Family Camp (Daddy Dearest, #1)(57)

Crap. Well, it was probably best to show the photos to Jayden himself, and discuss it with him directly, rather than Jayden sneaking off to see them. And it wasn’t like they were obscene. Or shameful. They hadn’t done anything wrong. Geo took his phone from a pocket and searched. The TMZ post came up as the number one search result for “Travis Mayhew.” Great.

He handed the phone to Jayden. Jayden scrolled through the article. Lucy looked over his shoulder, her brow furrowed.

He could tell when Jayden paused on the photo of the kiss. Jayden got a big smile.

“Oooh, awesome! So you guys were together. Like, together together?” Jayden asked hopefully. “Kissing and stuff?”

“Uh…yeah.”

“Way to go, dude! So is Travis gonna be, like, our new dad number two? Are you gonna get married?”

“Uh-huh,” Lucy said happily. “Max come live with us!” She spread one hand out as if to say, but of course.

Okay, unexpected parental problem. The kids are okay with you being gay but expect you to procure a smoking-hot millionaire pro athlete as a husband. And don’t forget the dog.

There was hot pressure behind Geo’s eyes, and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to laugh or cry. Bless Jayden for being excited about he and Travis dating. Because, yeah, that should be the reaction to those photos. Absolutely.

Fucking world.

Except…Travis was gone. And he probably was never coming back, not to them anyway, not to Geo and Jayden and Lucy, who would be at home in Fresno. They’d weather their little storm, which would be nothing compared to what Travis would have to deal with. But in any case, it was over.

He told me to tell you he’s sorry and goodbye.

Geo told himself he wasn’t heartbroken. They could’a had something. They could’a been a contender. It was just shitty timing, that was all. Shitty timing, shitty world.

“No, Travis and I aren’t together together,” Geo told the kids with a sad smile. “Travis has his own life in San Diego. You know? And it’s, um, tough for a pro athlete to openly date a man. A lot of fans wouldn’t like it. So.”

Jayden’s face fell and Lucy looked confused. God, that was too much “real” to put on any kid. He tried to shift into something more upbeat. “But maybe we’ll see him again someday. Right?” He gave Lucy a smile. “And you can watch him on the TV.”

At least I hope you still can. Assuming he isn’t sacked.

“But he said we could go to his game in Oakland!” Jayden whined.

“Yeah, I’m not sure that’ll still happen, bud. I’m sorry.”

“But he liked us.” Jayden’s voice cracked and his eyes filled with tears. And, shit, Geo had handled this abysmally. He should have known Jayden would be upset, triggered at the jolt of being left behind so suddenly by someone he’d grown to care about.

Lucy was upset by Jayden’s reaction, and she started crying too. It wasn’t her wailing banshee cry, just big shiny tears that filled her pretty brown eyes and rolled down her cheeks. “Travis and Max are gone?”

“Hey! Come on, you guys.” Geo pulled Jayden and Lucy in for a hug. “Jay, he thought you were the bomb. I’m… I’m sure you’ll hear from him again. He’s your friend. This doesn’t change that.”

Geo hoped to God that was true. Surely, at the very least, Travis could email Jayden occasionally. Send him a goddamned signed baseball or something. Anything to make Jayden not feel abandoned.

“But he didn’t even say goodbye to us,” Jayden said, choking back tears.

“Aw. But he did say goodbye. He had to leave early this morning, when we were all asleep, so he told Cindy to pass on the message to us. He said to tell you guys goodbye.”

Jayden pushed back and wiped impatiently at his face, his expression going tough and resentful. “But what about you? He liked you, Geo. I know he did. You can’t just stop liking someone. Who cares about what stupid baseball fans think. Fans are stupid!”

“You know what? It’ll be all right. I promise it will. You, me, and Lucy, we’re a family. We’ll miss seeing Travis, but we’ll probably see him again sometime. And us three? We’re golden. Okay?”

He looked them both in the eyes until they nodded. Lucy stuck her thumb in her mouth and clutched her dolls tightly.

Jesus Christ, it had only been a week. And this is why single parents didn’t introduce the people they dated to their kids, he supposed. But Geo had to believe they’d be fine, and he had to make Jayden and Lucy believe it.

And if that meant he had to let Travis Mayhew go? Well then, that was what he had to do.





Chapter 28




“While you were on your way down here, I had a chance to talk to a friend of mine. He does crisis PR. You need to hire him.”

Crisis. PR. Two words no athlete wanted to hear together, ever. Travis stayed silent and tried to hold it together while Marcia paced in front of the large window in her office. She hadn’t stopped moving since Travis came in five minutes ago.

“The first concern he has is this: do they have pictures that are worse than the ones TMZ showed? Because if not, we have some options that don’t entirely suck.”

Travis blinked at her. “You mean photos with my ass hanging out?”