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“Lia, come on.”
“Fine. You want to know what’s bothering me? Chris could lose Henry, and it’d be my fault,” Thalia snaps, looking up at me to reveal the agony she poorly attempted to hide.
“How would it be your fault?”What the hell is going on?
She throws her hair into a bun that immediately starts falling out, much to her frustration as she exhales sharply. “Allie is upset that Chris is allowing Henry to be around us. She doesn’t think you’re a good influence on him because of the arrest, or detainment, or whatever the fuck you want to call it. Throw that in with everything happening in the presswith Kiera, and she’s threatening to use it against Chris in court.”
If I heard her correctly, the problem isn’t Thalia. It’s Henry being around me.
“Why is Allie doing this?” I ask carefully, trying not to say the wrong thing and her face falls.
“Because she can! Chris said it’s best if I don’t see him until things calm down. I love the time I spend with that little boy and I don’t want things to change because there’s been enough recently that I’d like things to just fucking calm down for the moment.”
“Because change freaks you out. You don’t do well with it, but what’s happening with their marriage isn’t your fault, Thalia. You love Henry. Chris knows that. I think he’s just trying to keep his kid.”
“Change freaks me out?” she asks, her voice deathly calm. I swear, the temperature in the room drops a couple of degrees with the coldness she’s now directing toward me.
Yeah, that was definitely the wrong thing to say. “Fuck, I only meant that—”
“I think I know exactly what you meant,Sebastian. Change doesn’t freak me out, but being blindsided sure as hell does.”
Oh god, I do not want to rehash this right now. Every alarm in my head is going off that this room has turned into a danger zone, and I’m not sure how to backtrack the conversation. I wasn’t even talking about that proposal years ago, which is what I can only assume she’s referring to.
“No, what I meant was up until recently I was engaged to someone else while I was trying to suppress my feelings for you, and you were dating another guy. Now Chris has moved back, and is asking you to not see Henry. I can’timagine how hard that was to hear.” Her mouth flattens, and I drag a hand through my hair. “Love, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said change freaks you out. I’m not sure what the right thing is to say right now.”
I take it back, I am stupid.
“I hear you loud and clear, Sebastian. I think it’s best if you go; I want to be alone right now.” Thalia crosses her arms over her chest, and I regret opening my mouth in the first place.
I push myself up off the bed, doing my best to keep calm. “Fine. Have a nice trip.”
It’s only on the drive back to my hotel that I realize how much I’ve fucked up. Chris told Thalia that Henry couldn’t be around me, and if that turned into her not being able to be around him, that’s because she wouldn’t stay away from me while she had him. My fuckup isn’t just with Thalia, but also with Henry. The kid’s really grown on me, and I know how much Thalia loves him. I didn’t think that my actions affected anyone other than myself and the team, but they do. Chris can’t lose Henry because of me and Thalia needs stability. She tried to tell me that, and all I said was how change freaks her out.
I’m fucking stupid.
I pull my phone out, and press a number I was given for an entirely different reason. “Hey. It’s Sebastian Walker. I need your help with something.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Thalia
I’VE SPENT ALMOST my entire trip going back and forth as to whether I overreacted with Sebastian. One hour, the answer would be a definitiveyes, I was being dramatic. The next hour, it morphed intohe was being a jerk.
Unfortunately, all the back and forth is no help with my brain deciding if my reaction was justified.
I rub my hands over my face tiredly, wishing I had half the energy some of the people in this airport seem to have. The screen to my right flickers out of the corner of my eye, but the sudden groan of the people surrounding me redirects my attention completely.
“A forty-five minute delay? I’m never going to make my connecting flight!” a woman complains loudly, and my stomach twists. That delay and the traffic I’m assuming will be around the stadium for the rivalry game means I’m never going to make it before kickoff.
Fuck me.
I’m mad, but not mad enough to let Sebastian think I’m bailing. I did miss him over the last few days, and I hoped we’d have a chance to talk.
I pull up his contact, pressing his phone number before I can talk myself out of it, and almost like Bash can telepathically understand my thought process, he picks up.
“Hi,” I say shyly, and I immediately face-palm. I’m not shy, and I never have been.
“Hey,” he replies, and I shift in my seat.