16. Weston

After a draining day of practice, Decker finds me in the locker room and leans against the wall. “Let’s get dinner.”

I get the feeling this is less of an invitation than it is a formal order from the captain. I just sigh and nod. “Fine.”

When we’re at the restaurant with steaks in front of us and drinks, he looks at me. “You seem to be coming out of your funk.”

I nod. “Yeah. I talked to Renee.”

“Progress?”

I shake my head. “Not the good kind. The lines are drawn and she isn’t willing to cross over to my side.”

“Maybe you should cross onto hers.” He takes a bite of steak and chews thoughtfully. “You ruined her life, man. You have to give her a minute to recover.”

“I know.”

“You still think she had something to do with ripping you off?”

“I, uh… Shit, man, I don’t know.”

He purses his lips as he washes down the food with a sip of whiskey. “If you don’t trust her and you don’t believe that she’s a hundred percent innocent, then I don’t see much of a future for you two. Doubt festers, man.”

I sigh and lean back in my seat. My steak is untouched and so is my whiskey. Neither one has much appeal right now. “So what do I do? How do I handle it?”

“If it was me, I’d beg. I’d crawl back to that woman on my hands and knees and I’d give her a reason to want to come home.” He smiles. “I know that ain’t the Weston Scott style. But that’s what these women do to us, man. They make us want to change. To be different men. Better men.” He touches the rim of his glass to mine. “The question is, are you willing to let go of who you were in order to become who she needs you to be?”