Chapter 18

Eighteen

H e hated being late. Prided himself on never being late for anything, actually. Tonight, he was late.

It may have been intentional. He might have been avoiding Tori. If he weren’t early, then there was less of a risk of an awkward as hell encounter between them.

Chance needn’t have bothered. Tori wasn’t here tonight. She’d apparently called off sick and he knew why. It was the same reason that he was late. They were avoiding each other to the extreme.

Isaac wasn’t there either which was a blessing. Chance doubted the man would ever show up again. Emmett stood with Leah instead tonight. Didn’t mean Isaac couldn’t show up later but for now he was nowhere to be seen.

“Come on, man,” Maddox called.

Chance ran to join him, getting ready for the lessons to begin. They rounded up kids, Chance happily back with Emmett’s group and not the younger kids. The runner was already up to his old tricks as Buddy hefted Sean off the fence and placed him back with the group.

Emmett tapped Chance’s arm. “My mom is sad.”

“I’m sorry, bud.” Was all he could manage to say around the lump forming in his throat.

Sure she’d apologized yesterday, but it had also been clear that she didn’t want to be with him. It still fucking hurt.

“Can you help?” Emmett asked.

Chance shook his head. “I don’t think I can this time, bud.”

Emmett dropped his head and stared at his feet. “Does this mean that you aren’t my friend anymore?”

“Of course we’re still friends,” Chance assured him. “I might not see you quite as much but we are always friends, okay?”

Maddox came up at the tail end of the conversation. “Bro, you’re all our friend. Tell you what. I’ll get you and your mom some good seats to our last game coming up, okay?”

Emmett nodded but wasn’t as enthusiastic as he would have been a week ago. He went off to do some passing with another kid and Chance ran a hand through his hair.

His stomach was in knots over the way things had played out between him and Tori but having Emmett involved in it only made it harder.

“Maybe you can take him to the game if Tori doesn’t want to go? He might like that,” Maddox offered.

“I don’t even know that Emmett wants to go. This shit is so screwed up.”

“It is. You’ll get through it,” Maddox slapped him on the back and joined the kids again.

Chance shook off all the depressing thoughts that were threatening to cave him in and followed Maddox into the chaos. The kids would be a good distraction.

And they were, for the whole hour. Then it was over and Chance was face to face with Leah and Emmett.

“For what it’s worth, I was on your side,” Leah told him.

“There are no sides,” Chance told her. “It just didn’t work out.”

“Let her cool off a bit. She’s always been unsure of herself and the things that Isaac said to you, he said those to her regularly and worse.” Leah looked around to see if anyone was listening. “I love her, but she made a mistake and while she will own up to it, she also thinks this is how things were supposed to work between you two because you’re so different.”

“We aren’t that different,” Chance told her.

Leah shrugged. “That’s not how she sees it.”

“Maddox,” Emmett called. “Can Leah come with us to the game?”

“Wait, what?” Leah asked.

“I don’t see why I can’t get three tickets,” Maddox grinned.

“For when?” she asked.

Chance bit back a laugh. Judging by the face that Leah was making, she was mentally running through any believable reason not to come to a game.

“I will let you two work out the details,” he eased his way out of that conversation. “Emmett, I’ll see you soon.”

He didn’t reply and Chance turned to leave, more disappointed than he thought possible, only to almost get knocked over. Emmett was hugging Chance’s waist for dear life. Chance bent down and hugged the boy back.

“I promise, you’re still my friend,” Chance told him.

“Okay,” Emmett finally said.

He sent him back to Leah and Maddox and went to his car. Chance wasn’t usually prone to emotions outside of anger and frustration, but Emmett had gutted him tonight, and he needed to get out of there and back home before something else happened.

That had to have been the fastest drive home he’d ever made. Lost in his thoughts, he didn’t even remember the trip, just functioning on autopilot. He was damn lucky nothing had happened on the way home.

It was still relatively early, so Chance headed for the kitchen, only to be interrupted by a doorbell. Turning back around, he headed to see what new bad thing was on the docket for today.

He opened it to Sam on the other side. “Hey,” Chance said.

Pulling the door wide, he motioned for Sam to come in. All formalities anyway since the place belonged to him.

“Chance,” he blew out a breath. “I saw the videos. The whole internet saw them.”

He sighed. “Do you want a beer?” Probably not the best offer, but he was in his home, for now anyway, and he wanted one.

Sam nodded. “I’ll take one.”

They went to the kitchen and Chance pulled out two bottles of beer and handed Sam one. He led Sam to the small kitchen table and took a seat, waiting to see what he had to say.

“I know that he was disrespecting your girlfriend, but you can’t do that,” Sam told him.

“She’s not my girlfriend anymore,” Chance admitted.

“What? Since when? Over this?”

Chance shrugged. This was the most casual conversation he’d ever had with Sam but he also felt like he needed to share. “Since Saturday when I took them to the stadium. She heard a few of the guys pretty much congratulating me on getting a single mom girlfriend to help fix my image.”

Sam took a long pull from his beer. “Is that what you were doing?”

“No,” Chance slapped his hand on the table. “No. Sorry. Shit. I didn’t even hear them talking to me. My image was the therapy and the clinic. It had nothing to do with her. I didn’t even know she worked at park and rec until after I talked to the director.”

“Did you tell her that?”

Chance nodded. “I did. She didn’t talk to me for a few days before I got to tell her. She apologized, but we are done. You can’t have a relationship if there’s no trust.”

“Well, it’s early. I don’t know what happened with her and the ex-husband in the video, but I would say she is more of the type you have to earn trust with rather than it being freely given, and that’s not a reflection of you.”

“She trusts me with her son. Said I could still go play with him,” Chance told him.

“Have you done that?”

Chance shook his head. “I can’t be near her right now and Emmett is hurt. I think we all need space.”

Sam looked up like he was thinking something through. “You did this to defend her after you two broke up?”

“Yeah,” Chance said. “In my defense, it was because her son was right there next to him while he said those lies. No man should talk about their kid’s mom like that in front of them. It’s fucked up.”

“I agree.”

They sat in silence for a few minutes sipping their beers. Chance knew more was coming is Sam was here this late at night. It meant a phone call wouldn’t do.

“I appreciate your honesty,” Sam finally said. “I’ve got to be honest, though. I don’t know if it will be enough.”

Chance set his empty bottle on the table. “I don’t know what else I can do.”

“Be at the office Monday at two. I will let you know then what happens from here,” Sam told him.

With nothing left to say, Chance stood and walked Sam out. There was no arguing it. Everything was on video and he’d been a fool to think it wouldn’t catch up with him just because the clinic had worked out.

There was no fight left in him. Everything he’d been imagining about the rest of his life wasn’t meant to be. It was his own actions that had led him down this path as much as he wanted to put the blame on Tori, it was his own fault.

Chance grabbed another beer and carried it to the living room. He didn’t have anything to do tomorrow anyway. Didn’t have anything to do until two o’clock on Monday when he learned his fate with the team. It didn’t look like good news was headed his way any time soon.