Chapter 50
Chapter Fifty
Hayes
“This is why I don’t do relationships,” Foster says from the seat next to me on the plane.
We’re headed out of town for two weeks. This stretch is the most brutal part of our schedule.
I’d been dreading it since I got together with Leighton, and I thought she had too.
She worked out a schedule with her mom since the kids are off for summer, and now that Callie is back, I figured she’d be covered.
Guess that’s not something I need to worry about anymore though.
“Seriously, man, just call her.” Easton, who I thought would understand, thinks it can all be fixed with a simple conversation.
“She doesn’t want to hear from me. She wants a break.”
Decker isn’t saying much. After news about the fight leaked, he and Foster got called into the office for a meeting.
Neither has divulged what was said, but both of them have been a little more patient with the other since then.
They don’t talk to each other—actually, they blatantly ignore when the other one talks—but it’s better than what was happening before.
“Doesn’t she understand that your phone went in the storm drain?” Foster asks. “Chicks are ridiculous. Just take your sister. She poked me in the fucking chest and blamed me.”
Easton points at him. “I saw her first.”
Foster rolls his eyes. “This isn’t grade school where you can call dibs. She’ll make her choice. Figure out who will get the job done in bed.”
“Assholes, that’s my little sister you’re talking about.”
It’s Callie’s business who she sleeps with, but none of these assholes are gonna be on her roster.
Callie’s been blowing up my phone. Every day she’s texting me some kind of advice. Telling me to give Leighton time. Be patient. But it’s all-consuming. How does someone who wasn’t even in your life months ago become all you can think about, all you want?
I’ve picked up my phone to text or call Leighton but stop myself each time.
“She’s got a great ass,” Easton says, and Foster hums his agreement.
I grind my teeth together.
“Kinda got me hot when she came at me. Like I was a very bad boy, and she was gonna punish me.” Foster’s shit-eating grin pisses me off even more. “You never told me how hot your sister is, Haymaker.”
Easton laughs. “Shit, I had to soothe Decker’s ego, and you got to see a hot-tempered Callie.”
“Again, assholes, that’s my baby sister.”
“Oh, now it’s baby sister.” Easton laughs.
The two of them continue to talk shit about my sister.
Callie hates it when her friends crush on me, and I hate it in reverse. Not that I would have a problem if the friend was someone like Decker. My gaze shoots to where he’s quietly reading a book. He’s the kind of guy I’d like Callie to find. Someone to calm her extroverted personality.
“None of you can give me any more advice?” The fact that I’m asking them shows how desperate I am. Both to fix this with Leighton and to move the conversation away from my sister.
“The longest relationship I’ve ever been in was a friends-with-benefits in college, and when she got attached, I bailed.” Foster shrugs and glances at Decker. “Truth is, I thought we were the same person, Hayes. I’m shocked you’re pining so hard.”
Decker glances at his brother, blows out his breath as though he wants to say something, but then goes back to reading.
“Oh, our boy was smitten,” Easton chimes in. “He was never home.”
“I noticed.” Foster shrugs. “That’s all right. Maybe we’ll make your place into a pussy palace now that you’re single. What do you think, Hayes?” He elbows me.
I squeeze my eyes shut, hoping God will grant me the patience to deal with these idiots.
“He wouldn’t even go eat with us. Bailed on the last two prize dinners we won off the DICs.” Easton shakes his head at my apparent blasphemy. “She must have one magic fucking pussy.”
I slam my head into the seat rest. She does.
And she tastes so sweet. The more sex we had, the more I saw a new side of her come out.
She was never shy about taking what she wanted from me.
And I can’t even think about her blow jobs.
How she somehow knew exactly how I like it.
God, I’ll never get sucked off like that again.
“Regular pussy?” Foster scowls. “Not sure I see the appeal.”
“You don’t ever want to settle down?” Easton asks him.
“Hell no. Why? So some woman can lead me around by the dick and tell me what I can and cannot do?”
“You’re missing out,” I say, knowing I’d give anything to be able to walk into that house and have it be how it was with Leighton and the kids. Another chaotic dinner where we’re laughing, arguing, or just hearing Monroe talk about her monkey bar record at the park.
Foster gives me the once-over. “Oh right, look at your sorry ass. No thanks. I’m not missing out on shit.”
“Eventually she’s going to forgive you,” Easton says.
I want desperately to believe that, but I also witnessed everything Leighton went through when we were younger.
And what I didn’t see for myself, Callie and my mom talked about.
I thought I was enough to help her overcome all that.
Turns out that just like my baseball career, I’m just one step away from being good enough.
Just the one to catch the ball for the first-round drafted pitcher.
Just a throw-in for another guy’s trade.
Just the guy to have fun with but not steady enough to have as a serious boyfriend.
I felt on top of the world with Leighton. The way I saw myself looking through her eyes, man, talk about an ego check. But in the end, I didn’t have “it” once again.
I look out the window and watch the clouds drift by underneath us, unsure where I go from here.