Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
Decker
I’m just out of the shower when my phone vibrates on the bathroom counter.
Penelope: Hey, it’s Penelope. For the first DSC, I’ve been able to secure a park, so it will be Dining in the Park.
I’m in the middle of organizing food trucks, and I’ll get a clown or something to keep the kids busy.
If you can just make sure all the players RSVP with the number of guests they’re bringing, that would be great. I’ll attach the sheet here.
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry that she bothered to tell me it was her texting me. As though I wouldn’t have saved her new number the second she was put in a group message last year. I’ve opened a blank text to her four times since then. Just never pressed Send on my message.
Do you mind if I call you?
The three dots appear, disappear, appear, and keep going.
Fuck it.
I call her.
It rings three times, and I spend all three of those seconds telling myself to hang up. By the fourth ring, my body feels jittery, and I’m trying to convince myself that I’m Decker fucking Davis and shouldn’t be afraid to talk to a woman.
“Hello?” She sounds like she was in the middle of something, which is confusing since she was just texting me.
“It’s Decker.”
She chuckles, which I hope is a good sign. “I know.”
“Well, it took you a while to answer.”
Only silence greets me for a beat. “Give a girl time to prepare herself.”
Is that a good sign? Like she had to prepare to talk to me. Maybe it’s actually a bad sign because the last thing she wants to do is talk to me on the phone versus text.
Fuck, calm down, mind.
“It’s not like I showed up on your doorstep.” I wish I were close enough to do that.
“At least you can’t surprise me like that. How is St. Louis?”
“You know our schedule?”
“My dad and Hazel have this thing… anyway.”
Of course, her dad. Why would I think she’d follow our schedule for any other reason? Three years and I’m still out here finding ways to make things mean something they don’t.
“What thing?” I ask.
“Nothing… anyway, what’s up?”
I can’t blame her for wanting to keep this conversation professional. “Sorry, I’m just getting ready to head out. I just got out of the shower when I saw your text, and I don’t have much time, that’s why I called instead of replying via text.”
“Oh… kay.”
And the awkwardness between us just keeps hanging in the air, like a helium balloon that won’t quite deflate.
“So, the date is—”
“On the attached list. It has the location and a link for them to RSVP.”
“Do you want me to do anything else? I could call some food trucks or something.”
“No, Decker.” She laughs. “This is my job, remember?”
I pack up my toiletries and head into the main part of my hotel room, dropping them in my suitcase. Then I pull out my clothes, resting the phone on the edge of the dresser.
“I’m not sure you exactly signed up for it, did you, slugger?”
She doesn’t say anything, and I realize I probably shouldn’t have said that. Slugger is her dad’s name for her, which means it’s a name from the version of us that existed before everything got complicated. I just reached back twenty years without thinking about it.
I’m not sure how to be around her without falling back into exactly who we always were with each other.
“No, I didn’t, but you know I’ve always been a daddy’s girl.”
I huff. I wouldn’t classify Penelope as a daddy’s girl. She just never feels like she can tell him no. Those are two different things.
“Thanks for doing all this for the team.”
Lame. So fucking lame. Come on, Decker, you can do better than this.
“And me,” I add, and she grows quiet once again.
“Decker?”
I sit on the bed, not thinking about having to pack my suitcase and get to breakfast before we play our last game here.
“Yeah?”
“I’m trying to make this as un-awkward as possible, but I’m not sure this is going to work. Maybe we just stick to texting.”
One thing I’ve always admired about Penelope is her ability to be straightforward. She doesn’t hide behind her emotions. She faces them—whereas I push them as far back as they’ll go.
“It’s really hard.” I allow my vulnerability to show with her for the first time since we’ve reconnected. “You’re not just someone I’m coordinating events with. You’re…”
She allows the pregnant pause, and I don’t fill it because I’m not sure how to.
“Yeah, well, Hazel is calling me, so I need to go.”
“Wait…”
She says nothing, but she doesn’t hang up. That has to be a good sign.
“I know you have a lot on your plate. Let me help you. I can plan things too.”
Again, there’s a long pause, and I watch the seconds tick by on my phone screen.
“You have more on your plate than I do. Just be at the park on time and make sure all your teammates are in attendance. I really have to go, Decker… good luck today. Bye.”
This time she hangs up before I can even say goodbye. I sit there for a second.
My hand clenches around the phone, and I toss it in the chair, annoyed with myself for even calling.
I’m such a moron. Like she would say yes, come on over, and then make me dinner like she used to.
We’d reconnect over whatever she has in the fridge and discover that pull between us is too strong to fight, and then Hazel would go to bed, and we’d make out on the couch like we were twenty again and none of the years have passed.
Come back down to earth. That is never going to be your life.
A knock lands on the door. I cross the room and open it to find Foster on the other side.
“Jesus, I do not need to see you half naked first thing in the morning.” He glances at the towel I have around my waist. “Get dressed, I’m starved.”
Foster has never once come to my room, nor have we eaten breakfast together unless he was already there with Hayes or someone else.
My forehead creases. “Why are you here?”
“We need to talk.”