Page 123 of Well Played

She answered on the third ring. Her voice was groggy. “Levi? What’s going on? Is everything okay?”

“I just went to Presley’s room, and she’s not there.”

“What time is it?”

“It’s about six.”

“She’s probably at the airport by now. She was pretty upset after she got back to the room from talking to you last night. Alex was sleeping, so we chatted for a while. She thought it was better that she go home. It’s very difficult for her to be around you, and with Tanner causing scenes at dinner... She asked me to tell everyone there was an issue at the inn and she had to fly home early.”

Fuck. I closed my eyes. “I need to talk to her. Tanner knows, Ma.”

“Tanner knows what?”

“That I’m in love with Presley. That we were together over the summer.”

My mom sighed. “Oh boy. How did that go?”

“I don’t even give a shit. I just need to get to her. Can you do me a favor?”

“What’s that?”

“Don’t mention to Tanner that Presley left.”

“Levi, I don’t want to get in the middle of this by lying to your brother.”

“Then don’t lie. Turn off your phone. You’re having breakfast with Dad’s friend and his wife, right?”

“Yes. And then I’m going to get my hair done before the ceremony.”

“So chances are, you won’t even see him until later. Just buy me some lead time by not answering your phone. Please.”

“Lead time? What are you going to do? Don’t you have practice today? And we have the ceremony tonight.”

“I’ll take the fine for missing practice. And I’m sorry, Mom. But I’m not going to be able to make the ceremony. I never missed watching Dad play, so I think he’ll forgive me. Plus, I’ll be able to look up and honor him every time I walk into the stadium for a game.”

“Fine. Go. Do what you have to do. I’ll tell anyone who asks that you’re under the weather.”

“Thanks, Mom.”

“I hope this is all worth it, son.”

“She is. She’s the one.”

Two hours later, I was sitting on a flight to South Carolina, waiting to take off. I’d called Presley a dozen times, but each time it went straight to voicemail. I hit redial one more time, but the same thing happened. No ring—right to voicemail. So at least she wasn’t ignoring her phone; it was probably off. The flight attendant came on overhead to say the cabin door was now shut, and we’d be taxiing for takeoff momentarily. All personal devices needed to be turned off and put away. I was just about to switch my phone to airplane mode when it vibrated with an incoming message. I’d hoped it was Presley, telling me she’d landed okay and saw all my missed calls, but it wasn’t. It was my mother.

Mom: Tanner knows Presley left. The front desk told him she checked out. I think he might be heading back to South Carolina.

CHAPTER 33

Presley

Last night after Shelby and I talked, I’d booked a flight home and turned off my phone. Then when I got up this morning, I’d realized that while I’d plugged the cord into my phone, I hadn’t actually plugged the other end into the wall socket. So my cell was dead, and my flight had been so early that I didn’t have time to deal with it. Luckily, my plane had been a newer one, and there were outlets at each seat for me to charge it, even if I couldn’t turn it on during the flight.

The minute I got off the plane and turned on my phone, messages started pouring in.All from Tanner. I knew before I read the first one that it wasn’t going to be good news. I needed to take a minute to see what had caused the influx of messages, but my gut told me to do it in private. So I stopped Alex as we passed a restroom just outside our gate.

“Honey, I need to run to the bathroom. Could you wait right out here for a minute?”

“Okay.”

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