Page 38 of Out of Bounds
“It’s not only the fans,” he says. “I’m – I’m sorry I hurt you.”
I scoff. “Please. You don’t have to pretend anymore. I’m not waiting around for you on a whim these days.”
He sighs. “Annie, it was more than that between us. I liked you.”
“I was a convenient fuck.”
“You know that isn’t true.”
Those words sting harder than if he’d made what happened between us meaningless. “Auston, that makes all this worse. How could you feel anything for me and do what you’ve done? You ghosted me.”
“I know. Look, I could have handled this whole thing better.” He clears his throat. “I’ve met someone. Someone…special.”
Special.It strikes me like a dagger because what he means is, I was never that.
“She’s made me want to be… different. What’s happening to me is hurting her, too. We can’t go public while all this is hanging over me.”
The backs of my eyes burn like they’re firelighters and Auston has struck a match to them. I need to get out of here.
“What do you want, Auston? A social media declaration that we’re friends now? A statement that I was mistaken and Nelson isn’t actually yours? That I was sleeping around and lured you in, trapped the pro-baller?”
Tanner’s words come to me – no relationship should feel like a trap. I didn’t mean to trap Auston but I realize thatIam trapped by this whole situation. Tanner was right.
I push up to stand and this time I do make it out of the booth. “You’re off the hook. I want nothing from you. Enjoy your new relationship with the freedom of a man who doesn’t have a child he never wanted.”
I’m walking out the door when his voice comes from right behind me, too close. “Annie.”
“What?” I fire, spinning around to him, terrified that his proximity will be the thing that breaks the dams of my eyes.
“I want to do right by you both. I can set up an account for Nelson?—”
“Money?” I shake my head. “God, whathappenedto you? Where did the guy you were in college disappear to? Confident in his abilities, yes. But someone with compassion and humanity? Or so I thought.” His security guard is ambling toward us. “We don’t need your money, Auston. If youwantto give anything, give Nelson your time. If not, it’s your loss. He and I will be fine without you.”
I leave the restaurant, turning one more time to tell him, “Have a safe flight and don’t bother getting back in touch, unless it’s to be part of Nelson’s life.”
I want to bolt through the airport and get far away from Auston as quickly as possible, where thousands of people can’t see my chin wobbling or my eyes glazed over. If only I were the type of person to wear sunglasses indoors. But I’m not. I can’t hide my identity from fans or shirk my responsibilities and think it’s okay because I make tens of millions of dollars a year. I’m just little old me.
Seeing Betty’s car as I break free of the chaos is like breathing for the first time. A ride back to the sanctity of the ranch. A baby who loves me unconditionally.
She swings into a drop-off spot and I move straight to the back of her car, taking Nelson out of his seat and hugging his smiling little face against my body, inhaling the scent of him that I adore.
But my moment of restoration is cut short.
“Annie, can we start this again? I didn’t?—”
I turn to Auston in time to see him drag in a sharp breath. His security guy is breathing heavily, so I guess they chased me through the airport and I can’t pretend not to notice the few bystanders who’ve realized that Auston Rogers is in their vicinity as they unsurreptitiously hold up their phones.
I pin Nelson to me, to shield him from onlookers and the inevitable publicity that will follow, to protect him from the man facing us, big lips parted as he removes his shades, eyes fixed on Nelson as if he’s never seen a baby before.
“Is this him?” Auston asks, still focused on our son.
I’m aware of Betty getting out of the car, my own bodyguard, as Auston becomes increasingly twitchy.
“This is Nelson,” I tell him.
For the first time in as long as I’ve known him, Auston’s cocksure armor falls away and his eyes hold a softness so rarely seen on him. But I have seen it and look what he did to me. I let myself believe that there was a gentle man in there and my brother saw it, too, but it can disappear as easily as it presents.
Auston steps closer to us and though my instinct is to turn my back on him, to take Nelson away from him, I don’t. My feet are rooted to the ground, body rigid, and even while knowing he can’t possibly appreciate that the man standing in front of him is his daddy, I think Nelson is vibing from me that something big is happening, because he’s still and quiet in my hold.
