Trent (Season Two: The Ninth Inning #4) (23 page)

“If you think this is making
me change my mind, it hasn’t.”

Her eyes are wide with
surprise, and I’ll be damned, even now, I want to kiss her again.
By the time she opens her mouth to speak, the elevator doors are
parting. I chuckle, keeping my hand on her back as we walk to the
receptionist. She quickly lets him know we’re here and a minute
later, we’re walking into his office.

***

TWO HOURS IN an
attorney's office isn't how I want to spend my day. The attorney
takes our information, gives us the rundown on what he's going to
do, and I think he'll be really helpful. On top of everything else,
to anything a reporter asks, we have to say 'no comment'.

Trent walks me to my car, and
man, I want to kiss him so badly. I need to refrain because we’re
in public and the first kiss was a mistake

“Thanks for letting me come
with you. I told you, I can help pay the bill.”

He shakes his head. “No.
Don’t worry about it, Scarlett.”

“I do, but I’ll figure some
other way to pay you back. Maybe I’ll send you a special
autographed ball or something.”

Trent laughs. “You don’t need
to do that. You should pretend there’s not even a bill in the first
place.”

“Fine.” I give up on trying
to give him money. “If this is how you want to play it, then fine.
I guess I should go. I’ll see you around or something.” I’m
suddenly nervous. I don’t know when I’ll see him again. If
ever.

“Yeah, me too. I’ll be in
touch about when we can get together again.”

“Together?” I stop.
What?
“There’s no need for us to be together. If needed, I
can meet with the lawyer without bothering you.”

“That’s not what I meant,
Scarlett.” He gives me the look. The look that says I should
already know what he means.

“Trent.” I do know what he’s
talking about. I sigh because we’re going to have the same
argument. “We cannot be together. We cannot kiss or date or hang
out or anything else related to being
together
. Why are you
pushing this? You should be pushing me away.”

“Did you not make the comment
about how people pushed you away because of the actions of your
family? You were upset over it, yet it’s all you want me to
do.”

I know the feeling all too
well. People have pushed me away for as long as I can remember. No
one wanted to hang out with me because my family were criminals and
did nothing but drugs. Hell, I’d probably do the same thing if I
were in their shoes.

“Do you want the truth? Do
you want me to spill my feelings to you right now, in the middle of
parking lot? Because trust me, you may not want to hear it, and I
can’t un-say it.” Maybe I can stall him long enough that he won’t
ask me to really tell him how I feel about him or our
situation.

He looks me right in the
eyes; his voice is firm. “I want you to do what
you
want,
not what you think you should do, and not what other people think
you should do. You told me yes the other day. Have you completely
changed your mind?”

I debate with myself for
about two seconds. I’m an adult, and I need to tell him the truth.
He needs to be mature enough to hear it and then process what he
wants to do.

“I haven’t changed my mind,
Trent. I like you. I’ve told you; but this is beyond the scope of
anything I’ve ever done. People have pushed me away because of my
family. Did it feel good? Hell no, it didn’t, but you have a
beautiful daughter to think of. Someday she may ask you about me,
and what are you going to say? You’re going to tell her I’m the
sister of the man who killed her mother. We’ve had this
conversation more than I can count, because it’s the
only
conversation that matters. But...damn...I still want to have dinner
with you because I’m selfish like that.” I’m becoming frustrated as
I battle my feelings and spout them off to Trent.

“Then have dinner with me.
It’s as simple as that, Scarlett,” he says matter-of-factly.

Simple?
He thinks this
is simple. Has he already forgotten the reports, the stories, my
brother, his wife? No, he hasn’t, because he’s not that way. He’s
thought this through. He has to have; why else would he still be
standing here telling me we’re going to go on a date? I want this.
He wants this. Why am I fighting it so much?

“We can’t go out like a
normal couple. However, I’m not the world’s worst cook, so we can
have dinner at my place, whenever you’re free.” My heart is
thumping hard against my chest.

Trent smiles. “Good. I’ll let
you know, okay? I need to get home.”

“Okay.” We’re going on a
date.

“A dinner date? At your
house?” Macy asks suspiciously.

“Please. I don’t need a
lecture because I’ve already given myself all the ones you can
think of.”

Macy sighs. “Okay. You’re
both mature enough to understand this situation, and if he agreed,
then I have nothing else to say on the matter. However, I would go
with pants unless you’re hoping for sex.”

I pull pair of black pants
from my closet and pink blouse. I’m not too keen on pink, but it
isn’t low-cut and looks nice.

“I’ve got it. Thank for the
help; I’ll call you tomorrow.” I end the call before she can say
anything else.

I race downstairs to check on
the food. Everything looks okay, so I know I have time to get in
the shower. I run back up to my bathroom and jump into the shower.
While I am in there, I realize I should shave. I know
nothing
is going to happen, but I want to try to feel
sexy.

Right?

Right.

After I’m done, and yes, I do
feel sexy, I wrap my robe around me and twist the towel on top of
my head. That’s when I smell it.

“Oh no!” I gasp and almost
break a leg sprinting to the stove, where the smoke is seeping
through the door. I cough and hack as I open the oven door. “Shit!”
I grab a couple oven mitts and pull out the baked ziti, which is
now a burnt baked ziti. I’m so mad at myself. This isn’t going as I
thought it would. I shouldn’t have taken a shower yet.

“Ugh.” Now what am I going to
do?

Pizza is a safe choice. I’ll
do that. I grab my phone and order from my food app. I don’t know
what kind he likes, so I’ll do one pepperoni and one sausage, along
with breadsticks because I have to those.

I run back upstairs and dry
off before putting on my clothes. I start working on my makeup when
my doorbell rings. There’s still fifteen minutes before Trent is
supposed to be here. Thankfully, Trent isn’t early, and I pay the
deliveryman before I take the pizzas into kitchen. I finish my
makeup and wait for Trent, which doesn’t take long. When I open the
door, he is in a nice pair of dress pants and a polo shirt. Not
overly dressy.

“Hi.” I smile.

“Hi.”

I step to the side to let him
in. After I shut the door, we head toward the kitchen. “So, I’ve
apparently became the worst cook in America and I had to order
pizza. I know it’s not normally what people eat on a date unless
you’re sixteen, but I didn’t know what else to do.”

“It’s fine. We’ve done this
without it being something normal because you know, usually it
takes a few dates before a guy gets invited over to the house.” He
attempts a joking tone.

I laugh. “True.”

Together, we go into the
kitchen and fix our plates. I grab a couple beers from the fridge
instead of the wine I had planned.

“How was the road trip?” I
ask once we are settled at the kitchen table.

“Stressful.” He takes a bite.
“Kaelyn was on a temper tantrum craze the entire time, but I think
Angie handled her well. At least, from what she said, she did. But
other than that, it went well.”

“Well, in my expert opinion,
it’s hard for her. She was used to your grandmother, and now she
has Angie. Let’s not forget, you’re gone a lot. Have you thought
about putting her in therapy? I can get you the names of some great
therapists.”

“I don’t think she needs
therapy, just more time to adjust. Besides, she was due for a fit
of temper tantrums. It’s been a while.”

I’ve heard parents say this
before, and I would argue with them about it. However, Trent is a
level-headed father, and I know he wants what’s best for her.
“You’re her father. You know what’s best, but if you ever change
your mind, I can help you out.” I realize with being away, he might
not know the latest. “The lawyer's secretary said there shouldn’t
be anything to worry about. They were able to get the post off the
Junior Mints website. Took them a little while, but they did
it.”

“Yeah, he called to let me
know. How are Joey and David?”

“Actually, David is in the
process of being adopted. Joey’s father is getting out of jail
soon, too. Hopefully, he cleaned up his act, and he might be able
to get Joey back.”

“Oh, wow. That’s awesome. Is
he staying nearby so he can still play on his team?”

“No. He'll be going closer to
Knoxville, and Joey is a transplant from Nashville. They won’t be
my kids anymore, but I’ll check up on them from time-to-time.”

“That’s nice. Do you think
you’ll be doing the same thing in ten years? Or will you eventually
accept a promotion when it’s offered?”

“Funny you say that, remember
me telling you about the one I turned down?” He nods. “Well, the
person who they gave it to ended up quitting, and they’ve offered
it to me again. So, I took it. It’s a little bit better pay, and
I’ll be a supervisor.”

“Congratulations! You’re
excited about it, right?”

“Well, it’s a lot to get used
to. I’ve never really had a desk job or normal working hours, but
yes, I’m excited.”

“Eventually, we should
celebrate with ice cream, unless you have some here?”

“I made brownies for dessert,
which I didn’t burn. However, I have no ice cream. Maybe some other
time.”

We finish eating and there
are moments of awkward silence. It’s mainly because of me. I’m not
good in these situations on first dates. I know technically we’ve
had what people call
dates
, but now it’s more official, and
I’m not sure how to act.

“I’m not huge on movies or
anything, but I thought maybe we could play cards or something,” I
suggest after we both clean up everything.

“What are you thinking of
playing? And just so you know, I’m a competitive person.”

“Hmm...how about Rummy? First
to a thousand points wins.” Sadly, it’s the only card game I know
how to play well.

“What’s the prize for the
winner? What am I going to get when I win?”

“Prize? You want a prize?”
What the hell is he thinking?

“Yes, I do. Games are always
better when there’s a prize.”

“Okay, um…winner picks the
next date?” My voice cracks with nervousness. Will he agree to
it?

A smile spreads across his
face. “Deal.” He pretends to crack his knuckles. “Let’s do
this.”

I roll my eyes. “This isn’t
game seven of the World Series, Trent. It’s just Rummy. And when I
win, I’m going to make you go to knitting class with me.” I snicker
at him.

“What if I told you I’m a
secret knitting fan?”

“That did not come up on
Google when I was stalking you.” I keep trying to hide my smile,
but it’s not working out well.

“That’s because it’s a
secret. Google wouldn’t know.”

“Maybe I should call Junior
Mints? This is groundbreaking.”

Trent bellows out a laugh.
“You’re going to out me? I thought you were a better person than
that, Scarlett.”

“Depends if I win this game
or not.”

We put on our serious faces.
Both of us want to win and it’s close to the first thousand points.
In the end, I prevail.

“Now, Trent, what is the
score again? Because I think I won by a landslide.”