Page 53 of Big Balls
With a little bit of research, I find the names of three different schools in town and arrange donations large enough that they are willing to open a place on their faculty for Zoe. I want her to have options, here in the town where her family is. Where I am, but we won’t mention that to her.
Then I call my friends, one big conference call. “We need to have an emergency poker game,” I tell Sebastian.
He clucks his tongue in clear disapproval. “That’s not happening. You’ve used up all of your emergencies for this entire year, Big Balls. Possibly for the entire decade.”
I make an impatient, frustrated sound. “This isn’t the time to be cute.”
Tate laughs. “It’s always time to be cute. Ask Jack’s cute little Aunt Opal.”
Jackson chuckles. “Yeah, sorry about that. I don’t think she ended up getting the tattoo, but I also didn’t want to check, you know?”
I don’t know what they’re talking about, and I probably don’t want to know, ever.
“Guys, focus.” I’d snap my fingers at them if these men were the rookies on my team, but they’re my friends, and they’re about to do me a favor, and I’ve screwed up enough decisions already.
“No, Alexander.Youfocus.” Donovan Tate almost never gets truly angry, but he sure sounds pissed off now. “You made this mess, so you get out of it.”
My mood sours. “If you guys don’t want to see me, I get it. I really do. But how about one of you comes here and keeps Katy so I can go stop Zoe from boarding that flight and leaving for California?”
Sebastian scoffs. “Un-fucking-likely. You’ve had plenty of opportunities to not screw this up, and every time one of us helps you out so you can fix it, you end up making it that much worse.”
I take a deep breath and try again. If I can convince these guys that I’ve got what it takes to fix this, then they’ll definitely help.
“We’re busy tonight,” says Tate flatly.
I take the chance and tell them about the three jobs I’ve arranged for her in New Orleans.
“Buying her companionship, huh? I don’t know a woman alive who doesn’t want to feel like you’re trying to buy her affection, or like she owes you.” Sebastian’s using his vicious shark voice again, and I can’t stand the way he’s talking to me.
“Why don’t you guys want this to happen? Why are you so opposed to things working out between me and Zoe?”
Donovan Tate is the one who tells me the hard truth. “We do want it to happen. But you’ve screwed it up so badly and so often that there’s no way Zoe doesn’t deserve better than whatever it is you’re offering.”
Sebastian chimes in, “If it were just the job, I could hire Zoe to bemynanny.”
I bristle immediately. “You don’t even have children, Sebastian.”
“Oh?” he says in that dangerous voice of his. “So it isn’t about giving her money to keep her under your control then? Is it more of you actually paying for sex?”
I pull the phone away from my face and stare at it. “What the fuck?” I yell at them. “Is that really what you guys think about me?”
I wait another few moments. “Come on. This is it, the big moment when I win her back.” I wish I sounded more confident, but even I can hear the weakness in my voice.
“I said we’re busy,” snaps Tate, the man who I would have sworn would never lose his temper with me even once in his life.
The call ends then, when it becomes clear to me that the men I would have sworn were my best friends in my entire life aren’t going to help me.
But I’m running out of time, and the only thing to do is go see Zoe and beg her forgiveness.
I grab Katy and manage to get her into the car by telling her we’re going to Zoe’s house.
I drive like a maniac to her house, Katy squealing happily in the back. “It’s like a car chase, Daddy,” she yells and laughs as she is squashed up against the side of the car.
We pull up in Zoe’s driveway, and I tell Katy to follow me. Then I run like hell to the front door.
I knock for what feels like hours, and the door swings open.
Her father is standing there, and as soon as he sees me, it’s like a red flag in front of a bull. He pulls back his hand to punch me, but my daughter catches up to me and he stops immediately.
