Page 100 of Hard To Leave

He looked at me through his sunglasses, and I wished I could see his eyes. “Me too. You’ve done a good job raising him.”

Things were starting to get a little easier between father and son. Brogan was determined to make up for all the time he’d missed.

They talked and skyped every single night, sometimes just for a few minutes and sometimes for hours. There were times where I would join in on the conversation, and other times I would let them be. Their connection was slowly forming, and it left me feeling both grateful and guilty.

Brogan pursed his lips and flipped his hat around on his head. “I wanted to talk to you about something.” He looked over his shoulder and back to me. “I have an appointment with a realtor tonight. I’m looking at a condo down on Coastal Beach Road.”

“Oh, are you moving here?”

“Just buying a place. I want to be close to you guys when I can.” He shrugged his shoulders. “I figured it would make things easier and give me a chance to spend some time with Tanner.”

My face turned back to the game. It made perfect sense, and he certainly could afford it. In my heart, I knew it would be best for Tanner. Still, I worried about how Jack would react to hearing that news. Would he feel like the competition was moving in on him? Based on our last conversation, I’m not sure he would be able to handle it.

“Would you still keep your house in Nashville?” I asked as Tanner’s coach called a time-out.

He picked up his Gatorade from the ground and took a huge gulp. “Yeah. It makes sense for me to keep it there for work. I plan on splitting my time between here and Nashville as equally as I can.”

“How does Sienna feel about all this?”

His eyes dropped to the ground. He hasn’t spoken much of her lately. In fact, according to “TMZ” andUS Weekly, their relationship has been put on hold. She was currently out of the country doing a fashion shoot in Italy.

“She knows my priority right now is my son.”

The thought of her stressed me out for some reason. “When will we get to meet her?”

I’ve seen pictures of her; she was gorgeous. I wasn’t jealous, just a little intimidated. The only thing I cared about was how she treated my Tanner when they were together. I didn’t want to ruffle any feathers, but I was concerned about how we were going to blend our lives together. Up until this point, I haven’t had to share my son with anyone.

I could tell by the hard set of his jaw that there was something he wasn’t saying. I narrowed my eyes at him. “What aren’t you telling me?”

“Sienna and I are on a break.”

I groaned at the familiar term that Jack used with me. “I’m so sorry.”

He stared at me. “Don’t be. If it’s meant to be, it will be.”

I gave him a nod and glanced down at my shoes. I wasn’t sure who he was talking about, but I hoped it wasn’t me. We were just starting to get comfortable, and I’ve been very careful about not leading him on and giving him false hope.

“Relationships are a lot of work,” I stated, placing my sunglasses over my eyes.

“Ours wasn’t. At least, not in the beginning.”

“Brogan.” I sighed, stepping aside, so we were away from the whispering ears. “We were young without a care in the world. Of course, it was easy.”

“You make us sound so insignificant.”

I reached my hand out, placing it on top of his. He stared at me with so much softness in his eyes it made my heart swell. I didn’t want to hurt him, but I couldn’t lead him on either. We shared a past and a child together, but Jack owned my heart in a way that Brogan never could.

“You could never be insignificant to me.” The words caught in the back of my throat. “It’s easy to forget all the bad things that happened, but the truth is, we were never meant to last.”

His thumb brushed along my hand. “I know that now.”

We both turned our heads to the sound of clapping on the sidelines. The parents were eagerly awaiting Tanner to strike out his last batter. Brogan and I broke away, and I was thankful for the distraction. I kept a few feet of distance between us as Tanner threw his next pitch. The umpire called a ball, while Brogan cursed next to me. The next batter fouled out, leaving us one strike away from ending the game.

Everyone started stomping their feet as Tanner pitched the ball dead center over home plate. He threw the ball so hard, we heard it snap in the catcher’s mitt. The ump yelled, “Strike three!” and the inning was over.

I was so excited I was jumping up and down. I looked over at Brogan and smiled. The tender moment we’d shared was long gone.

“That’s my boy!” he yelled.

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