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Everyone laughed.
“I don’t think they’ll win, but they’ll make the final,” Saylor said objectively.
“You can’t steal mine! I said that this morning,” Dylan grumbled.
She grinned. “That’s what you get for leaving the toilet seat up.”
Chris touched my arm. “I’ll be right back.”
“Oh.” I watched as he walked off, something not feeling quite right about his exit. I turned to everyone. “Hey, I just need to go to the bathroom. If they get done and Leo comes over, can you tell him I’ll be right back?”
“Sure.” Holley smiled understandingly.
Of course she’d have seen Chris leave.
I quickly got up and followed in the direction he’d left, casting a glance behind me just in time to see the other team Leo was playing save a goal. Damn it.
I couldn’t find Chris, either, so I wandered around for a couple of minutes until I stumbled upon a smoking shelter.
Oh, no.
I walked round it. “Terrible habit, really.”
Chris looked up at me, fully ashamed, and shrugged. “I did quit, but Carrie drove me to it.” He paused. “I haven’t smoked around Leo, don’t worry.”
“I know you wouldn’t.” I leaned against the wall. “What’s up?”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re smoking. You’re never fine when you smoke.”
He sighed and put out the cigarette. “He’s happy here, isn’t he?”
“Leo?”
“Yeah.”
“Very much so,” I agreed. “He prefers it here to living in the city.”
He nodded slowly, looking out at the under-construction barn to the side of us. It was going to be the camp barn, and Seb was hoping to get it done by Halloween to run a Halloween camp.
“It’s a good place for him. And I’m so happy that he’s happy, but…” He sighed again. “I miss him.”
I looked at the ground.
“I know it was my decision to move, but I’ve really missed Montana. It’s still home, you know?”
“It’s why I couldn’t go to Miami for you. That, and your bitch of an ex.”
A smile flittered across his face. “I knew you didn’t like her.”
“Of course I didn’t. It just wasn’t my place to tell you that. As long as she wasn’t a danger to our son, I had no business dictating who you did and didn’t date.”
“You’re right. I’m sorry, by the way. For how I just acted about Oliver. I like him. He seems like a really good guy, and he seems to really like Leo. All he’s talked about all week is Ollie coming to his house and playing soccer in the backyard and slapping pizza butts.”
I snorted into my hand. “That’s a very long story.”
“I’m not sure I want to hear it.”
“Probably not.” I laughed. “I know it’s hard for you to be so far away from him, but it doesn’t have to be so distant. School gets out in a few weeks. Why don’t you fly up and take him back with you for a week? He’d love to go. You could even take him to Universal.”
Chris looked at me. “Really?”
“As long as you don’t take him to the Harry Potter bit without me, sure.”
He rubbed his hand down his face, laughing. “I’d like that a lot.”
“Chris, he’s your son.” I moved and sat down next to him. “You have the right to spend as much time with him as you like. All you have to do is ask me and as long as it works schedule-wise, there’s not a problem with it. You’re welcome to come here as much as you want.”
He looked over at me. “I think I’m going to ask my company for a transfer.”
“You’re what?”
“I took the Florida position because Carrie convinced me to. She’s from Miami.” He buried his head in his hands. “Shit. It was a stupid fucking thing to do.”
“Yes,” I said honestly. “It was.”
“I can always count on you to tell me the truth, can’t I?”
“Well, lying gets you nowhere.” I shrugged.
“I might not be able to get the Montana office, but maybe Idaho or one of the Dakotas. That’s better than Florida. Then I can be here for this stuff, too. All the time.”
I reached over and took his hand. “Chris, you made a mistake. We all make them. Making a mistake doesn’t make you a bad person. It makes you a good person who made a bad choice. The fact you want to change what you did says a lot about who you are.”
He looked up at me. “I made more than one mistake.”
“Well, I won’t argue with you on that one.” I grinned.
“How the fuck can you be so nice to me after what I did to you, London? After what I left you alone to deal with when I moved?”
“Because hating you doesn’t do any good for anyone. I told you this before. Is doing this parenting thing alone hard? Yeah, it is, and I do resent you a little bit for leaving me to do it all by myself. But you’re still my son’s father, and regardless of how many times I have fantasized about hitting you over the head with a very heavy object—”
