Rush: The Season (Austin Arrows Book 1)(101)

Based on the look on her face, I feel a sense of dread come over me. I don’t know why, I don’t know what caused it, but the more I look at her, the more I know there’s a very good reason for it.

“Ellie? Is there something wrong?”

“Huh?” She sounds a little lost.

“Did something happen?”

When I come to a stop sign in her neighborhood, I briefly wait for her to talk to me.

“That was Noelle.”

Based on the way she looks, I’m not sure that’s a good thing. Was it bad news? I notice her hands are shaking, so I reach for the one closest to me. “Talk to me, babe.”

Her eyes are wide and there might be a hint of fear in them, I’m not sure.

“That was Noelle,” she repeats. “She called to let me know that I need to call … James.”

I frown at the mere mention of a man’s name.

Ellie swallows hard, her throat working as she continues to look at me. A tear catches me completely off guard, spilling from her eye. With my other hand, I reach to wipe it away.

“What’s going on?” I sound a little irrational now because she’s crying and I have no clue what I’m supposed to do.

“He called.”

I continue to stare. Asking “he who?” probably won’t get me too far based on how well this has gone already.

“He called me.” Her eyes widened. “He called the bar. And I have to call … him.” She glances down at the phone in her hand. “James.” Her eyes meet mine again. “Bianca’s dad.”

And just like that, my stomach drops. I don’t know what I’m supposed to say or feel, so I release Ellie’s hand and pull past the stop sign. I need to get her home. I don’t know why, but I do.

Within minutes, we’re pulling up to her house, but she hasn’t said a word. It’s starting to freak me out, so I hop out of the truck, walk around to her side, and open her door. As though she’s physically present but mentally somewhere far, far away, she climbs out but doesn’t seem to know what she’s doing. I guide her to the front door, take her key from her purse, unlock the door, and walk her inside.

“I don’t know how Bianca found him,” Ellie mumbles, lowering herself to the couch. “I looked and looked and…”

I’m confused. Ellie is supposed to know how Bianca found him. If she monitors her Facebook, she had to have seen the post.

She did see the post, right?

Based on her expression, she didn’t know about it. And that makes me a total * for not saying anything. I guess I should feel relief that she wasn’t keeping it from me, but … no, I don’t. No matter what, Ellie’s going to be upset that I knew and never said anything to her. I’m mad at myself for keeping it in, but I’m more pissed at this James character for coming into their lives now.

Seriously.

Why now?

There’s a trickle of dread that slithers down my spine. With him coming into Ellie’s life, what will that mean for us? Just when I thought we were making progress…

“Why aren’t you saying anything?”

I look down at her and see that she’s staring at me. I shrug, but I know I’m not sporting my poker face, so she’ll probably suspect something.

“Kingston?”

I meet her eyes again, waiting.

“What aren’t you telling me?”

That’s when my heart climbs into my throat. I have to choose my words carefully because what I say next will likely change everything between us. And quite frankly, I’m not sure I can stand to lose Ellie at this point.





41


Ellie


I’m not sure what’s wrong with Kingston, but he looks distraught. He probably looks worse than I do right now, and I’m not sure why that is. When he doesn’t answer my question, I know he’s not telling me something, but for the life of me, I can’t imagine what secret he might be keeping. It’s almost as though the mention of James’s name doesn’t come as a surprise to him.

“Kingston? Please talk to me.” My nerves are frazzled as it is; this silent thing he has going on is making it worse. Just hearing Noelle say James’s name has put me on edge. It has me clinging to that edge by my fingernails. According to Noelle, he didn’t say much on the phone. Well, not much after Noelle interrogated him, trying to get him to prove who he was. Once he did that, he simply told her that Bianca found him, and he was interested in talking to me regarding our daughter.

Our daughter.

Strange how that one word sounds so very wrong, but if this is really James, he could very well be the other part of this parenting duo that created the most incredible kid on the planet.

But I have to keep my thoughts straight here. I have nothing to go on other than a phone call from a stranger—a stranger I didn’t even get to talk to myself. I don’t know the first thing about this guy. It’s been thirteen or so years since I’ve seen him, and what little time we spent together, I assure you, we hadn’t been talking.

But according to Noelle, he remembered that night in Vegas rather vividly. She’d been there, right up to the point when I went back to my room with him, so she knows how it all went down. According to her, he is definitely that same man.