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“Hey, guys.” Boone walked over to the table with a smile. He scooped Joey up since he’d run to meet him but immediately held out his hand to Grandma G. “You must be Marjorie. Michael Boone.”
“Well, hello.” Grandma G grinned as she shook his hand. “It’s so nice to officially meet you, although I feel like I know you from watching all the games.”
“You a hockey fan?”
“Is that even a question?” she asked, shaking her head. “I raised a hockey player, you know.”
Dad had played until a knee injury forced him into retirement.
“Forgive me.” Boone chuckled.
Boone leaned over to brush his lips across mine. “Hi.”
“Hi.” I couldn’t look at him and forced myself to concentrate on the menu even though I wasn’t hungry anymore.
“Granny bought me a train!” Joey said excitedly. “But Jolie wouldn’t let me bring it in the rest-rant.”
“Rest-aur-ant,” Boone said, enunciating carefully.
“Rest-er-ant.” Joey repeated, making us all chuckle.
“You can show me the train later. Thank you,” he said to Grandma G. “You don’t have to buy him things.”
“Ah, I like seeing him smile,” she responded.
We ordered and I picked at a Cobb salad while Joey talked nonstop about everything we’d done today.
“Everything okay?” Boone asked at one point, his voice low as he reached under the table to gently squeeze my thigh.
“I don’t know,” I admitted.
He frowned, but there was no way for us to talk now, leaving me more and more agitated.
“I have to go potty,” Joey said.
“I’ll take him.” Grandma G was out of her chair faster than I’d seen her move in years.
“Oh, you don’t have to—” Boone began, starting to get up.
“But I have to go too.” Grandma G shrugged. “It’s no problem. Finish eating.” She took Joey’s hand and they moved away from the table.
“That doesn’t feel like a setup at all,” he said dryly. “What’s going on?”
I took a breath. “Dad came home earlier than anticipated.”
“Oh shit. Was he pissed about Joey?”
“Yeah. But then I tried to reason with him, make him understand that me dating you is no different—in the grand scheme of me dating a hockey player—than me dating Jarvis. I called him a hypocrite.”
“Okay.” There was a weird look on his face as if he knew what was coming, and dread filled me.
“And then he asked me if I was going to Nashville with you.”
Neither of us spoke for several long, deadly quiet seconds.
“Jolie—” he began.
“You’re still going?” I interrupted in confusion. “Even now that Andy is okay?”
“Well…yeah. I told you that from the beginning. You know how I feel about being close to my family after everything that’s happened. And once Em gets out of rehab, she’s going to need all of us more than ever. Joey needs all of us too.”
“But…” I couldn’t finish my thought. I realized what this meant.
He didn’t love me.
He didn’t want me to go with him.
This had been nothing but a fling to him.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “You’re…amazing. Beautiful and smart and—”
“Stop!” I hissed under my breath. “Don’t do that whole it’s-not-you-it’s-me song and dance.”
“It’s not—” He tried again, but I held up a hand.
“I said stop. For fuck’s sake, don’t patronize me.” I got up, yanking my keys out of my pocket and holding them out to him. “Go get Joey’s car seat out of my Jeep.”
“But—”
“Could you just do what I’m asking before Grandma and Joey get back?”
“Can I finish a sentence?”
“No.” I stared at him, my jaw working in frustration.
“Jolie.” He reached for me but I took a step back.
“Get the seat out of my car. Then come back in here, say your goodbyes to Grandma, take Joey, and go home. Can you do that?”
“Is that what you want?”
“Yes.”
We stared at each other again, the look in his eyes inscrutable as I waited for him to do as I asked.
“Okay.” He slowly took the proffered keys and walked out toward the parking lot.
I sank back into my chair, trying to still my shaking hands.
This hurt much more than I’d been expecting, so the sooner I got away from him, the better it would be.
I hadn’t cried a single tear over Jarvis, but there would be many, many tears for Boone.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Boone
Mavericks Group Text
Lars: I finally got a photo of both girls with their eyes open where neither one of them is crying.
Kon: Cute.
Drew: You’ve sent us more pictures of your daughters than I have of my kids from their first year.
Lars: I can’t help how photogenic they are.
Wes: Here’s Aiden milk-drunk…
Nash: That’s the same face you make when you’re drunk. But seriously, the kid looks like you.
Wes: Future lady killer. I made sure the doctor was careful when she had that scalpel near the family jewels.
Rory: How’d you manage that?
Wes: I glared at her through the window the whole time.
Lars: Here are the girls in their Mavericks outfits.
Lars: And a few from their first bath…
