Scored(65)

And that’s what I’m going to do as well, follow my big brother’s example and keep grinding until I can convince Paige that we can work anything out.





CHAPTER 27




Paige


Layton walks into my bedroom, carrying yet another package from Dallas. My assumption is based off the fact the last six deliveries were from him. Each contained a different gift card that was addressed to me… well, sort of.

“I wonder what this one will be?” Layton muses as she sets the box on my desk. “I don’t know how he’ll top the Pan Asian one that was gifted to your appetite.”

“You only like that one because you want me to give it to you,” I point out.

“No, I think you should take me with you because I was the one to find Pan Asian in the first place.”

“You want to charge a finder’s fee?” I flop on my bed and point at my dresser. “Just put it over there, please.”

“You don’t want to open it?”

“Not really.” I massage my temples. “I’ve been trying to think straight since we left Miami, but Dallas gave me only five days of space instead of eight.”

“Technically, he’s not sending these to you.”

I give her a withering look.

“Well, he isn’t.” She sets the package down and picks up the gift cards that are piled neatly together. “This is to your impeccable sense of style and it’s to a shoe store, not a lingerie shop. Hmm. Maybe this one… nope, it’s addressed to your funny bone so it can download as many rom-coms as it wants to your tablet. The nerve of him to bother your sense of style and funny bone like that. He’s awful.”

“When you put it like that…” I sigh thickly and shut my eyes. “This isn’t easy for me. I miss him so much, but…” For once, I can’t articulate why I’m still working through the problem of dating a man with Dallas’s reputation and infamy. “But I need my space.”

“Okay.”

I crack open an eye. “Okay?”

Layton nods. “Far be it from me to try to convince you that he’s the one.”

“You don’t think he is?” I sit up.

“I really don’t think it matters what I think about Dallas,” she says primly. “You already made up your mind about him a long time ago.”

“I have not,” I insist.

“If that’s true, then why are you worried if he’s the one or not?”

I pick at my bedspread. “Because he might be the one or a huge mistake.”

“Paige.”

“I don’t trust my judgment,” I blurt, suddenly fighting the tears that have been pricking the backs of my eyes for the past few days. “What if I’m wrong? What if I get hurt? What if these two months have been for nothing at all?”

“What if Joe isn’t the one for me? Did we start dating too soon? Should we have had other relationships before settling down? What if all these years with him have been for nothing at all?” Layton asks as she sits down beside me.

“You’ve been thinking that?”

She nods. “Everyone has fears about commitment, about whether they made the right choice. You’re not singular in this.”

“I’m being the worst maid of honor ever.”

Layton twists her lips. “I don’t know about that. Read the last rule on the list—it’s on the back.”

Reaching over, I grab the laminated list from my nightstand and scan it. “In the event of all hell breaking loose, the maid of honor will be there for the bride… and the bride will be there for the maid of honor.” I laugh a little. “That sounds kind of lawyer-ish.”

“Guilty as charged.” She leans against me, resting her head on my shoulder. “Do you feel like going back home with me tonight, instead of waiting? I’m so excited, Paige. I’m getting ready to start the rest of my life with the man, who is not cheating on me, I love.”

If I go back early, I’d be forced to spend time with my momma and her husband. I’d have to endure lovely-dovey talk and the stars in my momma’s eyes that he put there—until he makes them burn out… or she sends him packing for the greater good of baseball. My plan was to avoid all that by waiting until the last possible minute to travel, then be so involved with helping Layton before, during, and after the wedding that there would be no way to spend any extended amount of time with my family.

Yet… I know in my heart that even if I decide to break up with Dallas, I’ll just make another excuse when the next guy comes along.

My heart pinches.

I can’t imagine my life with a different man.

“You know what—I do.”

*

Suitcase in hand, I walk up the front steps to my momma’s house. It’s not the one Finley and I grew up in. No, this is the one husband number five purchased and Momma got to keep after the divorce. The roof doesn’t leak, and there’s an in-ground pool in the back with a fenced-in yard. Her flower beds are stuffed with flowers, and there isn’t a blessed soul to tell her that the rent is late.

I want to be happy for her, want to feel welcome in a place I’ve never lived, and I want to celebrate holidays with my brother and sister…but it’s hard when I don’t have the kind of relationship with them as Dallas has with his family. I wasn’t around them very long, but it was enough to make me jealous. Enough to make me wish my siblings and I were as close as Dallas and his brother. That I could tell my mom and Finley how I really feel about Dallas.