Page 89 of Jilted Jock
We shook hands and stood a foot apart both shifting awkwardly. Well, I was shifting awkwardly. Dr. Swythe had a welcoming and comforting way about him.
The Nar-Anon group met every Tuesday and Thursday in this little room. The basic premise was much like AA following the same twelve steps but for spouses, family members, and others who loved someone that was dealing with addiction.
“Are you getting the support you need?” His brown eyes filled with warmth caused me to say more than I would have to anyone else.
“To be honest, I’m not sure I need the support anymore. Ade— the woman I came here for isn’t in my life right now.”
“You must want her to be if you’re here.”
I nodded. “I do.”
“She’s lucky to have the support even if she doesn’t realize it.” He placed a hand on my shoulder, squeezed lightly and walked away.
The meetings had opened my eyes to a lot of things I was completely dumb to before. I was grateful for it if only that it made me feel like I understood her better. Two weeks of zero contact and I refused to accept that I’d lost her for good. I didn’t know how I was going to win her back, but when I did, I wanted to be everything she needed.
I headed to the field early. We had a game tonight and I needed to stretch and activate. The calf was healed, but I’d likely be babying it to avoid re-injuring it for a while still.
“You’re early,” Foster said as I entered the locker room.
“You too.”
“Couldn’t nap today. My sister is in town and staying with me. She’s got her stuff just…” He paused to move his hands in front of him looking exasperated. “Everywhere. I can’t function in a house that isn’t clean. Even to sleep.”
I snorted and dressed into regular gym clothes since it was still a bit before the game.
“You want to play some tennis after we warm up?”
I nodded and after grabbing my shoes we headed into the workout room. Foster grumbled as I did twice the amount of stretching he was used to, but he waited all the while filling me in on the latest in his life. He and Lauren broke up and he’d started dating someone new. Foster had the best stories. Not stories you’d wished you lived but entertaining as hell to hear secondhand.
Like the one he told as we walked to the indoor turf where we had a makeshift net set up for our version of tennis. We used a soccer ball, of course, and instead of a racket, our feet. Maybe it should be called soccer with a tennis net, but that was a mouthful.
“She had me pick her up at her parents’ house. Which I of course didn’t realize until I showed up to this bomb mansion in Beverly Hills. I hadn’t been to her place before, so I didn’t even consider it wasn’t hers as I walked to the door.”
“Does she still live with them?”
“No.” His voice was borderline a screech. “She just wanted me to meet them.”
I grabbed a ball and kicked it over the net. “What’d you do?”
“What else? I went in and had drinks with Dr. and Mrs. Louise. Nice people. They invited me over for Sunday dinner.”
“You know they’re going to think things are serious if you keep going over there. Meeting the parents is a big deal.”
“That’s their problem. I’ve made it very clear to her that I’m not looking for anything long term.”
“Be careful. Next thing you know, you’re gonna be on family vacations.”
“Dr. L did mention they had a winter place in Vail.”
I shook my head. Some of the other guys started to trickle in and joined us. We played for thirty minutes or so before Chris, an intern, called out from the office. “Yo, McCash. You’ve got visitors out front.”
Excitement bloomed to the surface before I could stop it. I knew it wasn’t Adele, but damn if I didn’t let hope crush me time after time in the most inopportune of times. Like every time my phone rang, or a new email popped up.
I headed down to the front security gate and spotted Chance and CJ. Shit. We’d talked about him bringing CJ to this game, but I’d completely forgotten and even if I had remembered, I’m not sure I would have believed he’d still show up.
“Hey, guys. You made it.” I extended a hand to Chance and smiled at his son.
“It’s okay we still came?” Chance asked. “I started to call…”
