Page 10 of The Perfect Hit

“Yeah,” I said. There was so much more to it than that, but thinking about it made the tears surface, and I was determined to push Seth out of my mind.

Our ice cream came, along with Colt’s fries. I savored the combination of the chocolate brownie, fudge sauce, and vanilla ice cream while sneaking a fry every once in a while.

After reliving some of my past, I just hoped I'd be able to sleep that night.

5

Colt

Once I dropped Hazel off at her house just down the block from mine, I sat in my truck for several minutes before going inside. Her revelation about an ex-boyfriend was new. She'd never mentioned anything about him, and as I thought through several of our conversations, she'd never expressed the desire to go back to the town where she'd lived before. That was all something I’d made up out of fear, I guess.

She'd love to live in New York City, but I knew I needed to keep supporting her in her interests to hopefully win her over at some point.

Maybe that was the reason I’d gotten so mad at Scott Daniels. How could he be so rude when Hazel had worried and stressed about the play for several weeks now?

Then again, I’d been there when she was writing it, seeing everything first hand. It was easy to think things came easily when Hazel was so good at hiding what she didn’t want seen. Like an ex-boyfriend.

I walked inside, grateful for the smell of dinner. We were having something with onions and garlic, and I was okay with that.

“I thought you weren’t making dinner,” I said, sneaking a slice of French bread from the cutting board. I hadn’t ordered anything else aside from the shake and fries, but now I was ready for real food.

“I called the hospital, and Grandpa was asleep, so I stayed home. How was the ice cream?” My mom stood next to the stove and stirred something in a large pot.

“It was good. I think she's nervous about the play.” I paused for a moment and leaned against the cabinets. “She told me she had an ex-boyfriend in Buffalo.”

My mom stopped stirring and looked over at me. “That’s new. How do you feel about that?”

I shrugged, trying to play it off like I didn’t care. We’d been friends for this long, and she’d just now told me about it. From the look on her face, I guessed it had called up some bad memories. But what would this guy have done to hurt her? I hadn’t noticed the signs of her being depressed or anything, but I didn’t know her back then.

“It was just something I hadn’t heard from her before. I mean, she’s basically told me about her entire life since she can remember, around the age of three. Why would she not have talked about this before?”

“It’s always good when people decide to open up more,” she said, going back to stirring. “Maybe those memories are harder to talk about than others. I mean, breaking up isn’t always amicable.”

I nodded, popping the last bite of bread into my mouth.

“You might as well go get your homework done. Dinner will be ready in less than an hour, and you’re on dish duty.”

I gasped and frowned. “What do you mean? I just had to weed a bunch in the garden.”

She pointed to the chore chart, the one I was ashamed we still used after all these years. But in my mom’s defense, it kept her from having to break up a fight daily.

I’d achieved reading the English homework before we were all called downstairs to eat.

“It’s good to have you back, Colt,” my dad said from the end of the table.

“It’s a miracle you’re not working, Dad,” Sterling, my older brother quipped.

My dad leaned over and slugged Sterling on the shoulder. He shook his head and gave a slight smile. “I’m just here to keep you in check, son.”

Nash and Wyatt helped bring a few plates and pots over to the table, my mother trailing behind. Once the food was divided up, we ate in silence for a bit.

“What’s new with everyone?” my dad asked, cutting a piece of chicken parmesan.

“School, work, football,” Sterling said, sticking a large forkful of penne into his mouth.

“Soccer for me,” Wyatt said.

“Baseball,” Nash and I said at the same time.

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