Grand Slam (The Boys of Summer 3)

She nods and moves her hair out of her face. The recognition is instant. My arm drops, and I take a step back.

“You,” I seethe, only to have her smile smugly in return. I open my mouth to say so much more but know that I can’t. She’s not worth going to jail for.

“Won’t the district attorney love to hear about this?” she says.

“Excuse me?”

“You pushing me into a wall. It’s probably frowned upon.”

Before I can react, she’s pulling out her phone. I don’t stay to find out who she’s calling. I can’t risk it. I rush back to the table, thankful that our food hasn’t arrived, and grab my coat.

“We gotta go,” I say, grabbing Saylor’s arm to help her stand up.

“What? Why? What’s going on?”

I lean over the table and grab Lucy, smacking her legs on the underside of the table. She cries out as I cradle her to my chest.

“Travis, what’s wrong?” Saylor asks as she runs behind me, trying to keep up as I rush to the exit.

“I’ll tell you in the cab.”

As soon as I’m outside, I whistle for a cab that pulls up almost immediately. Saylor gets in, and I hand her Lucy, who has started to cry.

“What the hell is going on?”

I glance out of the back window to see if anyone is chasing us. “When I came out of the bathroom, I ran into a woman. She hit the wall, and when she looked at me, it was her.”

“Her who?”

I look at Saylor and see her eyes deaden. She knows without me even saying. “She said she was letting the DA know that I assaulted her.”

“What was she doing there?” Saylor asks.

“I don’t know, but I’m fucked.”

Saylor looks forward, pressing her lips to Lucy’s hair. She holds her daughter tightly, keeping her hand locked around her wrist. Something tells me that I shouldn’t try to touch her, even though I really need to feel her hand in mine, because I’m starting to freak the fuck out.

Twenty-Four

Saylor

I knew the risks of being with Travis, yet I’ve continued to allow him into my life, into our lives. I let my feelings for him cloud my professional obligations and once again I found myself in the wrong place at the wrong time with him. Why of all people did she have to be there to ruin our day? Everything was going so perfectly, and for a brief moment, I could picture us as a couple. And in the blink of an eye, a random trip to the bathroom changed that.

This is a sign. I know it. I can’t be with Travis, not anymore. I have too much to lose, and as much as I hate saying it, no man is worth my job or my daughter. And even as I look over at him, I can see the worry lines in his forehead. He’s closed off and angled toward the door as if he’s going to make a run for it. I realize we’re both scared, but for different reasons.

The taxi pulls up outside my apartment, and while Lucy and I get out, he pays before joining us on the sidewalk. We both go to speak but stop ourselves and smile.

“I’m going to go,” he says, pointing over his shoulder. Travis steps away before I can even acknowledge his statement. He leaves us standing on the sidewalk, wondering what the hell just happened.

“Where’s he going?” Lucy asks, squeezing my hand tighter.

“I don’t know, baby.” My eyes dampen with tears as I watch him walk down the street. I half expect him to look back and wave, but he doesn’t.

Lucy and I ride the elevator in silence, and even the sound of Christmas music doesn’t make me smile when we step off onto our floor. The Christmas spirit I had has been diminished by the past hour, and I shouldn’t feel that way. Even Lucy seems melancholy, and she doesn’t have a clue about the real reason our day went south.

Inside our apartment, I turn on our tree, letting the white lights sparkle throughout the room. “How about some hot cocoa and Rudolph?” I ask Lucy as I help her take her coat off.

“Can Travis come back?”