Under the Radar // Devin Booker

Chapter 40

Nimali

"Devin... what's going on?" I treaded lightly.

He walked to the next room so that he wouldn't wake the toddler. Once he was out of earshot, he placed his hands on top of his head and took a deep breath.

"Devin."

He shook his head. "I need to see you."

"You need to tell me what's going on. Why do you have the baby right now?"

Once again, he shook his head then he began mumbling something to himself. He didn't respond for a while, and I noticed his face turning red in frustration. I had never seen him like this and I just wanted to reach through the screen and hug him.

"Where are you?" I asked instead.

"Home." He croaked out after clearing his throat.

"Okay, well I just got home. Could you just come to Texas?"

"No," he ran his hand down his face, "we have our last two games here this week."

"I don-" I was soon cut off.

"Mali, can you just please come, please? I really need you here with me right now."

. . .

I couldn't believe I was really on this jet again today. I had already given my pilot the next couple of weeks off, and then I had to call him for this. I'd apologized what seemed like a hundred times, all to which he told me not to worry about it. He'd made plans to spend time with his wife, so instead of forcing him to fly right back out, I opted to leave late in the night. That way he'd get some rest as well as some time to spend with his wife and I'd be able to sleep off the rest of this hangover.

My next call was to Chris to let him know what I was up to. The last thing I needed was for him to freak out again. Surprisingly, he was excited and insisted that he come along.

The flight from Dallas to Phoenix only lasted a couple hours, and we were landed and headed in the direction of Devin's condo a little after midnight. Once we pulled to the front of the building, Chris walked me up and made sure I made it safely before heading to his hotel.

I used the key that Devin had given me a few weeks prior and walked into the spacious condo. It was unusually quiet as I strolled through the living room and towards the bedroom. Once I entered, I saw Devin in a deep slumber with the sleeping toddler laid across his chest.

Sitting my bag down by the door, I walked over to the sleeping pair and gently picked DJ up from his chest. He stirred a bit, but after rocking him a little he went right back to sleep on my shoulder. I carried him to the opposite side of the bed and placed him under the covers before exiting the room and making myself comfortable on the couch with a spare blanket and pillow. I really needed to get some rest if I was going to deal with any of this. At some point between scrolling through my phone and exchanging texts with my manager I'd fallen asleep.

I'd woken up multiple times throughout the night. I couldn't remember the last time I'd slept on a couch, let alone one as uncomfortable as this one. Eventually, I just gave up trying and decided to watch a movie instead. I looked through the hundreds of channels and bought Hidden Figures to watch since I still hadn't seen it.

While it loaded, I went to the kitchen to look for something to snack on during the movie. I ravished the cabinets and found popcorn, cliff bars, pretzels, and his junk food stash. After I figured I had enough from the cabinets to feed a small army, I went through the refrigerator and found a crap ton of water and gatorade so I grabbed two of both.