Page 86 of Restricted List

Tonight is absolutely no different.

Skip even takes Sage for the night, so Lane gets to let loose, which he doesn’t often get to do anymore. We get a glimpse of pre-Dad Lane; I think he loves that as much as we do. We alllove Sage to death, but seeing our friend without all the stress of parenting for a night or two is nice.

Now that it’s getting late, we’re finally disbanding.

“Cooole,” Harlow says, wrapping her arms around mine and hugging me tight.

She calls me a lightweight, but she’s the one who leaves every outing tipsy.

“I think you need some water, Lo,” I laugh.

“I have a cute as hell man to do that for me when we get back to the room.”

“And I think he’s going to have to help you walk to get there.”

“Yeah,” she sighs. “If I let go of you, I might fall over.”

“Knox,” I say, looking at my friend. “Come get your girlfriend before she hurts herself.”

“You can tell she doesn’t really drink at home since she gets drunk off two glasses of wine,” he laughs, helping Harlow off of me and wrapping his arm around her shoulder.

“Wait,” Harlow says, turning back around and grabbing my face with her hands.

“You sure she only had two glasses?”

“I am not,” Knox chuckles, clearly amused right now.

“Cole, talk to her,” she says, squeezing my face.

I pry her hands off me. “I’m going to, Lo. And you need to get to sleep and drink that water. A wedding with a hangover won’t be fun.”

Knox steers her away now before turning back. “We’ll see you tomorrow, man.”

“She likes wine, but I’m not sure wine likes her,” Rory says, walking up beside me. “You heading upstairs?”

“Yeah. You?”

“I’m getting ready to head to my room now.”

“Let me walk you up. We can talk.”

She smiles at me. “I’d like that.”

We stride out of the room and to the elevator, walking side by side. Now is as good a time as any to start talking.

“So, what’s been running through your mind, Starlight?” I ask, pressing the button for the fourteenth floor.

Rory takes a deep breath and lets it out. “Just how hard all of this is.”

“Yeah, I get that.”

The elevator dings, and we both step on, starting our ascent to Rory’s floor.

“Do you think my dad is wrong?” Her voice is so soft, so vulnerable in this moment.

“Honestly? Yeah. And I don’t mean that for selfish reasons, though obviously, I do have some. Your dad is a great guy, but I do think he’s wrong to try to control who can be with you.”

“It’s because of my mom,” Rory admits. “She left because he wasn’t around much. In his mind, all baseball players are like that. They can’t spend enough time with their partner like he couldn’t, or they cheat on them or even just refuse to settle down. Harlow and Ella are my best friends, and they’re both with baseball players. He doesn’t think that about Josh and Knox. It’s only when it comes to me.”

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