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“You ready?” I shake my head to clear my thoughts and look over at Corvin as I nod. I follow him outside as Saint sets the alarm and locks the front door. I head for my car and freeze when I see Valance about to put Dawson in the back of Cody’s car. Gritting my teeth, I march over to her and grip her arm, she snaps her gaze to me in fright.
“What’s wrong?” she asks, clearly not picking up what the fuck I’m putting down.
“Get your shit, you two ride with me.” Her brows raise but I don’t have time for her shit. I pluck Dawson from her hold and make my way over to my Audi, leaving her to get their shit. We were supposed to be here for another week but little miss I-think-I-have-control over there wouldn’t shut the fuck up about plans for the New Year, so we’re all heading back to CHU a week earlier than planned.
“I go Becky car?” I smile at my boy as I open the back door for Valance so she can strap the seat thing in.
“Yeah, little man, you ride home with me,” I answer. Once she has the seat thing strapped in, I hand him to her as I walk over to Corv, Darius, Saint and Crue. “We good?”
A frown mars Corv’s face as he looks over to Cody’s car and watches her and Nathan slip inside. Honestly, I forgot Nathan was even here. I haven’t seen much of him. “Yeah, Leah will ride with D and Crue, Saint and Katie are with me, so that leaves you, your boy and your girl alone in a car for eight hours.” I narrow my eyes at Corvin and grind my teeth when Saint and Crue begin to cackle like girls.
“Coming from the guy with a face like a smacked ass at the sight ofhisgirl riding with Nathan?” I snark. Corvin glares and flips me off before marching over to his vehicle.
“Ease up on him.” I look to Darius to see him staring after Corvin with a worried look in his eyes.
“What’s up with him?” I ask. D sighs and runs a hand through his before he answers me.
“Remember Lana?” I wrack my brain for a second trying to recall who she is.
“Corv’s bitch ass ex that fucked with his head?” Saint asks. D nods and that’s when I remember who she is. That fucking crazy ass bitch fucked with Corvin’s head bad. She cheated on him and made him believe it was his fault because he was always at practice and she was lonely.
“Yeah, well, Cody may have seen some texts between him and her and called off… whatever the fuck was happening between them.”
“Seriously?” Crue quips. Darius nods but I can see in his brown eyes he doesn’t agree with Corvin’s actions.
“Halfback, get your ass over here so I can cuddle into you.” Darius smiles over at Leah as she rests against his bike. We do our bro shake before we all get in ours–well, except for Darius who has to ride back in this fucking cold ass weather with Leah. Corvin takes the lead, Cody follows after him and I hang back to let Darius and Leah in front of me, leaving me to take up the end of our little train. Valance and I haven’t spoken a single word to each other since Christmas two days ago. Every time I’m around her all I want to do is strangle the shit out of her.
* * *
We’re about two hours into our trip of awkward silence when Dawson begins to cry. I flick my gaze up to check him in the rearview mirror as Valance leans around her seat to check on him.
“What’s wrong, munchkin?” Her and I may not have spoken a word to each other but Dawson has filled the silence with singing or talking to his mother and me.
“I… my bibby… there.” I frown and look over at Valance. She curses under her breath then unclips her belt and leans over the console to reach into the back. Her ass is right in line with my face and distracting the fuck out of me so, I slap her perky ass and relish in the squeal that tears from her.
“Here you go.” I fight the smirk from breaking free at her breathy tone. She slips back into her seat and shoots me a glare that I ignore as I look in the mirror to see Dawson clutching a weathered looking blanket. “Every kid has something that soothes them, Dawson’s is hisbibby.” I nod even though I have no fucking idea what that means, all the Google searches I did never mentioned anything about a comforter. It takes him mere minutes before his eyes close and he passes out. The sight of him sleeping in the back of my Audi is something I thought I would never see but I’m not mad about it.
Another hour of silence passes and the tension in the car only seems to grow. Valance has been fidgeting and shifting in her seat every few minutes. Silence has never bothered me, I never found the need to fill it with needless chit chat but I know she hates it, she always has. I mentally berate myself for allowing thoughts of the past to crawl to the surface inside me. I may have known who she was years ago but this woman sitting beside me is a foreign being. The girl I knew would never have hid my kid. She may have spun a good story last night but that doesn’t mean I believe her lying ass. I plan to ask our resident hacker—aka Katie–to look into her story and see if it holds any merit as soon as we are back home.
“The girls mentioned that you’re leaving soon?” I white knuckle the steering wheel and make a mental note tospeakwith said fucking girls.
“What else did your little friends tell you?” I grit out. She drops her gaze to her lap and nibbles on that fucking bottom lip. It always drove me crazy when she did that and clearly that fact still hasn’t changed.
“Just that you leave after the New Year and will be gone for six months.” I look over at her when I hear a hint of fear in her voice. What the fuck is she hiding?
“I would have thought you would have been celebrating that I’d be out of your life again.” A whoosh of air escapes her and her shoulders hunch in defeat.
“Beck, I know you hate me–”
“I don’t hate you.” She swings her gaze to me her mouth slightly ajar. I look at her as I deliver the final blow. “I just can’t stand the fucking sight of you. If he wasn’t so attached to you, I would have thrown your ass to the curb and raised him without you.” Her eyes widen but she says nothing as she turns to peer out her window. Silence ensues for hours, we’re an hour out from CHU when I check the time to see that it’s nearly eleven at night and Dawson has slept the whole way. She wanted to travel as late as we could so he would sleep the whole way and she wasn’t fucking wrong which just pisses me off further that she knows him better than I do.
“I’ll get him to Facetime you every day while you’re away.” I don’t get the chance to answer, her phone rings, cutting her off. She answers it without hesitation. “Hey.” I strain my hearing, I can’t hear what is said on the other line but I can tell it’s a guys voice. “Yeah, we’re not too far now.” She pauses as whoever the fuck it is speaks. “He’s asleep in the back.” That does it, she won’t sit in my fucking car and speak to some cocksucker about my son.
“Hang the fucking phone up!” I feel her stare boring into the side of my head. “Now!” I growl.
“Y-yeah, I have to go but I’ll see you tomorrow,” she rushes to say before ending the call. I cut a glance at her and make sure she can see the disdain in my eyes.
“Who the fuck was that?” Her gaze hardens as she stares over at me.
