Page 85 of Sweet Little Lies
I interrupt. “I love her. She’s amazing.”
“That’s good. Does she want to keep the baby?”
Biting my lip, I look away from his gaze. Trying to avoid the question, but knowing it’s there regardless.
“She does. I don’t.”
“Hmm.” Is all he says.
When I look back at him, Coach is pulling up his phone and shows me a picture of his son.
“I didn’t want him at first, either. He was only an intrusion. A mistake. An accident with a woman I fucked one drunken night on a road trip in Pittsburgh. I could have easily walked away. Thrown some money at this woman, paid her child-support and gone on my merry way. But this boy,” he taps on the photos, one after another. “He became my world. The minute I saw him I just knew.
“And I’m not saying it’ll be the same for you, Lance. But you should explore it and consider what good might come out of it. Because you can do therightthing by Mica and your baby. Or you can do thebestthing for everyone.”
His words bore into me like a stake into a Vampire heart. They slay me. Cripple me. Take me to the ground.
The old me…the selfish guy who buried his feelings of self-doubt and worthlessness with booze and pills…would walk away. Wouldn’t pay a second glance.
But this new me…the one who’s learned a few things about himself through therapy and treatment, knows that I have the capacity to love and the strength to deal with these explosions in my life. That I have the tools necessary to work through these roadblocks instead of turning the other way and running away.
“Ah, man. I gotta go,” I blurt out, trying to extricate myself from the seat and into my transport while not making a spectacle of myself.
Coach Parker laughs at me, handing me my book bag and clasping me on top of my shoulder.
“You’re a good man, Britton. Call me if you need anything.”
“I will. And thanks.”
Just as I near the door, I turn my head back over my shoulder. “I’d like to meet him sometime. Caleb, that is.”
Coach smiles and winks. “He’d like that, too.”
