Page 76 of Never Date A Player
Her pretty lower lip disappears for a moment. “He wasn’t a—reliable—younger man. But he learned from his mistakes and he’s a wonderful husband. Jeb is also a great father. I hope you have the opportunity to know this about him.”
She breathes in deeply. “He was extremely upset yesterday after he saw you. He’d fulfilled his promise to your mother to wait until you graduated, and for the first time in your life, he took a stand for his parental rights and sought you out. Things didn’t go exactly as he had planned. Your mother sent a few pictures over the years, but nothing recent. When he saw you, he recognized you immediately. He said you look exactly like his sister. It was a shock as well as a pleasure, and his communication skills were not at their best. He worried he had caused you pain by showing up abruptly and not explaining himself.”
Simone nods at Amber, who is glaring daggers our way. She smiles and hands me a napkin with her and Jeb’s cell phone numbers written on it. “Thank you for hearing me out. We will be here for a couple of weeks if you want to talk.” She smiles. “My husband has a strong interest in extending our Lake Tahoe vacation.”
I take the napkin and tuck it in my cash caddy, watching the elegant woman walk out of Mont Belle Lounge. My hands are shaking, my throat so dry I can barely swallow. I bypass an angry Amber and head to Maryanne. I have to get out of here, have to convince Maryanne to let me leave early.
Maryanne shakes her head as I approach. She waves me off. “Go. Get out of here.”
I don’t know why Maryanne is so nice. Maybe she understands what I’ve had to put up with from Drake. Maybe she’s been through it too. Whatever it is, I’m grateful.
I spend the next week working out and training. I even use the temporary gym membership Lewis got me and practice climbing the rope to build my upper body strength. I manage to scale it twice without falling to my death, and the training keeps my mind off other things.
Lewis called the night Simone visited, but it was late and I didn’t get the message until the next morning. I’d gone home and immediately fallen asleep, emotionally exhausted. I spoke to him the next day and told him about the call with my mom and the visit from Jeb’s wife. He was supportive, but distant. We’ve communicated several times over the last few days, but we haven’t seen each other. My gut tells me something is off, and I’m freaking out about it.
On the other hand, my mother hasn’t stopped pestering me. She has left messages threatening to show up on my doorstep. I can’t bring myself to care. If I didn’t have the mudder giving me direction, I’d be a crumbling mess. Training makes me feel strong physically, so I focus on that.
I enter the chalet after a long run—my last before I rest up for the race—to find Tyler and Cali fighting.
“Damn you, Tyler! This TV is mine and Gen’s.” Cali holds out her hand for the remote. “You are a grumpy bastard?—”
“We have the same parents, Calzone. If I’m a bastard, you’re a bastard.”
“—lowlife, jobless brother. You do not get control of the television! Hand over some of that professor income you’ve squirreled away the last couple of years and maybe we’ll let you watch what you want. If you pay for the cable, and some of the utilities?—”
Tyler raises the remote she’s reaching for over her head and sits on her, flipping through the channels to the sports station.
Cali screams. “Get off me, you jackass! You weigh a ton.”
“No can do, Calzone. The Lumberjack World Championships is on and it’s really not something I can miss. I’ve been watching semifinals and I don’t want to find out the results online before I catch the footage.”
She squeezes out from under him and tumbles from the couch onto the floor, panting for air. “Then stop being an Internet whore. God! When are you going to get a job and move out?”
He scratches his head. “No plans in the near future. Maybe a year?”
Cali looks to me for help and I shrug. I should be gone by then too. I’m supposed to return to Dawson for grad school in a few weeks. But that’s not what I’m going to do.
I have every reason to leave Lake Tahoe—the crap I put up with at work, the fear that Lewis will break my heart—but I made a promise to myself that I wouldn’t run, wouldn’t be bullied or intimidated, or tuck tail because of a guy.
So I’ve decided to stay. Indefinitely.
From the moment I left Dawson a few months ago, I’ve doubted my decision to return for graduate school. At the time, it was because of my ex and knowing that he would be there as well, but now I have different reasons. Important reasons that have nothing to do with escaping an ex and everything to do with directing my life. I like Lake Tahoe, living with Cali, and even having Tyler around—television hogging notwithstanding. The A-hole and I were still together when I chose a school for graduate work. He was attending Dawson and I wanted to make things easy, so I decided to attend Dawson too.
That was a terrible decision.
I don’t want to return to my old school. It feels like going backward. There are things I don’t like about working at Blue, but the only one that matters is Drake. If it weren’t for him, Blue would be a great way to subsidize graduate school. So I can either allow him to frighten me out of here, or I can fight him and work where I want.
I glance at Cali, who’s scowling at her brother from the floor. “Cali,” I say. She looks up. “If I got into the psych program at University of Nevada, Reno, could I live with you? It might sound crazy, but I’m considering working part-time at the casino and taking classes in Reno.”
Cali is no stranger to life changes. She officially pulled out of the Harvard Law program and signed up for art classes while she works at Sallee Construction.
She rolls onto her stomach and stands. “You thinking of bailing on Dawson because of your ex?”
“No. He has nothing to do with it. I just want to move forward, you know? And I like it here.”
“You’ll have to commute during winter, and Reno’s an hour away.” Cali walks into the kitchen and pulls sandwich-making items from the fridge, along with green olives. She loves green olives. They make me gag, but I’m interested to see what’s she’s going to do with them and the sandwich fixings. Eat them as a side?
I lean over the counter and rest my chin on my hand. “I hadn’t thought about that. You think there’ll be a lot of snow?”
