21. Monroe

CHAPTER 21

MONROE

C obb hadn't come over after his game last night.

I'd stayed up for quite a while waiting, yet he never showed up. Maybe I should've gone into my dads' house and called him. By the time the thought had occurred to me, it was late, and I didn't want to wake him not to mention his number was in my phone. I might not have known a ton about how being a professional baseball player worked, but he'd told me that the day before he pitched was almost as important as the day he actually pitched. Without the workout the day before, he could get hurt.

No one wanted that.

Once I thought it was a respectable time, I went into the house and found the phone Dad got me on the kitchen counter with a note saying it was taken care of and called him, hoping he'd answer so I could explain what had happened yesterday. Explain why I'd stood him up for that meeting. It wasn't because I'd wanted to, that was for sure.

The more I thought about the fact that I hadn't shown up and that he didn't know why made me think that was what he was pissed about during the game.

But why hadn't he reached out to see what had happened?

Was it something with that woman? He'd been meeting with her to hopefully figure out a way to end the whole thing. I trusted him, so I didn't think he'd suddenly fallen in love with her, but something must've happened.

After the third time of me trying to call him and him not answering, I sent a text. When he didn't answer that, I decided to drive to his apartment to see if he was home.

Though once I was standing outside of his door, I was less confident.

I took a deep breath then blew it out before knocking. Once I did that, I couldn't scurry away like a scared rabbit the way I wanted to.

No one came to the door.

Without thinking about it, I used the key I still had to his place and let myself in.

"Cobb?" I called out because if he was there and hadn't heard my knock, I didn't want to startle him. Also, somewhere in the back of my mind, I realized that I also didn't want to walk in on something I didn't want to see.

I wasn't sure what that was, but I didn't want it, anyway.

Cheating? No. Cobb wasn't that guy. Yet that little, nagging morsel of doubt still wiggled in the back of my mind. After all that bravado about not worrying about someone cheating on me, that little nugget was there.

First, I checked the bathroom, but he wasn't in there. The door was open and the light was off. Then it was the bedroom, but again, it was empty. Honestly, the bed didn't look like it'd been slept in, which I didn't love.

Swallowing back the uncertainty, my sudden thirst battled with the tenseness in my stomach. Promising myself that I wouldn't let my imagination run wild, I hurried out of his room and his apartment, making sure the door locked behind me.

Then I went right home. It was the only place I wanted to be. Yet even surrounded by my own things, in the comfort of my own home, it wasn't enough.

I needed my dads.

But I'd have to painfully wait hours until they were home.

Finally, I heard one of their cars and rushed through the door that attached to the house to meet whomever it was in the entryway.

Papa had just dropped his keys in the bowl on the table they used for that.

"Hey, honey. Wasn't expecting to see you there," he said. My bottom lip trembled at the comfort his voice brought. His eyebrows slammed down. "What's going on, Monroe?"

That was too much. I rushed into his arms, which he wrapped snugly around me.

I wasn't going to cry, I told myself. I wasn't. This was just Cobb and me missing each other. But again, that tiny niggling of self-doubt reared its ugly head.

"Monroe?"

"Just hug me." My voice was muffled into his chest.

So we stood there, Papa holding me tightly with my arms wrapped around him. Actually, I hadn't talk to him after I'd been arrested yesterday and assumed Dad had told him everything.

Then the door opened again and without looking, it had to be Dad.

"What's going on?" he whispered. Papa shrugged, which brought Dad over where he wrapped his arms around the both of us. Then he kissed the top of my head and released me, as did Papa. "Monroe?"

I took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. At least I hadn't started to cry. "I think this calls for sushi," I told him. Since I hadn't eaten all day, it was probably time that I did.

Too much of being alone in my apartment had my head swirling and there was no one better to unswirl it than my dads.

"I'll order," Papa said, heading to the kitchen. That was where our takeout menus were.

"Want to talk about it now?" Dad asked.

I shook my head. "I don't want to do it twice."

Papa was back a few minutes later. "Why don't we get changed and Monroe can get drinks? We'll eat in the living room."

"Seriously?" Dad asked.

"It's comfortable and the game's coming on." He winced. "If we're still watching the game tonight."

I snickered. "We should watch the game."

My dads loved baseball, but they loved me more and if they were thinking something had happened with Cobb—which it sort of had—they'd never watch it with me in the room again if that was what I wanted.

While they went to change, I set us up in the living room. They were only gone fifteen minutes and I'd already turned on the channel for the game. Right now, it was the preshow, where these chumps made all their predictions.

"How was work?" I asked them both once they'd gotten comfortable on the couch. I sat on the floor at the end of the table with my back against the chair.

"The usual," Papa said. "Busy. The couple who bought the table I showed you two yesterday came in to see it. They're very happy. It'll be delivered to them tomorrow."

"That's good." I took a long drink from my pop. "How much did that cost them?"

A sly smile turned the corners of Papa's mouth up. "An embarrassing amount that I'm not going to tell you."

I snorted. He almost never told me how much he charged for custom pieces. Or rather, he didn't tell me outright. It wasn't hard to put together from conversations, though. "And you, Dad?"

"A headache," he said, which was his answer a large amount of the time.

"Why do you do it, then?"

"Because I'm good at it," he countered. "I love the law. Love making sure trials are fair. Don't always love the system."

Wasn't that the truth.

"Did Papa tell you that I'm not going to Hawaii with the two of you?"

"Yes."

The doorbell rang and Dad was about to get up, but Papa said, "I've got it." It had to have been the food. The sushi place was just up the street.

"Change your mind?" Dad asked. "About Hawaii?"

I shook my head. "You two deserve a vacation alone. But I love that you always want me there."

"Always." He watched me for a second as Papa came back in the room and started pulling containers from the bag. He'd ordered me my regular California roll plate, which made me do a little dance in my seat. "Hawaii would be a great place to get over a heartbreak."

Not surprisingly, they thought this was about Cobb breaking my heart. Which wasn't exactly the truth.

"No. No. No heartbreak here," I assured them. "Papa, did Dad tell you everything about yesterday?"

"Yeah. He filled me in on the whole thing. That fucker better stay away from you." My dads almost never swore, so when they did, it was startling.

"I think he will," Dad told him. "He's getting other people in trouble now. His cousin has a ding in his file even though he claims he just took the report. The report wasn't correct." That was the cop who had arrested me. "And I reached out to his uncle, the deputy mayor. He assured me that he'd take care of it."

"Will he be charged?" Papa asked.

Dad shrugged and took a drink of his beer. "Don't know yet. His uncle might get it brushed under the rug. We'll see."

"You know, Monroe, it's sometimes better to let things slide," Papa said before putting a bite in his mouth.

I shook my head and swallowed the last of the roll I had in my mouth. "No can do. Not when someone's harassing a gay couple."

"It's still better to let it go sometimes."

"I'll see what I can do." But we all knew there was zero chance that I was going to do that in the future. If for now, Dad got Owen off my ass, I'd at least pretend.

"So what's going on?" Dad asked more gently.

I took a breath and set my chopsticks down. "I haven't heard from Cobb."

"Since when?"

"Night before last," I told them. "I was supposed to meet him at the coffee shop yesterday to go to a meeting with him, but I was in a holding cell."

"Have you called him?" Papa asked.

"This morning. I didn't have my phone last night remember? I even went to his apartment and the bed didn't even look slept in." That was the part that was bothering me the most.

Dad pointed at the TV. "He's clearly fine."

I swung my head in the direction of the TV and sure enough, there was video of Cobb throwing pitches in the bull pen. The announcer guy said it was from his session earlier and he wasn't sure what was going on with Cobb, but a fire had been lit and he was throwing harder than ever.

It was probably anger.

"What kind of meeting?" Dad asked as he turned the volume down.

"Well, you were both there when I heard about the baby mama drama."

"We were." Papa sat his container on the table, more interested in what I was about to say than the food. "I've been waiting for you to tell us what the hell that was about."

"Well… It's not his baby mama drama. There's a woman who says she is pregnant by him, but he swears he never touched her," I explained. My dads glanced at each other. I could read those looks. "I know how it sounds, but I trust him."

"OK," Dad said, but his tone told me that he didn't believe me. Why would he? He didn't know Cobb.

"A paternity test will prove it," I explained.

"Good."

"Anyway, I didn't show up and he's not answering my calls. Went to his apartment, but he wasn't there." I sighed. "I don't know. I thought we were together, but maybe I misunderstood."

"You do have a knack for picking the wrong men," Dad teased.

"And I don't get it," Papa continued. "With the prime examples you grew up with, it's kind of weird."

I rolled my eyes. " One wrong man. One. And I only dated him for, like, a month. It's not my fault he's got this weird obsession or whatever."

Dad's face darkened. "That's not really something to joke about."

"I know. I just… I wish Cobb would answer the phone."

Papa pushed up so that he was sitting on the edge of the couch and rested his elbows on his knees. "He probably can't, honey. He's working."

That was true, but he wouldn't have been working this morning.

But I also didn't want to talk about it with them anymore and continued eating my sushi.

My heart jumped every single time the camera showed Cobb on the screen.

If I didn't hear from him tonight, I'd be on his doorstep first thing in the morning.