Page 23 of Love on the Sidelines

Marsha blinks several times and then says, "Are these real things guys have said to you?"

I shrug. "More or less."

I eat a spoonful of the soup and wonder what Charlie's motivations are. If it's to get Emily to play, that's already going to happen. No need to be a brown noser. I can't even think that a guy like him, who dresses up in very nice clothing and can just drop a few thousand dollars to support our team, would even think of me in a way more than friendly.

"I don't know. It might be worth thinking about. The guy has been willing to buy and fund everything we’ve needed. Do you know he just put in a t-shirt order when Whitney said she would love to get matching lacrosse mom t-shirts?"

As cheesy as that sounds, that he put in an order after someone just mentioned something makes me smile.

And then reality sets in. “He’ll support us and then move on once the honeymoon phase has ended.”

Marsha stares at me with wide eyes. “Honeymoon phase? So you have feelings for him.”

Waving my hands in the air, I say, “That’s nowhere close to what I meant and you know it. Sure, he feels useful and happy to support now. Then he’ll tire of donating and we’ll be back to where we were before.”

“I don’t know, Ava.”

“It’s what people with money do. They have the advantage of going anywhere and people will accept them.”

Marsha reaches over and pulls me into a hug. “I don’t think this is really about Charlie.”

A tear trickles down my cheek, and I brush at it quickly before pulling away from Marsha. “Charlie, my ex-boyfriend, my parents. It’s a blanket statement.”

Shaking her head, Marsha says, “I don’t know. Something tells me not to include Charlie in that group.”

“Because he brings me soup?” And Chinese food. Gatorade for our players. Paying for tournament fees. To be honest, I don’t think my ex, Terrell, would’ve chipped in money for any of his family members.

And now I can't not think about Charlie. Way to shove the purple elephant into my brain when I’m not supposed to be thinking of purple elephants.

12

CHARLIE

Being sick is the worst, but having to function while sick is probably my worst nightmare. The soup was the least I could do to help from afar. Emily wasn't excited when I told her to take the bag to Ava, but she also couldn't argue that I wasn't trying to stay away from her coach by having her deliver it.

There are so many things that I've learned about Ava in the past week that it makes me want to know more. Sure, I thought I’d known a lot from the summers when we were kids, but there’s a lot that’s changed since then.

I even looked her up before the game the next morning. I didn’t know there was such a thing as professional women's lacrosse, but Ava was good enough to play at that level.

I don't know if it's just my experience with hockey ending early, but I applaud her for being able to get that far.

It isn't the best weekend for our team, and we end up getting eliminated sooner than we'd hoped. But to Ava's credit, she teaches the girls what they need to fix calmly and is overall positive.

I didn't think that was a thing, having been yelled at so many times in my sports days.

Monday morning I'm back down in Salt Lake for meetings. Emily and I visited my mom last night and she was happy, saying they might let her out soon. I'll probably have to hire a nurse until she's fully back to normal.

"Where've you been?" Paul asks when I walk into the arena.

"Tennessee, for my niece's lacrosse tournament. Things are taking shape here. I like the extra touches you put into the building."

Paul raises his eyebrow. "What do you mean by me? You're the one who picked all this out."

Shaking my head, I say, "I need to give you more to take on. I already talked to one contractor and said you'll have full control."

"Are you sure?"

I know it's hard to believe that a control freak like me can give up certain things. But my blood pressure might never normalize if I don't figure out how to release some tasks in my life.

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