Real Fake Love (Copper Valley Fireballs #2)(62)

My mother points at the bathroom door. “Are you going to let her talk to me like that?”

I look at the door.

Back at my mom, who’s one more person who’s not supposed to be here.

Over at my bed, where there’s enough luggage for a king’s three-week safari tour piled exactly where I’d like my tired body to be.

“What are you doing here?”

“I was mother and father to you, so I’m here for my official role to support you for fathers’ week.”

“I’m filling in for his father,” Nonna yells from inside the bathroom.

“You failed to make his father leave.”

“Don’t you start with me. You know I did everything I could for Luca growing up—”

“Yes, he noticed all the times you had to leave to fly around the world.”

“I was a pilot! That was my job! The one that kept him in baseball cleats, if you recall.”

Mom ignores her, naturally, because she always does. “And now you think you can interfere with his love life, because that’s always gone so well for him? And look what you did to his hair. If you ruin his endorsement deal—”

“He’s living his best life, and you’re trying to squash his spirit!”

“You’re ruining his financial prospects and his self-respect by disfiguring parts of his body.”

“It’s hair dye.”

I turn, grab the door handle, and leave the two of them to rip each other to shreds without me.

I still want to call Henri, but leaving my phone on means endless calls from my mother and grandmother to settle their disputes, so as soon as Brooks opens his hotel room door with the what the hell? expression of every man ever interrupted during phone sex, I power off my own phone.

I shrug at him. “Sorry, man. My room got invaded. My mother and grandmother are doing the Italian Eye version of the next world war.”

He glances at the ceiling, and you can tell he’s doing the same mental gymnastics I did before heading to his room. Who else on the team would make a good roommate?

On a normal trip, he’s it. Everyone else either has family or a significant other traveling with them, they’re junior enough with crappy enough contracts that they already have a roommate, or else they’re out hitting the bars looking for action.

If they even have to leave the hotel lobby.

No idea if having the dads along is impacting anyone’s post-game game, but I know I’m going for the safe bet.

Especially since his father is rooming with Cooper’s father.

Plus, the fact that Brooks’s fiancée loves the team as much as she loves him means he can’t turn me away without risking her wrath, and while I’ve never seen Mackenzie’s wrath, I’ve lived long enough to know it’s the happy ones you need to worry most about.

I’ve also seen the lengths she’ll go to in the name of the Fireballs winning.

She’s hardcore.

In the best way.

“I don’t know where my father is either right now, but if he finds me, I’m gonna play like shit tomorrow.”

Brooks grunts. “Get in here. You need to deal with your family issues, man. Also, you get the rollaway. And go stand in the bathroom with the water running in the shower until I tell you it’s safe to come out.”

“Deal.”

I sleep like crap for the next seven hours or so, which will be no excuse for a shit game tonight, because baseball is life.

It’s also my job.

I’m visualizing myself hitting a grand slam at my first at-bat today as I head back to my own room to kick out Mom and Nonna so I can take a shower in peace first thing in the morning, but as soon as I open the door, I realize something’s different.

It’s the smell.

Gone is the doom coupled with the scents of hell and arguments, replaced by peach ice cream and sheets dried in the wind and a hint of a hurricane.

Considering the new voice added to the mix, I’m not surprised.

Am I smiling?

I do believe I’m smiling.

Until I wonder if she brought my father into the mix.

“Morgan. Now it’s your turn. I want you to look at Irene and tell her you’re sorry.”

“I will not apologize to—”

“Ah-ah-ah. She told you she’s sorry for raising the crap bag who left you for another woman, and that took strength of character. Do you want me to think that Luca got all of his charm from his grandmother, or do you want to be the bigger person and own up to what you’ve done wrong in your relationship with her too?”

“I raised him all by myself while she pretended to help two days a month, at most, when she’d tell him stories about her fabulous life and make me look like an even bigger loser, and now she thinks she can force him to marry you when look what’s happened to both of you when people interfere.”

“Life sucks sometimes, but it’s never too late for a fresh start. Do you like this cloud of bitterness hanging around? Jerry doesn’t. My sunshine was the one thing he loved most about me. So either he was a liar and he’s playing you too, or you should try adjusting your worldview to freaking get along with your son’s grandmother and quit giving him heartburn.”

My jaw hits the floor.

Nonna cackles.

Henri’s angled so she can’t see me as she lectures my family, whom I can’t see because the bathroom wall is blocking my view of the bed, but I’m positive she knows I’m here.