Page 91 of Mr. Charming

“Why don’t you three move out and we move in?” Decker says.

“Then you’d miss that Mexican restaurant near you. It’s so cute.” Tedi looks at Decker.

I turn to her. “I thought it was fake?” I wave my finger between the two of them, eyebrows drawing down.

“It’s been, what, two minutes, and he’s already jealous again. Run, Tedi.”

I throw a creamer pouch at Rowan, and he catches it.

“We met there when I asked him to be my fake boyfriend.” She smiles at Decker.

“Remind me to talk to you later,” I say to him.

Decker rolls his eyes. “Hey, I got so drunk I threw up. I took a puck in the face. And I got hot sauce in my eye. I think I was punished enough.”

“No good deed goes unpunished,” Easton says.

The whole table laughs.

“You really were a good sport. I would’ve backed out after the puck thing for sure,” Henry says.

Our breakfast arrives, and as Tedi takes a knife and fork to her pancakes, a thought occurs to me. If I don’t get another contract with Chicago, mornings like this are all over. It’ll be another team and another found family I’ll have to leave. Will I be able to handle it? Will I be able to not spiral again? For Tedi, I would, but I’d miss this. I’d miss them.

Tedi puts her hand on my thigh. “Aren’t you going to eat?”

I take her hand and put it on her lap. “No touching, remember?”

She shakes her head with a smile and goes back to eating her pancakes, joining in the conversation with my friends as if she’s been here since day one.

I finally realize only one thing matters. Wherever I go, Tedi has to be by my side. Everything else is just extra.

So I spend the rest of the breakfast thinking of ways to get us to that finish line.

Forty-One

Tedi

This is going to be so much harder than I thought. Especially since I’m around Tweetie the majority of my day since I still have to center the social media campaign around him.

I’m in the airport, waiting to board the plane. We’re running behind since there’s snow in Philadelphia, and we’ve been delayed for about an hour.

My brother’s name flashes on my phone screen, so I get up and walk away from all the players. “Hey, Toby,” I answer.

“Aunt Tedi!”

“Mason? Shouldn’t you be getting ready for school?”

“Daddy’s making me breakfast. Are you coming here?” The excitement in his voice warms my heart.

I asked if I could stay back one more day to spend it with my family and fly back the day after tomorrow, rather than with the team. Coach Buford said he was fine with whatever. I don’t really ask Bud anything if I can avoid it. Thankfully, he never travels with us.

“I’m coming. Just waiting for the weather to clear up by you, then my plane is going to take off.”

“Will you come to my school?” he asks.

“Buddy, we talked about this,” Toby says in the background.

“I’ll try. If this plane takes off, I’m there,” I say.

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