Page 41 of Foul Line

“Or what?” His chest rises in front of him. He still doesn’t have a shirt on, and it’s one glorious view. “You don’t want to hear how I lay in my bed thinking of you. How every time the guys said they did something with you, I wanted to punch them in the face because I had you first.” His gaze rakes over me. “Is that too crass for you?”

My body is sparking to life. This isn’t the boy that I held hands and made out with a few years ago. He’s so much older and more mature. Despite the fact I’m wondering where he learned to say things like that, I’m also turned on by it more than I want to admit. “Don’t change the subject,” I stammer out. “You’re hurt by what you just saw.”

“I expect it,” Ryan says, his teeth gritting against one another.

I push off him. “Well, I don’t.” I turn away and head toward the main building.

Ryan grabs me. “What are you doing?”

“Telling my dad to get his shit together.”

“What? Why? He’s with your mother, isn’t that what you want?”

“As far as I can tell right now, both our moms deserve better.” It hurts me to say that. The pain slices through me deep. I used to look up to my father so much, but what he’s been doing lately just isn’t acceptable. He can’t string two women around like this. What’s his problem?

Ryan doesn’t stop me from leaving this time. By the time I get back to the main building, my parents aren’t lip locked anymore, which is great. My mom sees me first. She wipes at her mouth. There are tears in her eyes. “Hi, Honey.”

“Hi, Mom,” I say, but I’m only glaring at my father. “What are you doing?”

My dad turns his neck to look at me. I can tell he’s confused, and that my mom is upset. The whole thing just makes me sick. They’re adults. They should be able to handle their shit.

“Did you know that Ryan Linc just saw all that? Did you?” I yell, pointing back at the cabins.

My dad freezes. My mom lets out a sharp sob. “It’s my fault.”

I run both hands down my face. “The hell it is. Maybe if my dad learned to keep his dick in his pants, we wouldn’t be going through any of this.”

“Quintessa,” my mom exclaims, but I’m past the point of caring. I don’t know whether I’m fueled more by my own hurt…or Ryan’s. She moves forward. “I kissed him.”

“From what I saw, there was kissing going on on both sides.” I look up at her finally. Her face is tinged in red, more pronounced around the eyes. “Mom,” I say. My heart is broken for her.

“Tessa’s right,” my dad says. “I should behave better.”

My mother spins. “Tim, you certainly didn’t ask me to come here. I came here because I wanted to talk to you. When I saw you, I just—”

He waves her away. “If you two don’t mind, I think I need to go find Ryan and tell him that even adults can fuck up.”

I squeeze my eyes closed. “You should tell his mom, too. Give her more courtesy than you gave mine.”

My dad winces, but there’s a hell of a lot more I could say to him. He passes by and puts his hand on my mom’s shoulder. “Are you going to be okay?”

She nods, tears leaking from the corner of her eyes. When he leaves, my mom confesses the whole thing to me. She tells me she got back from her vacation missing my father more than ever, so she drove all the way here to see him. When she got here, she just couldn’t help herself.

I still think he kissed her back, but I feel sorrier than ever for my mom. For Ryan. For all of us. What a fucked up situation we find ourselves in.

21

Texts from the majority of the Ballers go unanswered while Sloan sends me sarcastic updates. Hour two of no talking. What will the third hour bring?

They’re keeping a smile on my face, but my stomach is also gnawing at itself. At least I was glad to hear that Hayes is back in the cabin. He’s one of the ones not talking, but is that really so much of a surprise?

It’s Ryan that I’m curious about now. I wonder what my dad said to him. I wonder if my dad will follow my advice and actually talk to Ryan’s mom to make sure she knows what happened before it just gets dropped on her like it did with my mom. Or worse, that her kid would have to tell her like I did. I honestly can’t understand a fucking thing he’s done since he’s left my mom.

My poor mother is spending the night at a nearby hotel. My parents are supposed to talk it out, and then she’s going to drive home in the morning. It’s past midnight, and I should’ve been asleep hours ago, but all I can think about is what happened. How my heart leaps in my throat for a brief moment thinking that things were finally going to return back to normal before it came crashing down again when I realized that none of this is right anymore. Just because the past was perfect doesn’t mean the same thing can work in the present anymore. My parents are two different people now. If they did find their way back to one another, there’d have to be a lot of healing and reintroducing themselves to one another.

But, honestly, I think that’s a long shot. My dad wanted to go to Ryan more than he wanted to talk things out with my mom. This is just going to be another crushing case of loss for her, only this time, she brought it on herself. Not that I can blame her. I’ve had similar thoughts lately.

My dad even texted me, telling me he wants to talk with me tomorrow. I didn’t bother responding. It’s not as if I can avoid him. I’m at his camp after all.

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