Impossible To Resist (BWWM Romance Book 1)(37)

“Not your fault.” Xander pulled into Jared’s driveway. “See you in the morning.”

“Yeah, thanks again.” Jared shook his teammate’s hand. “I’ll be ready by 5am.”

“Plan on six, I’m not that crazy.” Xander smiled warmly. “Call that woman of yours and start making amends.”

“Will do.” Jared climbed out of the van and grabbed his duffel from the backseat. Xander didn’t pull out of the driveway until Jared stepped into his house and shut the door behind him.

**

Jared took a long, hot shower and changed into track pants before settling down with a protein shake to address his phone. He had twelve voicemails. A few from the team, two from his Mom, a couple from Derek, one from Paul, but zero from A.J. Her name didn’t even show up in his missed call log. There were over fifty text messages but none from A.J. No emails from her either. Jared frowned at his phone. How was that possible?

He dialed her number, his heart thumped in his chest as he worked over what he would say after two days of radio silence. It went right to voicemail. Jared looked at the time, realized it was really late where she was, and forced himself not to read too much into it. He left a brief message, fumbled over his words a bit, and left the proverbial ball in her court. Jared contemplated listening to the messages from his team but deleted them instead.

They didn’t matter now. He put Paul’s off for tomorrow and went straight to his Mom’s. She just wanted to check in, find out when he would be back in L.A. and then asked if she could visit when he returned. He hit call back and waited for the familiar voice to pick up.

“Hi-ya, Mom.” Jared reverted to his roots every time he talked to his Mom.

“Jared!” Relief flooded her voice. “I was worried. I’m not used to not hearing from you for so long. What happened?”

“It’s a really long story, Mom.” Jared didn’t want to get into it now, especially not over the phone. “I’d love for you to come visit. I really need to talk to you and Dad.”

His Mom hesitated for a moment. “Actually, it would just be me, hon.”

“Mom, is something wrong?” Jared frowned into the phone as if his Mom could read his concern across the miles and through the device.

“I’d rather just talk to you in person, honey,” his Mom continued before he could object, “I need to get away for a few days anyway so I’ll just fly down this weekend and we can catch up then. Alright?”

“Mom, is Dad okay?” Jared’s heart pounded in his chest. “Just tell me.”

“He’s okay, he just can’t travel right now. He had a stroke. He’s okay, I promise you, he’s okay, but he can’t fly right now.”

“What!” Jared jumped off his couch. “Why didn’t anybody tell me! How could you keep that from me? When? What happened?”

“It happened a few weeks ago. Derek said it would be better if we didn’t tell you until you were back in L.A. He thought it might hurt your recovery,” his Mom said quietly.

“That bastard! Are you fucking kidding me?” Jared screamed. “Mom, you need to tell me when stuff happens. I don’t give a shit what Derek says. You talked to me every week and pretended you were tired from the restaurant. Why would you do that?”

“Honey, we were just looking out for you,” his Mom soothed, her voice betraying the tears he knew were rolling down her cheeks. “You sounded so happy and I didn’t want to ruin that.”

“Mom, I would have been there. What if it wasn’t okay? What if he didn’t make it? Would you have hidden that from me too?” Jared asked, refusing to hold back now.

“Of course we would have! Your dad is going to be just fine. He just needs to slow down a little.” His Mom added that last bit as an afterthought but Jared thought he wasn’t getting the whole story.

“Mom, let me fly to you this weekend, I’d like to see Dad,” Jared blurted without thinking, not really caring about anything else at the moment.

“You can’t do that,” his Mom reminded him, “you just got back. If you leave now it will not look good and you know it.”

“I can tell them my dad is sick. They’ll understand,” Jared argued.

“I don’t think so, sweetie.” His Mom sounded sad now. “I think you need to stay. Let me visit you and we’ll talk things out and you’ll see that staying is in your best interest.”

“You sound like Derek now, Mom,” Jared said bitterly.

“Has something happened between you and Derek?” His Mom cut to the heart of the problem as always.

“Yeah, Mom. You could say that,” Jared muttered into the receiver but conceded that it may not be in his best interest to leave right now. “Alright, come visit and we’ll talk. I have a lot to tell you, things I couldn’t really explain before.”

“Okay. I’ll be there on Friday.” His Mom sounded like she was smiling now. “I’ll meet you at your house after practice.”

“Nah, I’ll pick you up at the airport,” Jared offered, “just let me know when you get in.”

“Are you sure? Won’t the press be following you around still?” His mom sounded skeptical.

“Not if they don’t know what I’m driving,” Jared answered. “Text me your flight information and I’ll let you know what kind of car to look for.”