I Belong to You (Inside Out #5)(52)

“Truer words have never been spoken.” I hesitate, fighting the urge to push her for more. She needs to see inside my hell to allow me into hers. And I don’t want her inside it. I want her far, far away.

“About Paris—” I begin.

“No,” she snaps. “I’m not going to Paris or anywhere else. End of discussion.”

“It would be—”

“No.”

“You’re ridiculously stubborn.”

“You’re worse.”

“I’m trying to keep you safe.”

“Then let me eat, before I pass out.”

My jaw sets. “I’m not done talking about this.”

“I’m sure you’re not.” She reaches for her sandwich. “But right now, I want to eat and talk business. Since you’re all about ninety percent of our problems being from ten percent of our customers, I have a few to discuss with you.”

“I’m all ears.”

“Laura Benedict, for one.”

“The name isn’t familiar.”

“She’s a repeat customer who has tried to take advantage of us in your mother’s absence.”

“What are the dollars and cents?”

“In five years, she’s never amounted to more than thirty thousand in profit for us.”

“And she’s a bitch?”

“A bitch with PMS year-round.”

“What do you want to do about her?”

“Put her in her place, with the understanding that I can drop her if I have to.”

“I saw the financials. Do what you have to do, but don’t let me get blindsided. Let me know in advance, in case she comes to me.”

“My one hesitation is her big mouth. She’ll tell the world we parted ways and come up with some dramatization worthy of Netflix.”

“If we let everyone with a big mouth intimidate us, we’ll both be walking around with no balls.”

She starts laughing and our moods lighten. “I swear, sometimes I think your mother has a removable set she installs at work.”

“My father’s,” I joke.

“Mark,” she chides. “I can’t believe you said that!”

“If I’m alpha, then he’s beta. You must see that.”

“He’s the head coach of a baseball team. That’s pretty alpha.”

“And he coaches like a beta—which is why my mother is always trying to be his alpha.”

“Right.” She sighs. “That brings me to an important topic.”

“My father’s balls or my mother’s?”

She laughs. “Stop. No. Well, maybe your mother’s. She’s decided to go on a little outing tonight, and your father needs us to tag along.”

“What happened to her barely being able to get out of bed?”

“You,” she says. “Having you here means everything to her.”

“Oh hell,” I say, my hands settling on my thighs. “I know a suck-up, prep-me-for-what’s-coming-speech when I hear one. What is she up to?”

“Your father is having pitching practice tonight, and she wants to go watch.”

I shake my head firmly. “No. We are not going to the practice field. She’s exhausted, and it’s freezing outside.”

“It’s indoors. They’ve installed some sort of net inside the gym.”

“She still doesn’t need to be there.”

“She doesn’t have treatment on Saturday or Sunday. She can rest.”

“No.” I reach for my phone. “I’m telling her no.”

Crystal grabs my wrist. “Mark, you can’t do that.”

I cut her a look before I can stop myself. “Why the f*ck not?” I demand.

“I know you’re worried. But she said she’s learned that life is short, and she’s been by your father’s side far too little. She doesn’t want to have regrets. You have to let her go.”

The words send a shock wave through me, and my hands are suddenly on Crystal’s shoulders. “Has she decided she’s dying?” I ask hoarsely. “Does she know something I don’t know? Do you?”

“No! It’s not that—I promise. This is good. She says she’s decided to live, and I admire that. It’s something I haven’t always done.”

I push to my feet and cross the room, knowing what my mother’s doing. This is about me shutting out baseball and a past that was once my future. This is about her trying to bring me back home in every sense of the word.

But Crystal is right. I can’t deny her, no matter how painful this is for me. My mother just guaranteed that denial is no longer in the cards.

“What time do we need to be there?”

“Pitching practice starts at six thirty. I talked to Kara and she arranged to have someone she trusts here for closing. She’s going to escort your parents to the campus. Jacob said he’d drive us and stay with us the rest of the evening.”

“Isn’t my father worried about the press at the campus?”

“He’s had that handled for weeks now. It’s not a problem.”

I study her a long moment. “You decided we were going before you told me about this.”