Page 98 of Rebellious

I don’t think so, but I won’t argue with her now. I just need to get through this and get on that plane.

“Your father and I will fly out as soon as we can, and we can go apartment shopping.”

Since I never intended to take the Boston job, I wasn’t prepared to need somewhere to live. So, I’m staying in a hotel for a few days until I can find something.

My room, the foundation, everything would remind me of him. So, I did what I thought was best. Texted my boss, who isnotLiam, and his secretary helped secure me a room until I can find a place.

I haven’t texted Liam since the carnival. There’s no point. I’m not interested in Liam and even though I’m traveling to a place where I will know no one but him, I still couldn’t bring myself to reach out. Liam inadvertently set off a string of events that led to the best summer of my life. The summer that changed everything.

“Take care of yourself,” my mom says, her voice suddenly scratchy.

“I promise.”

“And will you…” I don’t even have to tell her. She knows what I want.

“We’ll take care of him, baby.”

I hear her sniffle. “But you will come home for the holidays or I will pack up the entire foundation, Marines included, and bring them to your doorstep.”

I laugh into the phone. “I promise, I’ll come home.”

I don’t discount her threat at all. My mother is serious about family time.

“Good,” she says. “Now go, before I can’t hang up.”

Smiling, I meet her eyes full of unshed tears. “I’ll call you when I land.”

She presses a kiss to her fingers and touches the screen. “And when you’re checked in?”

She’s ridiculous, but it makes me laugh. “And when I check in.”

“Good.” She lifts her gaze. “Be careful, Angel.”

Without telling her goodbye, I hang up, closing my eyes, exhausted. This day did not go how I planned. I would have loved to spend the last two weeks with Bennett and the boys, but I knew it would be worse. It’s better this way—just rip off the bandage.

I lean back in my seat, thinking of the last time Bennett smiled. The guys ribbing him around the fire and me feeling so loved, sitting between his legs as he made excuses. There’s no doubt he loved me. It’s just circumstances never played in our favor.

“Why do I always feel like I need a Tetanus shot every time I come to an airport?”

My eyes fly open as I take a quick look around. I must have fallen asleep. “Daddy?”

He frowns and drops into the chair next to me. “Were you asleep?”

I ignore him. “How did you get in here? I thought you had to have a ticket?”

He fishes out a boarding pass and lays it on my bag. “There’s a game next week in Boston. A kid I want Atlanta to look at will be pitching. I thought maybe you and I could go look at him.”

My brows arch. “What?”

Leaning back, Dad crosses his legs. “Currently, he isn’t represented.”

“How is he playing in Boston?”

He shrugs, a slow grin tugging on his face. “He’s a steel worker and plays in a Saturday game with all the wannabe daddies and their beer guts.”

“And you think he wants to be a pro baseball player?”

He holds out his hands as if they were a scale. “Make forty thousand a year or forty thousand a game, you tell me?”

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