Page 95 of Final Drive

“It’s the only part of this I get to pick.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Gray

I’ve been upstairs since eight this morning. By the time I come down, the whole house is in the living room waiting on me.

Reese is standing. That’s the first thing I register. She’s had a full day of Carmine, Bennett, and whatever happened on the quad afterward. Now she’s on her feet in front of eight men with her arms at her sides, since she called this meeting.

“Sit down,” she says.

I take the chair nearest the door.

“I’m giving an interview tomorrow. Southeastern Sports Network, four o’clock, on the record. I picked the location and I have the questions in advance. Harrison sent them my registration file. Kowalski’s writing it either way.”

The room comes apart in three directions. Zane says her name. Jackson stands up. Beckett gets as far as absolutely not before Bo puts a hand on his chest without looking at him.

“No,” I say. “You’re handing a reporter your designation, your medical history, and your father’s paperwork. In print, under your name, eight days before nationals. Carmine has to defend you to a governing body next week. You’re making her job impossible.”

“Harder. Not impossible. She’ll manage.”

“Reese.”

“You want me to wait.” She doesn’t pause for an answer. “Sit on it, let you and Tyler work the angles, see what shakes out. That’s the play. Quiet, controlled, handled by people who know how these rooms work.”

“Yes.”

“That’s how I lost Westlake.”

Nobody says anything.

“I let Andrea write it. I was quiet, I was reasonable, and I waited for the adults to sort it out.” Her voice stays level. “By the time anybody asked me what happened, everyone already knew what happened. I’m not doing it again. I’m telling you before instead of after, and I’m not asking permission. I’m telling you since you’re mine and you deserve to hear it from me first.”

Tyler takes his glasses off.

“Okay,” Bo says.

Zane nods at the floor. “Yeah.”

Cameron nods once from the doorway.

I sit there in my father’s posture, in my father’s silence, and I understand what I’ve been doing all week.

She’s standing in a room full of people telling them the truth before she acts on it. I’ve been driving out to Ravenswood alone in the dark, then coming home with edited highlights.

Harrison would call mine managing the exposure. He’d be proud of it. He taught it to me at a dinner table before I was ten years old.

“I have to go out,” I say.

Jackson’s head comes up. “Are you serious?”

“Gray.” Reese’s voice has an edge on it. “Not again.”

“I’ll be back tonight.”

“You said that yesterday.”

“I know what I said.” I get my keys. “This time I’ll tell you all of it.”