Chapter 16

Sixteen

“Y ou can’t go in there like that,” Maddox said to Chance.

“Like what?” he snapped.

“That. You’re being a dick.”

Chance leveled him with a glare. He had every right to be a dick. His whole life had been torn up by that woman in a matter of a few days. Everything he was imagining for his future was ruined by her lack of trust in him.

“You can’t be serious, right now,” Maddox continued. “Get it together or this won’t work.”

“I am together.”

“You’re a fucking mess.”

“Let’s go.”

Chance got out of Maddox’s truck and headed to the fields. He didn’t want to be here tonight. Tori was going to be here and he’d have to act like shit was fine when it wasn’t.

How could she not trust him like that? Twice. A little communication was all she needed to do and all of this could have been avoided.

Maddox had stopped him from taking his anger out on their teammates last night. He’d been fighting mad and was ready to let it all out on them for those stupid ass comments.

“Chance,” Emmett came running up.

“Hey, bud.” Chance didn’t have to pretend with him. He loved this kid.

“Mom is sick.”

Chance looked around, trying to find her. He was mad but if she needed him, he’d be there for her.

“She’s not here,” Emmett laughed. “She stayed home. My dad brought me.” Emmett sounded as thrilled with that news as he was.

“Sorry, bud. Tell your mom later that I hope she feels better.”

“She’s alone. I don’t like to be alone when I’m sick. Dad told her it was because she made bad decisions.” This kid knew how to stick the knife in and twist it even if it wasn’t intentional.

“Don’t listen to what your dad says about your mom,” Chance cautioned.

“I hear him, but I don’t care. I love my mom,” Emmett smiled.

Maddox had be silent watching the exchange. “Go get with your group so we can start soon,” he told Emmett.

“I don’t want to hear it,” Chance cut him off before he could say anything.

Maddox laughed. “You need to talk to her again after you both cool down.”

“She doesn’t want to talk to me. She made that clear all weekend.”

“Man, she was just confused. Then you went and yelled at her instead of apologizing for your team. You can still fix this.”

Chance humphed. Did he even want to? She didn’t trust him at all. He was over here planning their futures together and she was treating him like he was disposable.

“Let’s just go get this over with,” Chance said.

They walked onto the field and were immediately swarmed by kids. Everyone was excited for the second night of the clinic. There were a lot less nerves tonight than last night.

The hour of the clinic passed quickly. It was damn hard to wrangle the smaller kids when he was already upset but he managed. He didn’t even yell at any of them even the one that kept trying to slip through the fence.

Sean was a handful who needed his own personal coach. Kid was a runner at five years old. Every time they turned their back he was off.

Maddox found it hilarious, probably because he wasn’t the one running after him. If Tori were here she would have helped him. Or had parents come to get the kid.

“Sean,” Maddox shouted.

“Your turn,” Chance joked.

“It’s funner when you do it,” he grumbled but took off after him.

Thye wrapped up the drills and Chance led the group of kids to meet their parents. Sean was the first to be picked up. Chance relaxed just a fraction without needing to worry about him again.

“We need to redo the rotations,” he whispered to Maddox.

“You’ll be fine. It was one little kid,” Maddox laughed.

With their group collected by parents, Chance and Maddox held back waiting for the rest of the guys to turn their groups over to parents. Overall, the night had gone pretty smooth even without Tori to help.

Ellis looked lost, though. He seemed to be trying to help but people were running behind him fixing the things he was touching. The man didn’t have a clue.

“How’d it go tonight?” Chance asked Emmett.

“Great!” he bounced from foot to foot. “When are you in my group again?” he asked.

“Thursday,” Chance answered.

“Can you come help me with some practice before then?”

That hurt more than anything else. Even missing Tori was nothing compared to the fact that he was about to have to tell this kid no.

“I don’t think you’ll be seeing much of Chance anymore,” Isaac walked up. “Your mom tried whoring it up and it didn’t work out.” He looked Chance up and down.

Maddox put a hand on Chance’s shoulder. “It’s not worth it,” he said.

Chance tensed anyway.

“Listen to your friend, there. I can promise you she’s not worth it. Been there done that, clearly,” he pointed at Emmett.

Maddox squeezed his shoulder but jumped into the mess. “I was talking about you. Good thing Tori wised up and got rid of you.”

“Is that what she told you?” He threw his head back in laughter. “Tori was a frigid bitch and couldn’t please her man. I was done with her.”

Emmett was standing there, watching the argument take place. To think that anyone could stand in front of their child and say things like this about their other parent was insane.

“Nothing to say to that one, huh?” Isaac challenged.

“Get the kid,” Chance ground out.

As soon as Maddox dropped his hand from Chance, he was in motion. Maddox scooped Emmett out of the way as Chance lunged forward, landing his fist in Isaac’s face, watching Isaac back up until he stumbled and fell.

The crowd that he hadn’t realized they’d gathered gasped. Phones were out and he knew he was screwed. This would be on the internet before he made it home.

Oh well, there was no taking it back now. Chance looked down at Isaac still on the ground. “Don’t talk about her like that, especially in front of her son.”

“You’ve just proven what everyone says about you is true,” Isaac didn’t get up but he did turn his head and spit blood out.

“Awe. I’m honored. You must have searched me since you didn’t even know who I was the other day. Happy to know I take up your time because I can assure you, you take up none of mine.”

Chance turned, looking for Maddox who was holding Emmett back from running over. He made his way to them, crouching in front of Emmett.

“Hey, bud.” Chance dropped his head. He didn’t know what to say.

“Mom is going to be so mad at you. We aren’t allowed to hit,” Emmett was so serious that Chance wanted to laugh.

“It was wrong. I shouldn’t have used my fists to solve my problems.” It had felt damn good, though. “Don’t do that, okay? Be better than me.”

“Get away from my son. You’ll be lucky if I don’t sue.” Isaac was back on his feet.

“Sue who?” Ellis stepped in. “Everyone here saw what happened and at least a dozen people have the comments you made about Tori on camera before you fell. No one should talk about their child’s mother in front of them like that.”

Chance watched as the older, portly man flexed his hands. Clearly Chance wasn’t the only one that wanted to hit this asshole.

“Get off my fields. Tori will be back tomorrow and I expect you not to return to my fields during this clinic.”

“He fucking hit me,” Isaac shouted.

“You were disrespecting my employee who isn’t even here to defend herself.”

Isaac opened his mouth to say something else but whatever Ellis did made him stop.

“At this point, you are lucky I am letting him leave with you instead of calling Tori to get him. I never liked you but I expected you to at least act with some decency.”

“Bye, Chance,” Emmett said. He turned and acknowledged all the guys before quietly walking over to his dad.

“Emmett,” Ellis continued. “You are not in trouble and don’t let anyone tell you any differently.” He pointed a look at Isaac.

When they walked away, Ellis turned to face Chance.

“Don’t shut the program down. I don’t need to be a part of it for it to work. It can be successful with anyone from the team in my spot,” Chance pleaded.

“Someone needed to do that a long time ago. You didn’t know her when they were going through their divorce, but this wasn’t half as bad as that was.” Ellis looked back to the retreating pair. “Emmett is great, but I wish she’d never married that fucking fool.”

Chance nodded.

“If the parents don’t revolt, I expect to see you here tomorrow still. Don’t leave on my account,” Ellis said before walking away.

Chance watched him go, confused. So he wasn’t going to be punished here for what happened at least. Well, unless the parents didn’t want him here. He’d just have to wait and see how this situation played itself out.

Then he’d have to deal with Sam and Derek. That wasn’t going to go this well, guaranteed.