Dump and Chase: Nashville Assassins: Next Generation Read online

  I wipe my face free of tears as I shake my head. “I’m just feeling a little lost.”

  When I look at her, she is eyeing me. While it’s not the whole truth, it is part of the emotional breakdown I am having. “How so?”

  “I don’t know. I thought coming home was the answer, but I’m worried that it wasn’t.”

  She nods, her emerald eyes searching mine. “Do you regret leaving the show?”

  I shake my head. “Not at all. I wanted that. I needed that. But now that I’m home, what am I doing? I can’t go to school yet, and when I do, what am I going for? I just feel lost, unsure, and I hate that feeling.”

  I don’t know how my mom does it, but she gathers me up and brings me into her lap. The steering wheel is making for a tight fit, but I don’t think either of us cares. She kisses my temple, and I smile as she taps my hands. “You can do whatever the hell you want to do. Do you want to study music?”

  I shrug. “I don’t know. I thought I did, but what am I going to do? I did the performing thing. I don’t want to do it again.”

  “Okay… Would you like to write? Teach?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Honey, what do you want?”

  “Mom, I’m literally telling you I have no idea,” I deadpan, and she laughs before kissing me again.

  She moves the baby hairs out of my eyes before taking my chin in her hand. “You know what I always thought you’d do?”

  “Stay on Broadway?”

  She shakes her head. “I knew you’d get sick of it and come home. You love Nashville.”

  “I do.”

  She gives me a small smile as she wraps her arm around my shoulders. “I always thought you’d take over from me.”

  I bring my brows in. “Huh?”

  “As the GM for the Assassins.”

  I blink. “Seriously?”

  “Absolutely. There is no one else I can even think of to take my place.”

  I hold up my hand, counting off my siblings. “Posey, Owen, Evan, Quinn? Especially the boys.”

  “Why? ’Cause they’re boys? My uncle had the choice of boys over me, and he chose me.”

  I don’t think my heart is beating. “Are you serious?”

  “Yes. Shelli, what team leads the league with goals per game?”

  “IceCats.”

  “Who’s the leading scorer in the league?”

  “Jude Sinclair, but Jace Sinclair is right there coming up behind him.”

  Her eyes are bright as she asks, “And who has the most wins as a goalie?”

  “Nico Merryweather.”

  “Who is the newest rookie they think will draft first right now, just by his numbers?”

  “Mikel Ladervont.”

  Her eyes shine with pride. “I don’t know anyone else who can answer as quickly as you do. We can talk hockey for hours, honey. The sport is your jam.”

  “It is.”

  “So can you see why I feel you’d take my place perfectly?”

  I look down at where she’s holding my hands. “I mean, yeah. But I never thought you’d give it to me.”

  “Well, you thought wrong.”

  It all is overwhelming. “But you’re not giving it to me now, are you?”

  “Not at all. I want you to live a bit. Have some fun,” she says. “I know you took the job with Fallon, but I was really hoping to get you on board with the organization. You’d start out at the bottom as an intern. Work your way up.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes, if you want it.”

  I think that over. This would be a dream job for me. To be like my mom? To run the Assassins one day? To make bold moves and win Cups? When I was growing up, I would follow my mom around the arena and act just like her. I mirrored my dad on the ice, but I wanted to be powerful like my mom. I wanted to walk into a room and have everyone look at me with respect. I know I’d be starting from the bottom, and that could be tough but, in the end, rewarding. Do I really want it?

  “Hell yeah, I do.”

  She winks at me before kissing my temple. “That’s my girl. And that’s your plan. Now you feed it, and you work toward it. You’ll get there just like you got the lead in your first show.”

  I grin widely as I wrap my arms around her, hugging her tightly. It all seems so unreal but also so perfect. It’s exactly what I want, exactly who I want to be.

  I have my plan. Now I just have to get over Aiden.

  CHAPTER TEN

  AIDEN

  “I LIKE IT.”

  I grin over at my dad as we head back to the house. We just finished touring Caitlin’s place, and I put in an offer on it. She said she’s gonna accept it, so looks like I’m gonna have a place sooner rather than later. “I loved it. It’s not as great as my New York pad—”

  “Or as expensive.”

  I chuckle as I nod. “Yeah, but that place was sick.”

  “And expensive.”

  We share a laugh before he directs his attention back to the road. The plan is to drop him off and then head to get Stella from work. I need to buy a car. I just haven’t gotten around to it. Dad hardly uses his truck, so I’ve been driving it. I definitely didn’t need one in New York. “What are your plans tomorrow?”

  “Nothing with a side of nothing. Oh, wait. Emery has lacrosse at four.”

  “Nice. Can you go car shopping with me?”

  He flashes me a grin. “Don’t want to go with your mom?”

  I groan. Loudly. I love my mom. Like to the moon and back. She is the best woman I know, but I thought I was going to kill her today. Or hell, this whole week. Every place we look at, she finds something wrong with. Or what she thinks is wrong, when really, I don’t give two shits if my door is adjacent to a stairwell. I don’t care. I just want a place. Living on my own for so long has spoiled me. It’s quiet, and I don’t have to worry about being a witness to murder.

  As we walked through Caitlin’s place, Mom was in a mood. Everything was bad.

  “Well, honey, you obviously wouldn’t be able to walk naked through here. Everyone would see.”

  “Aiden, baby, this is way too expensive.”

  “It’s too far from the house.”

  “The bedroom is bigger than the living room.”

  I happen to disagree. I like my bedroom big. That’s where the magic happens.

  “She was insane.”

  “Well, in her defense, she could have gone without the ‘magic happens’ comment from you.” I snort as he shakes his head. “In her head, you don’t have sex.”

  I don’t know what to say to that, so I just change the subject. “I love the place.”

  “It’s nice. She’ll come around. She just doesn’t want you to leave. But we understand. Stella and Emery are hard to live with.”

  “They’re not that bad,” I say, but even I cringe. “They’re loud, so loud, for being so small.”

  He laughs. “Our house has always been loud. It’s our normal.”

  I smile, remembering my childhood. I was almost eight when Asher came along. I was so excited to have a brother, but what I got was a genius who didn’t have time for me and my hockey. He’s brilliant and way smarter than I am. The girls arrived, and I thought to myself, heck yeah, I get to be that protective older brother. For Stella, for sure, I was. But Emery… Sometimes I think she could protect me.

  Not that I would need it—well, maybe if Shelli Adler ever came after me.

  I don’t know why, but seeing her in the truck, crying, did something to me. I got this pain in the pit of my stomach, and I still haven’t been able to shake it. I don’t know what was wrong, or even why I cared, but I sure didn’t like seeing those tears falling down her cheeks. A part of me feels like maybe I put them there, and I really don’t like that. Though, I doubt I did. She obviously has no time for me and doesn’t even care in the slightest. She made that very clear. But what bothered me was when she said I was embarrassed by what we did. That isn’t the case at all. I enjoyed her, immensel