Page 128 of Powerless
“She didn’t break up with me. And yes, Willa told me that today. You’re all very thoughtful. Thank you for that.”
“Are you two talking?”
I turn and glare at him, but deep down, my heart races.Did she break up with me?I really am an idiot.
“I mean, there’s really only one question, Jasper.” He sips his coffee and leaves me hanging. Old man has to get his kicks somehow.
Dick.
“What’s the question?”
He shrugs like it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “Would you make that gamble?”
“Over and over again.”
I love hockey, but it’s not even close to how I love Sloane. Two weeks off of hockey compared to a few days without Sloane proved two things to me: I can live without hockey but I can’t live without Sloane.
He swats the back of my head lovingly. If that’s even a thing. “Then tell her, you idiot.”
A rapid knock at the door draws both our attention. Harvey slaps my knee. “I’ll get that. You sit here and stew in your own stupidity while you muster up a plan to make this right.”
I chuckle. Only Harvey could deliver an emotional pep talk and then mock me openly to make me laugh.
The hinges on the door creak, and I hear a voice I was not expecting. “Harvey.”
“Cordelia?”
I’m up and walking toward the front door, rounding the corner just in time to see Sloane’s mom lifting a Louis Vuitton suitcase as she says, “Any chance you have a spare room?” She looks down at her suitcase and then back up at Harvey. Her smile is watery. “I could really use a safe spot to get my bearings.”
“Of course. I—”
“Oh,” she breathes when she catches sight of me. “You’re here.”
I give her a nod, suddenly wishing I had my cap on to hide behind. “Mrs. Winthrop.”
She stares at me for longer than is comfortable, and her eyes fill with tears. “Don’t let him scare you off, Jasper.” She pins me with her light blue eyes, so similar to her daughter’s. “Don’t let him control you too. He’s a master. He gets his claws into you and suddenly you wake up in your fifties with nothing but a heaping pile of regret. The best thing I can do for her at this point is lead by example. I don’t want that life for Sloane. I don’t wanthimfor Sloane. She’s going to need you to be there for her when she breaks free of them.”
“Them who?” I ask, alarm coursing through me as I put together what she’s saying. What she’s done.
I glance between Harvey and Cordelia. Harvey’s eyes are latched onto his late wife’s little sister with an intensity I’ve never seen before.
“Sterling. Robert. Men like them don’t take well to being slighted. They maneuver. They plan. This dinner won’t just be a birthday celebration. It’ll be a coup, and I can’t be there for it. Can’t watch her continue to get played by them.”
My heart thrums in my chest, hard and heavy. “She won’t be.”
Her mom sighs and looks at me sadly. “Maybe not, but it won’t stop them from trying.”
I grab my keys from the front table and leave them both with a nod.
“Jasper!” Cordelia calls out to me right as I get to my driver’s side door. “The Frontier Steakhouse.”
I almost laugh.
The place where it all started. I hate that fucking restaurant, yet I can’t get there fast enough.
She’s never left me behind, and I’m not leaving her behind either.
The only thought in my head as I make the hour-long drive back into the city is that Sloane needs me. She needs me to justbethere with her.
