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“I never said they haven’t! I just don’t want you coming in here with your big money and being a local hero and making her think you’re someone who’s going to be around.”
“First of all, your soon-to-be ex-fiancé is the one who’s always used his family money to make people think he’s important. Local hero?” I huff. “Please, I’m no hero. And, Whit, I’ll be around for?—”
“That’s a lie. When you left here, you were gone, Pope. Freaking gone. Your mom said you asked her to move with you, and she was planning to once you made it to the majors.”
I scrub a hand over my face because all that’s the truth. “Of course I wanted to make her life better, give her everything I could, have her closer.”
“I know you did. She’s your mom. But that doesn’t change the fact that you left us. You left me, Danny, and Marks. We were your best friends, and you just left us. Nora isn’t?—”
I whip the vehicle over to the side of the road and slam it in park.
“Oh my gosh! What the heck are you doing?!”
I turn and take her face in my hands. “You left me first! You, Danny, and Marks!”
She freezes.
I release her immediately and try to calm the hell down before continuing, “You all changed the plans we’d made before I left. When I came home that first break in season, none of you had time for me You all had excuses and?—”
“We had to work!” she yells at me.
“Then”—I throw my hands up—“I came home, and you were all picking up my slack and treating me like I was the one fucking dying. I mean, Jesus, Whit, you couldn’t even tell me you were with Danny. Who’d you tell when you broke up, huh? Who? Because that used to be my role in your life. I was the guy you told when something was wrong, and I was the guy who made it better.” When she doesn’t say anything, I shake my head. “You’re the one who wanted me to help you get rid of your?—”
“How could I talk to you when I thought you’d gotten Nelly pregnant?” She pokes herself in the chest. “My cousin! And, yeah, I know that I had no reason to be upset with you—hell, you’d fooled around with several girls. None of us were anything special.” She crosses her arms and slumps back. “And Danny and I were never together.”
While I’m stumbling over the realization I punched Danny in the face—and wanna do it again because he never corrected my assumption—I trip on the fact that she thought I’d fucked Nelly and apparently several others. But the most important thing to address right now is the damn truth.
“You were always special, Whit.”
Her phone chimes. She shoves her hand in her pocket and pulls it out. Do I look? Yeah, I look. Kal’s name is on the screen.
Fucking Kal.
Whit thumbs through messages, taps something out, and shoves her cell back in her pocket. “I have things to do. Take me to my vehicle.”
“Say please.”
She scowls at me.
“I’m serious. Say please.”
Arms crossed, staring out the passenger window, she huffs, “Please.”
Not one more word is said until I pull in behind her little SUV because both of us are pissed.
She throws off her seat belt and all but dives out before slamming the door behind her.
I throw the vehicle in reverse and smash the gas, whipping around in the driveway, and peel out.
When I left Walton, I felt like I knew what direction my life was going. Sex with Whit might have been underwhelming to her—and I would sound like a bitch if I ever admitted this to anyone—but it was all I thought about, even when conversations started dipping off. Texts became shorter, less frequent. Then, I came home, and everything was different. Everything.
Now, I know why, but I also know more, and I’m pissed that she’s acting like I did something wrong because I didn’t do a damn thing but not be here.
Guilt is a feeling I know well. Not being here to take care of Mom every day crushed me, but everyone insisted I stay the course, so that was what I did. I stayed the course, and I made sure the bills were paid. I lived in shitholes. Hell, I never even bought a beater to drive, not that I needed one, until all remaining medical bills were paid off, which wasn’t until I made the majors.
Whit thinking I’m going to hurt Nora, it stings me real fucking bad. I’ve always been no farther than a phone call from Whit. I’m still the same damn guy I was. She changed that, not me.
But fuck her and fuck walking away with my dick tucked between my legs ever again.
