She says her goodbye and I kill the engine, also ending the call. I barely have the door open and Gabby is standing right in front of the car. “It took you long enough.”
“Chill, sis,” I scold. “I haven’t talked to Serena all day.”
“I’m sure you’ve talked to plenty of other girls, though.” She says it like it’s a fact. She doesn’t know shit. I’ve barely talked to her about anyone for a long time because this is the kind of judgement, I get from her.
“You don’t know shit, Gabby.” I close my door and stomp past her. I do not need this crap from her.
I walk through the still open door and don’t bother seeing if she’s following.
Mom is in the kitchen, and the smell of dinner is divine.
If Gabby doesn’t change her attitude, though, I’ll walk back through the door and leave.
Delicious dinner be damned. I’m not going to have her being an ass over something she has no clue about.
My mom must have heard me because she whips around from the stove. “You’re here. You really need to come visit me more.” She acts like I’m not over here once a week. “Where’s your sister?”
I shrug. “I’m sure she’ll be in soon. She told me I needed to hurry up.” I peer over Mom and see the burners on the stove still going. “You aren’t even done with dinner.”
“You and your sister need to stop fighting, mi corazon. There will be a day when you are all you have.” I hate when she talks like this. It’s something she tells us every time we get into a disagreement. But we’re siblings. That’s what we do…we bicker and then make up.
“I know, Mom.” She turns away from me and stirs the meat in the skillet. Carne Asada is one of my favorite meals, and I love when she makes it. It always gives me the peace of being home. “Do you need any help?”