Finally, the front door opened and closed and Cody appeared in the living room. He was still dressed in his scrubs from work, and looked as if he’d run a mile in a minute. His hair was frazzled, eyes were wild, and even the pets of his shirt were slightly darker from sweat.
“What the hell happened to you?” Brett asked.
“I didn’t drive to work today, I walked, so I had to run home,” Cody explained.
“You could have walked,” Mason said.
“Or taken an Uber,” I added.
“No, we don’t have time for that,” Cody said. “Luke’s leaving.”
“What does that mean?” David asked. “From here? He isn’t here now.”
“No,” Cody said. “He’s leaving the state, for good. He told me he’s up for free agency.”
“He wouldn’t leave the Hellraisers,” Brett said. “Coach already has us prepping for next season. He thinks he’s staying.”
“He just told me to my face that Miami wants to pick him up and he’s going down there tomorrow to hear them out,” Cody said. “He’s really struggling losing Khloe, and he’s taking it all out on himself.” He glared at me and then at Brett. “It isn’t as if you two helped the situation.”
Brett threw his arms in the air. “He is the one who messed up.”
“We all messed up,” Bram said. “We never should have made that scorecard.”
I crossed my arms. “We’ve made a thousand scorecards before. We knew things were different once Khloe agreed, why would he—?”
Cody cut me off. “Enough! We can’t keep blaming him alone for a mistake we all made. We’re all arrogant assholes, and if it had been any of us, we would have done the exact same thing. None of that matters anymore. What matters is that if we want Luke to stay, we need Khloe, and if we want Khloe to come back, we need Luke.”
“Oh, that makes a whole lot of sense with one of them in California and the other one headed to Florida,” David said.
“We can get Khloe to come back if she realizes that Luke is so sorry that he’s going to bail on Texas altogether, and if we can convince Khloe to come back, Luke will stay,” Cody said. He looked around at all of us and noticed our skepticism. “What? You guys don’t want to be with Khloe?”
We all shifted in our spots. It couldn’t be clearer in the room; we all wanted to be with her more than anything. It changed all of our moods in a minute. If it could work to get Khloe back and get Luke to stay, then it was worth it.
“When does his flight leave?” I asked.
“Tomorrow at noon,” Cody said, unfolding a paper and passing it around the group. “We have from now until then to get Khloe back in the state of Texas.”
“How do we even get Khloe to talk to us?” Bram asked.
“Well, she’s the most upset with Luke, right?” Mason said. “So we just have to convince her to forgive him.”
We all looked at Mason, generally impressed. He wasn’t the ‘brains’ of our group by any means, and even though he had a degree in Political Science, his intelligence could be categorized as ‘street smarts’ at best. When it came to practical life application, he wasn’t the best guy for the job. However, what he said made sense. Cody was absolutely right, Khloe and Luke were one another’s incentive to remain in Texas, and a part of our relationship, so if we could convince Khloe to forgive Luke and come back home, then we could convince Luke not to leave. It was easier said than done, though, Khloe couldn’t stand us, and Luke felt too pitiful about himself to play any role in convincing Khloe he was truly sorry.
David stood up, looking irritated. “What are we all staring at our feet for? Luke’s our best friend, no one knows us better than him. We’ve already called Khloe, we’ve sent her texts, we’ve sent her emails, so let’s go for the only thing we have left, a video. If she can actually see our faces, maybe she’ll listen.”
Cody let out a sigh. “It’s worth a shot.” He pulled out his phone and pointed at the glass door leading out to the balcony. “Out there, with the sunset.”
We all filed out to the balcony and lined up in a row. Cody started his phone with it flipped towards him to start. “Hey there, stunner. I know you’re pissed at us, and we’ve all said our sorries, but we can admit that this all leads back to Luke. So we have a few things to say about him…”
He flipped the camera towards us and nodded. Bram stepped forward with a shy smile. “Yeah, Luke’s an ass, but we don’t need to tell you that. What I’d much rather tell you is that he’s also the most caring guy I know. When I broke my leg last year, he came and stayed at my place with me for six weeks. He would barely let me piss alone. When he loves, he loves hard, and I know he loves you. He messed up, but I’m hoping you can find it in your heart to forgive him.”