Her flight arrives at 3pm on Friday.
Me
No.
Dad
I’ve already got her a ticket for the section with the team’s guests. Give her a jersey to wear.
Me
No.
Dad
Then your pretty little medic is going to lose her scholarship.
Me
Christ, Dad, way to ramp itup to a thousand.
Dad
That better mean you’ll follow orders.
Me
I’ll do it.
Delaney’s facefell when she saw me waiting for her in the arrivals hall of Yorkfield International.
Good. I wanted her disappointed, wanted someone else to feel a fraction of what I was feeling.
“Expecting someone else?” I snatched her suitcase away before she could protest. “Daddy didn’t send the private jet?”
“Yeah, I was expecting someone who’s not an asshole,” she shot back, and even as I hated everything she represented, I admired her backbone. She was as stuck as I was.
“Too bad,” I muttered as I led her to my car. “Ready to come out as my girlfriend?”
She laughed bitterly. “No, but my father wants to publicly move our relationship from dating to engaged before Thanksgiving, so if we’re going to make this look like anything other than what it is, we need to get started.”
My gut clenched at the thought of telling the world about Delaney, telling the team, tellingEva. I took a shuddering breath. I had to explain to Eva why I’d let the engagement go forward, even if it hurt her all over again.
When we got to the car, I opened the door for Delaney automatically. One thing my father had done was beat my manners into me.
She looked up at me with amusement as I impatiently waited for her to buckle her seatbelt. “What’s got you so antsy?”
I checked my phone. Eva still hadn’t answered my text from this morning, but she’d worn the coat. I’d seen her oncampus yesterday, wrapped in the grey wool we’d bought her, and the sight had made my chest ache.
I shoved the phone in my pocket and stalked around to my side of the car, jaw clenched so tight, my teeth hurt.
“There’s someone else,” Delaney said quietly once I was behind the wheel.
My hands gripped the steering wheel. “Yeah.”
“Does she know? About us?”
“Yeah.” The words bitter on my tongue. At least I was fucking sober right now, even if I wanted to be anything but.