Page 134 of Unbreakable
“So, looks like things have been good in my absence?” I probed. “It’s almost like I was the problem.”
It was true: the Rusties had been on a winning streak, picking up three of the last four games.
“Nah. We’re just getting in the groove,” Colton shrugged while Bella plopped her makeover kit in front of him.
“Pink or red?” Bella asked.
“Hmm. What’s your favorite?” he asked her.
“Pink.”
“Good choice,” he said.
“Do this,” she said, leaning into his face with her lips puckered.
Colt put on his best pucker, but flinched when Bella’s poor aim decorated the whole area around his mouth. Alice stood behind him, pinning bits of his hair into bows. He grinned at me when they were done.
“Looks great, bud,” I said. “I knew you’d find your stride. You feeling more comfortable?”
“Yes and no—” he started, cut off by Alice.
“Can I paint your nails?”
He looked to me for help. It was fun watching him fall prey to my daughters. “She asked you a question, Jonesy. You’d better answer.”
Colt drew a shallow breath. “Um, how about my toes?” He peeled off his socks and stuck out his feet. Alice knelt at his feet and pulled out a blue sparkly polish.
“Perfect choice, Al,” I said. “So you’re not comfortable?”
“I’m just afraid after all this, we won’t get anywhere. We’ll start next year just as shot as we started this year.”
“Nah, they’ll remember. You got it.”
“I don’t know, man,” he sighed, peering over his knees at Alice’s work on his toes. “I’ve been here a long time and I’m just afraid . . .”
“Afraid of what?”
“It feels like I’m waiting on my life to start. But like, this is it. I’m captain in the top league. And I don’t have,” he gestured to the girls, “this.”
“Do you want this? Just because a lot of guys have families doesn’t mean you have to.”
“I don’t know. I don’t know if what I need is here or not.”
Fuck. He was really opening up. I hadn’t had anyone do that since I stopped being captain in L.A. “Do you feel like you want to leave?”
He forced a smile. “Nah. Just kinda going through it.”
I bent and put a hand on his shoulder. “If there’s anything I can do to help you, just say the word, man.”
Jeanine dramatically puther arms out and flopped down on the couch at my feet. Before that, she’d cleaned up dinner while Colt and I talked, helped with homework, started laundry, moved laundry over, vacuumed a mess off the floor from who knows what, and made sure my leg was comfortable.
“Jeannie, I need to ask you something.”
“No more questions,” she moaned. “I’m tagging out.”
“No, I’m asking this one. Are you a witch?”
She flopped her head to look at me. “Hah?” she asked, just like she had when she couldn’t hear me over her smutty book.
