Page 67 of Not Before Game Night
I nodded. This was nice. It really was.
I just wondered though. We had all this history. He seemed to have been into me from way back when.
Patricia said fourteen.
What had stopped him from being with me?
Chapter 19
Cole
* * *
“So, that’s her…”Mom said.
She set down two mugs of hot chocolate on the worktop.
I’d just entered the kitchen after seeing Vanessa off.
Mom had made a lunch for us that was to die for, and now she was setting up bait with her famous deluxe hot chocolate and her don’t-even-try-to-evade-my-questions stare.
I smiled at her, walked over to the high stool, and lowered myself to sit.
“Yeah, that was her.” I nodded.
“Are you seeing her later?”
“No, not until tomorrow.”
We had training later. Not officially because Coach had given us the week off. However, Gilly wanted us to meet briefly to discuss some tactics for the Super Bowl.
I agreed to go. I knew a few of the others weren’t going because they wanted to take advantage of the time off, but I really liked that there was interest outside of the schedule to meet.
Plus, I also knew that Vanessa wanted time to finalize her magazine.
I looked at Mom and knew what she was going to say. Her face said all. This was the talk she’d probably been waiting to give me her whole life.
“I really like her, Cole.” She nodded, taking a sip of her chocolate. Her hair had grown substantially, and it was now a little longer than mine.
When she was having chemotherapy and she went bald, I’d shaved my head so she’d have company. I knew it would have meant more if I’d been a girl, but she knew I liked having my hair the way it was now. I’d also kept my hair low on purpose and didn’t start growing it out until recently when hers started growing.
Now we looked the same again.
She was giving me that look of expectancy, setting the floor open for me to talk, but I actually didn’t know what to say.
I smiled at her though.
“I’m glad you like her.”
“Not much to dislike about Vanessa Cartwright, Cole.” Her smile widened. “Boy, you are unusually quiet. But then you always are when it comes to her. I first found your drawings of that girl when you were fourteen, but you’d been doing them a lot longer.”
I nodded. “Yes.”
I was twelve when I first saw her. She was ten years old. We were both in middle school. We’d just moved here when Dad got the deal with The Centaurs.
“So… what took you so long, and what’s stopping you now?” Mom smiled.
I pressed my lips together and took a sip of my hot chocolate. Yesterday, I might have been quicker to give her some cock and bull story.Maybe.
