Page 73 of Very Unlikely
“The next flight doesn’t leave for another three days,” Uncle Reggie informs us as his eyes float up from the screen of his phone.
“On a regular aircraft,” Cody replies while smiling a grin that sets my pulse racing.Get your mind out of the gutter. I haven’t looked at any man like that since being bedded by a god.It’s realizing what he’s hinting at that has my heart racing. “But I don’t fly coach.” With a trademark Cabarello smirk I should have spotted from day one, he nudges his head to his recently restored ‘47 Comet. “I’ll try and keep it under sixty so you can keep up.”
He laughs when I say, “Then maybe you should tell me where we’re going so I can lead the way. Comets weren’t designed to be driven by grandmas.”
My comment is proven accurate when Cody slips behind the steering wheel and fires up his car. It purrs like a kitty cat, and the rumble of his restored engine vibrates through my chest when I follow his weave through the backstreets of Buffalo.
“Do you think you should trust him, pumpkin?” my dad asks when he guides us toward a private airstrip on the outskirts of town. “He’s yet to regain your trust.”
After straying my eyes from an aircraft even smaller than the one Lennox and I boarded to travel home, I lock them with my father’s kind eyes before jerking up my chin. “He’ll never regain it if I don’t give him the chance.” The twinkle in his eyes I’ve admired since I was a little girl shines bright when I add, “Besides, he’s just misguided like Lennox once was. I’m sure he’ll find his way soon.”
When I pull into a spot next to an open aircraft hangar, I toss open my door and peel out of my seat. My steps to Cody, who exited his vehicle with a mammoth grin on his face, slows when I notice my dad isn’t following me.
“Are you coming?” I ask after peering back at him.
The worries I’m struggling to conceal rear their ugly heads when he shakes his. “You know what you’re doing, so you don’t need your old man hanging around like a bad smell.”
“But—”
“No buts, Summer. If you go for what you want, you’ll never have any regrets. It’s time to teach that boy the Ramsay way.”
Tears topple down my cheeks when I race back his way to throw my arms around his neck. “I love you, Daddy,” I whisper in his ear before squeezing him tight. “But I swear to God, if you don’t continue chasing those payments like I have the past four weeks, I’ll reconsider my admiration.”
“Like you could ever do that. I’m too lovable to be unloved,” he mutters before returning my hug. “Now get out of here before I wonder how long it will take you to switch your lock screen back to Lennox’s birthday instead of mine.”
He gives me a final squeeze before pushing me toward Cody, who’s looking mighty jealous about our exchange.
“Don’t get too green,” I whisper while shadowing his walk up the stairs of a private jet. “Overbearing fathers aren’t all they’re cracked up to be.”
My heart stabs in pain when he replies, “Better than an absentee one.”
Since my focus needs to remain on one damaged Cabarello child, I murmur a faint “True” before slotting into one of the four chairs in the middle of the jet.
A woman will come into Cody’s life one day and upend his beliefs in a way he never thought possible. She just won’t be me.
31
Lennox
Ibreathe out the nerves I don’t usually experience when the door of the empty locker room cranks open. Today is the day the Ravenshoe Ravens owners have been waiting for. I’m officially announcing that I’m becoming a permanent fixture for the next three years.
I should be happy.
I should be bouncing off the fucking ceiling.
My deal is well within the millions, and I’ve sailed past several career bests the past six weeks, but I am fucking miserable.
At a time where I should be living my best life, I’m replicating the recluse I was confident Summer would become if I hadn’t spent the summer boosting her confidence. I eat, sleep, pitch, smile for the cameras, then do it all again.
A lot of my misery stems around the final shove Summer hit me with when I told her I didn’t want her to come with me. She was as heartbroken as me, but since she didn’t know I was breaking up with her to save her losing who she was for me like my mother had done for my father, I let her believe I was the ass everyone assumes I am when they learn I’m a Cabarello.
The way she looked at me fucking hurt, but it was better than the alternative. Her father is alive, and her dreams are on track. That’s got to be worth more than a little bit of love, right?
I end my thoughts when I spot who’s heading my way. It isn’t Lindsay as predicted. It is one of the owners of the Ravenshoe Ravens, Isaac Holt. He’s entering the room with a heavily pregnant brunette and a man with snow-white locks. “Lennox, this is my wife, Isabelle, and Cormack McGregor, my business partner and friend.”
After standing from the bench my ass has heated the past hour, I accept the hand Cormack is holding out before asking Isabelle how far along she is.
“A little over seven months,” Isaac answers on her behalf, his excitement undeniable even in the natural sternness of his voice. “We’re having a boy.”
