AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Logan
Ipick at the leftover meatloaf I had heated up. It’s gotten cold now, but I really don’t have an appetite anyway. I toss the container into the garbage can as Campbell walks in.
“Was that Quinton and Liam’s aunt leaving?” he asks.
“Yeah, she just stopped by to talk about Liam.”
He puts a covered plate on the table. “Grandma thought you might change your mind on eating that leftover meatloaf.”
“Thanks.”
“Dad, is there something going on with you and her? Ms. Leigh?”
I haven’t always been honest with my son. I always felt that some things he was just better off not knowing. Like the reasons his mother didn’t attend his games or where she was when she was gone for days at a time. When she went into rehab, I had what my parents always called a “grown-up” talk with him. He needed to know the truth about Jolene and that our marriage was over.
I’m torn on whether or not this moment is one of those times. Can I have a grown-up talk with him and tell him the truth about Sailor? What is the truth?
“There’s nothing going on between us,” I lie, knowing damn well I’m nowhere finished with Sailor Leigh now that she’s back in my life.
I have played the honorable husband for half of my life. I married Jolene right out of high school, and we had Campbell while I was a freshman in college. Not once did I forget I was a married man during college or after I was drafted to the NFL. I wasn’t one of those athletes that had the family at home and the girlfriends on the road. Not once. Not ever.
But Jolene didn’t take our vows as seriously as I did. We had a couple of good years right after high school, both of us leaning on each other during her pregnancy and after Campbell was born. But once I was drafted, everything changed. She let the money and the fame get to her and lost herself in that lifestyle. Our marriage was over long before I filed for divorce. I’m more than ready to move on.
“Good, because I know Mom will come here when she gets out of rehab.”
I frown. “Campbell, you know I will always love your mom because she gave me you, but some marriages can’t be fixed. We talked about this.”
“I’m not giving up, Dad,” he says adamantly. “It’s like we’re in the final play of the game, and there’s only one second left on the clock. Anything can happen.”
I admire his optimism, but the game I played with Jolene has already gone into overtime, and neither team won. Call it a tie. Call it a forfeit. Either one is fine with me. The clock has run out, though.
As for Sailor, that game is only just beginning. And I’ll be damned if I don’t feel like a third-string rookie riding the bench.
