Chapter 6

Six

C hance wandered onto the soccer fields half an hour early on Saturday morning. He’d spent the rest of the week hoping to hear from Tori again only to be let down.

Today he had a plan, though. He was going to do his best to convince her to let him take them to lunch to discuss the plans. If that didn’t work he didn’t have a backup, perhaps a failure on his part.

He spotted her on the field nearest him and walked over. It had been years since he’d been out on fields like these early on a Saturday morning to play soccer. He forgot how great it felt to be that age and so excited to come play your game.

Kids and parents yelled, and whistles blew from all the fields as four different games went on in several different age groups. All in good fun, there was no fighting, just cheering as the balls went from one side of the field to the other.

“Hey,” Chance said, coming to a stop next to Tori.

“You’re early,” she noted, never taking her eyes off the field. “Same team, guys,” she yelled at the bunched up group of blue jerseys all kicking at the ball.

Chance looked for Emmett. His blonde head easy to find as he came away with the ball and went towards the net. As he watched, he thought of different drills they could run to help with the basics.

“I can’t talk to you right now,” Tori told him.

“That’s fine. I’m good to watch them play.” He didn’t elaborate on his thoughts, letting her focus on the game instead.

His intention wasn’t to bother her but more to catch her before the game was over so he had a chance at getting her to agree to lunch. As he watched the game play out, he was happy he had gotten here in time to watch some.

“How long is left?” Chance asked her.

Tori looked down at her phone, where a timer was running. “Five minutes. We are up by two in case that was your next question.” Tori never took her eyes off the field.

“He plays forward?” Chance asked.

Tori nodded. “Forward and occasionally center midfield but it’s not his preference.”

Chance watched Emmett pass the ball to a teammate and then run towards the goal.

“Watch your offsides!” Tori shouted.

Emmett must have heard her or one of the other parents screaming it at him. He took note of the defenders and corrected himself back to onsides. Chance smiled. It was fun to watch him play the game.

The ball came Emmett’s way with another player hot on his heels. Chance tensed, waiting for the pass and hoping it worked out.

The pass came. Chance cringed. He was just offsides when he got it, having to move to get the pass. Emmett took the shot, scoring. The whole sideline went wild even as the ref blew the whistle and raised his arm, indicating he had seen that Emmett was offsides.

“Damn,” Tori swore.

Emmett threw his hands up at the ref and said something. The ref smiled at him and spoke, leaving them both laughing as they parted ways.

Relaxing a fraction, Chance was glad to see while he’d likely complained, it hadn’t escalated. He couldn’t say the same about one of the parents who was clearly shouting at the ref still.

“Why didn’t it count?” A man walked up next to Tori, gesturing to the pitch.

“Hi, Isaac.” From his angle, he could just barely see her roll her eyes. “He was offsides. You would know that if you attended more games.”

“Why? Does he do the wrong thing often?” Isaac asked.

Chance studied the newcomer. Assuming he was Tori’s ex-husband, Chance already didn’t like him. He was in a suit on a Saturday morning at the soccer fields, which made him stick out like a sore thumb. He had short light brown hair.

If Chance were to guess, Isaac had peaked in high school, maybe college, and didn’t understand that he wasn’t cool anymore.

“No. It’s a hazard of playing that position. You have to stay on this side of the other team or it’s considered and unfair advantage and the score doesn’t count.”

“Then he should pay better attention,” Isaac said simply.

Chance had enough. “It’s not quite that simple. You’re watching the ball and watching them at the same time. Sometimes the other team moves forward half a step to put you offsides, or the pass goes off wide, and you have to move to get it, which is what just happened.”

Isaac faced him, clearly surprised that he had spoken, probably surprised he was there. “No one asked you. You think because your kid plays that you know everything?” Isaac sneered. “Professional players would know better than to do that and if that’s his goal then he either needs to get it or get out of the game.”

Tori snorted and looked over at Chance. The laughter danced in her eyes as she nodded at Chance. He didn’t need words to know she was telling him to let Isaac have it.

“Sorry. I don’t think we’ve met. I’m Chance Lawrence.” He shook Isaac’s hand.

“Isaac Atkins,” he answered, ready to dismiss him.

“He’s the forward for Bardley. The same position that Emmett plays,” Tori cleared things up.

Chance grinned. “I can tell you, from experience, professionally, that it’s not always that simple.”

The idiot didn’t have the sense God gave an ant and pressed on instead of taking the hint. “Just because you play like that doesn’t mean that’s how it should be played.”

“I would counter that as a starter for the team, my coach has no issue with understanding that we do our best but cannot prevent every offside call.”

Isaac looked at Tori instead. “You set me up,” he accused.

Chance chose not to get involved right away. He wanted to jump in and defend her. It was better to let her take the lead. Clearly, she handled him more often than he did.

“Set you up how? You challenged a literal expert about his job and he corrected you. I could not have planned that,” Tori said. “Not that it wasn’t a joy to watch.”

That parting shot caused an unexpected laugh to escape. He hadn’t intended to laugh in the man’s face but couldn’t regret it either, especially when Tori grinned at him like she was.

“You a real?—“

“Good job!” Tori cut him off and high-fived Emmett as he approached.

“Did you see my shot?” Emmett ran past her to Chance.

Chance squatted down to meet Emmett’s eyes. “I did. You guys played really well together. Nice passes.” Chance gave him a high five as well.

“I was offsides,” Emmett dropped his head.

“It happens to us all, dude,” Chance ruffled his hair.

“Emmett,” Isaac said sternly. “Come over here and greet your father before you greet strangers.”

“You came?” Emmett asked. “Chance is my friend, not a stranger.”

He did as he was told and went to his father’s side. Isaac didn’t get down to Emmett’s level was the first thing Chance noticed. The second thing was that he spoke to the child like he was an adult and not the child he was.

“You should be trying harder at school instead of focusing on this game,” Isaac was saying.

Tori took a deep breath.

Chance decided to shoot his shot. Even if Tori got mad at him, he was getting Emmett out of this situation.

“But, we won,” Emmett defended himself.

“Hey dude, you ready for lunch?” Chance interrupted the conversation before Isaac could rebuttal.

“Lunch?” Emmett turned to look at Chance and then his mom.

“Lunch?” Tori whispered.

“Pizza. I need to talk to your mom and the meeting Wednesday, and I figured you needed to eat after that win,” Chance said as though it had already been decided.

Tori took another deep breath but ended with a smile. “Yep. Go talk to coach while we get ready to go,” she said to Emmett.

“Shacking up with a soccer player? Way to put more dumb ideas in his head,” Isaac said when Emmett ran off.

“Do not start with me,” Tori ground out.

Chance dropped his arm around her shoulders, pulling her into his side. “Just about ready, babe?”

She didn’t pull away. He couldn’t stop the smile that spread across his face at having her beside him.

“As soon as Emmett comes,” Tori answered.

“So that’s how it is?” Isaac asked. “Slutting around with someone who plays a game? How long do you think that will last?”

“Go away,” Tori sighed out.

Chance caught sight of Emmett approaching and dropped his arm. It was all well and good to do it in front of her ex, but he wasn’t going to trick the kid.

“Ready,” Emmett skidded to a stop as he reached them. “Do we get to ride in your car?”

“Not today,” Tori told him. “Where are we going?” she asked Chance.

He told her the name of the place he’d checked out and they left Isaac standing there watching them walk away. That had been a test of his patience if there ever was one. Chance considered the fact that he hadn’t outright decked the man to be a win.

Tori followed him to the restaurant. They walked in and waited to be seated before Chance pulled out a roll of quarters, giving some to Emmett.

“Go play.” Tori opened her mouth to protest, but he cut her off. “Stay where your mom can see you, or you won’t get any more quarters.”

“Yes! Thank you.” Emmett ran towards the small arcade.

It wasn’t that busy in here, and he still wanted to convince Tori to go play as well, but he needed to talk to her first. Or, more precisely, he assumed she wanted to talk to him first.

The server came around and they ordered drinks.

“When she comes back, get whatever you both like to eat. On me,” Chance told her.

“You don’t have to do that,” Tori shook her head.

“I don’t have to. I want to.”

He watched the debate play out on her face before she nodded. “Thanks.”

“About earlier,” Chance started.

“I shouldn’t have let you do that, but his face was worth it. I don’t like lying, even to him, but damn, it felt good.”

“Let me take you out for real, then? It wouldn’t be a lie that way, and you absolve yourself of any guilt,” Chance offered.

“Okay,” she said without hesitation.

Shocked, he took a moment to recover before speaking. “Just to be clear, this doesn’t count.”

Tori laughed. “I didn’t think it would.”

“Tonight?” Chance asked.

“If Leah will come watch Emmett,” she answered.

His day was starting to look up after all.