Page 59 of Tempting the Player
“I mean, together. I have something I need to tell you.”
I stop in the rain and face her. She is nervous, but why? “Okay.”
“Not here,” she says.
My phone vibrates in my pocket. I’m prepared to ignore anyone except Logan, but I didn’t expect Knox to be calling.
I take Jane’s hand and lead her into the nearest building as I answer, so she’s out of the rain while I take the call.
“Hey, what’s up? Everything all right?” I ask him.
“Everyone is fine, but Flynn needs to be picked up from school and I’m an hour away at a job site. Any chance you can get him?”
“What about Archer?”
“I tried him first, but he didn’t answer. I think they’ve got a team meeting or something today. The fuck knows with their schedule. Can you pick up Flynn or not?”
“Yeah. I can get him.”
“Thank you.”
“You don’t need to thank me. He’s my brother too.” I glance over at Jane to find her watching with concern. “Is he sick or something?”
“No.” Knox’s tone slips deeper. “But I bet he wishes he was. I don’t know all the details, the principal wouldn’t say much, but I’m so sorry I won’t be there to see your face when he tells you what happened. Gotta go. See you in a bit.”
He ends the call, leaving me with no idea what the hell is going on.
“Is everything okay?” Jane asks. Her voice echoes in the empty entryway of the old building. Her cheeks are red from the cold and that makes her green eyes more prominent.
“I don’t know. I gotta go pick up Flynn from school.” I take the umbrella from her and then hold the door open for her to step out.
She tries to take it from me. “Go. I can get home on my own. I’ll even text you when I’m there, so you know I made it.”
It’s a reasonable request, but she had something to tell me, and I got the feeling it was important.
“Come with me. We can pick up Flynn and drop him off at the house, and then I’ll take you to lunch so we can talk about whatever it is you wanted to talk about.”
“Are you sure?”
I’m already ushering her toward my truck. “Positive.”
* * *
Like everything else in my life, things don’t go as planned. Jane graciously hangs in the living room while I follow Flynn into his room and shut the door.
He tosses his backpack onto the floor and then throws himself onto the bed. “Can you just yell at me already, so we can get it over with?”
I resist the urge to do just that. Our dad yelled when he got pissed, or when he drank too much. He got off on being loud and having the last word. I can remember wishing he’d just hit me and shut up.
But I doubt Flynn remembers too much of that. We always did a good job of shielding him from the worst of our father.
“I’m not going to yell at you,” I say finally. It’s the first thing I’ve said since we left the school. I sit on the edge of the bed. “You should put some ice on that eye, so it doesn’t swell shut.”
He shrugs. “I don’t care.”
I let out a long sigh. “Do you want to tell me about the fight?”
“There’s nothing else to tell. I got into a fight.”
