Chapter 15

Fifteen

T ori hadn’t been home today. She’d gone from work to pick up Emmett from school and straight to the field. While she wanted nothing else to do with Chance, she didn’t want to let the kids down. They deserved for this to go well.

Plus, the parents were paying for this, and it was mostly profit for parks and rec, which would give more money to athletics without increasing prices. They needed this to replace some aging equipment.

She also didn’t want anything bad to happen to Chance. That wasn’t her goal. He’d used her, but she didn’t hate him. She was just hurt and a little angry at herself for falling for it.

Tonight would be the first time she’d see him since Saturday, and her only goal was to keep herself busy enough to stay away from him. If she got lucky, she’d be distracted enough not to notice him either, but she wasn’t hopeful.

“Mom,” Emmett ran up. “They’re here. Can I go?” he asked.

She didn’t need to ask who. “Stay where I can see you,” she reminded him.

He was off, latched on to Chance, who looked her way. He didn’t make a move in her direction, and she told herself to be grateful. This was what she wanted, needed.

“Where do we put this?” someone asked.

Blessedly distractions were in abundance. There were parents to greet, kids to see. Some were nervous and needed a little reassurance.

Emmett stayed close to Chance and Maddox. She had lost sight of him once and Chance caught her eye pointing to where Emmett was. She was glad that at least in trusting him with her son she hadn’t been wrong.

He understood her need to keep an eye on Emmett and whether he thought she was being a helicopter mom that was overdramatic or not, he kept an eye on him.

Things relaxed once the clinic started. Other than a few late arrivals, she had a little free time. Watching Emmett was too hard. He was in a group with Chance and Maddox, and watching Chance broke her heart.

She had watched him so many times at games and now it was different. Now she knew who he really was and that hurt. Meeting the famous people you admired wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.

“Hey,” Leah snuck up behind her.

Tori jumped and pressed a hand to her mouth to cover the squeal she let out. “What the f--heck?” she asked, slipping into work mode and barely remembering to change her language.

“I told you I was coming by tonight after work.”

“You did. But did you have to scare me?”

“If you weren’t so wrapped up in trying not to like Chance you wouldn’t have been scared.”

“Stop. You know what happened.” Tori rolled her eyes at her friend and turned away from the fields.

“I know what you heard. We don’t actually know what happened,” Leah reminded her.

“It fits too well to be anything else.” She had wondered if there was more to the story but who’s to say that wouldn’t also be a lie?

“You still should have talked to him. This was going really well and he was putting in the effort.” Leah folded her arms as she repeated the same thing she had said to her Saturday.

“You know you can still talk to Maddox if I’m not with Chance. I don’t care if you do,” Tori told her.

“That’s not what this is about.”

“He was using me,” she whispered shouted. “Me and my son. Just to improve his image to keep playing this game.”

“No. Someone accused him of doing that and you are taking another person’s words and holding them against him without giving him a chance to defend himself.”

“I can’t. I could fall for more lies,” she whispered.

“I am not wrong about this,” Leah pressed.

“It doesn’t matter if you are,” Tori threw her hands up, dropping them to her sides. “I can’t risk it. I only make shitty decisions when it comes to men.”

“One divorce is hardly a worse track record than most people.”

“I’m not doing this right now,” Tori finally said. “I’m going to try to watch Emmett and then help get everything broken down.”

“Fine.”

They stood side by side, watching the clinic happen. It was great to see how excited the kids were. Leah didn’t press any further and despite the doubts that Leah had, Tori couldn’t let them change her mind. This was too important.

As the clinic ended, Tori sprung back into action. Leah was in charge of Emmett and she could relax a bit into her work and breaking things down without having to look for him constantly.

“Tori,” Chance’s voice caused her to freeze. “Can we talk after, please?”

She blew out a breath but didn’t turn to face him. Maybe she needed to tell him what happened so he would know and stop trying.

“If Leah will stay and watch Emmett,” she answered.

“If not, Maddox will.”

She felt him walk away. One of the hardest things she’d ever done was let him go. She wanted to jump in his arms and tell him to make it all better. She was an idiot.

“You okay?” Ellis asked.

Tori nodded. “Just tired.”

It wasn’t a lie. She had barely slept since Saturday.

“Take tomorrow night off. I’ll be here and can make sure it runs just fine. I know you put yourself through a lot to get this off and running.”

“Thanks. I’ll see if I can.” Emmett would be here so unless some miracle happened and Isaac wanted to take him she needed to be here anyway.

“I will be here either way.” Ellis squeezed her shoulder before her walked away.

Ellis wasn’t mean but him being this nice meant that he knew something was wrong and she wasn’t hiding it as well as she thought. That also meant that Emmett had probably picked up on things.

“Mom. Did you see me?” Emmett asked.

“I did watch the clinic. Did you have a good time?”

He nodded enthusiastically. “I did. I’m getting better at the backward passing.”

“That’s great, baby,” she bent down and kissed his forehead.

“Gross, mom.” Emmett wiped it away.

For a moment she forgot her baby was growing up and kisses from mom weren’t okay. “My bad.”

“Come on, kid,” Leah said. “You need to show me some of it, I was late.”

“You’re always late,” he laughed.

“I’ll help you show her,” Maddox said as he approached.

Chance was steps behind him and Tori had to take a few steadying breaths to settle her nerves. It didn’t work well, but what could she do?

“Tori,” Chance started.

She shook her head. “Not here.” There were still too close to everyone and she didn’t want anyone else involved in her conversation. She was doing a good enough job beating herself up over it.

They moved to the fence where no one else was around.

“What happened?” Chance asked.

“I heard you and your friends,” she told him. “Talking about how I was perfect for your image reset and telling you what a good job you were doing at fixing things to get back on the team.” It didn’t feel any better to have it all out in the open.

Chance looked at her like she was crazy. “What? I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“At the stadium. You walked away with some of the other guys and that’s what they were saying to you.”

“I wasn’t even listening to those idiots. I have no idea what they said.”

Tori closed her eyes and tried to get her racing heart under control. It wanted her to believe him.

“What did I say to them?” he asked.

“I didn’t hear you reply, you guys walked away,” she admitted.

“I didn’t reply to them. It hurts that you keep doing this to me, Tori. You could have at least given me a chance to tell you what was going on.”

He looked hurt and not for the first time. She felt a twinge of guilt.

“I thought we already talked things through.” He clenched his fists and relaxed them a few times. “But, since I won’t have you out here acting like I did you wrong, I’ll tell you what’s going on.”

“You don’t have to explain that to me,” she told him.

“This clinic was me repairing my image. You should know, you helped me come up with the idea even if it was by accident. Therapy was the other half. You weren’t part of it, neither was Emmett. I guess now I know what you really think of me.”

Chance didn’t wait for her to reply and stormed off. It was well and truly done between them. She still wanted to believe him but wasn’t sure she did. It didn’t matter though, it was over.