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Whatever that meant.
The most quality time we had in the past year was when he drove me home from school while my car was at Tony’s. Or at Charlie’s. Wherever it was getting fixed.
“Um, I’m sorry,” I mumbled into my eggs. He had taken the time to get up early and make a pan full of scrambled eggs and some toast, and here I was, looking ungrateful.
“So where were you? Ali stopped by, so I know you weren’t with him. And Malia wasn’t here, so I know you weren’t at her house.”
My gaze snapped up to him. How did he know my friends well enough to know that? Here I thought he focused on soccer and soccer alone, and knew nothing about my life.
Just like I knew nothing about his.
I thought back to what Charlie said at the restaurant the other night. How Dad chose to keep me, to raise me, to love me. And how he may have taken on so many wives to give me a female figure to look up to and be there for me when he couldn’t.
And I took all of that for granted.
I couldn’t tell him where I was, though. For numerous reasons. First, there was no way I could tell him I was with Charlie. With one of his players. Hisstarplayer. The captain.
He specifically told me to stay away from them the day they found out we were related. Not that he thought I would have anything to do with them, but still, the ground work was laid. If he found out Charlie and I were hanging out… that wekissed… well, honestly, I had no idea what would happen.
Would he take it out on me? On Charlie? On both of us? What could he even do to me besides forbid me to see Charlie again?
And if we had managed to sneak around thus far, what would stop us from doing so again?
But the other reason I couldn’t tell Dad where I was…
Was because of soccer.
If he knew I was out playing, it would bring him immense joy. There was nothing he loved more than soccer, exceptmaybeme. And having me play again would be the highlight of his year.
He would immediately grab a ball and run outside to see if we could scrimmage, run drills, or just kick back and forth. He would do so with the biggest grin on his face.
When I told him I was done playing soccer right before middle school, he looked like I told him his dog died. I had never seen him so devastated in my life, not even after each divorce or separation.
Me not playing soccer was a stab to his heart. I didn’t regret my decision, because I really wasn’t an organized sports person any more. But it hurt for me to have to tell him.
And there was no way I was going to break his heart all over again.
I couldn’t tell him where I was or who I was with. I had to lie. Again.
“Just doing a job with Flow and Jett,” I said, shoving a forkful of food into my mouth so I didn’t have to elaborate. “Sorry I bailed. I forgot. I’ll come home early tomorrow and get some stuff done while you’re at practice, okay?”
His face fell, the frown pulling down the corners of his lips, creating little wrinkles that I hadn’t noticed before.
It pulled at my heart, but I had no other choice.
It was lying, or risking both Charlie and I getting hurt.
Chapter 24
Charlie
Every day atpractice, the first thing I did when I got to the field was see if Una was in the stands.
She had never been there before her car broke down. And the only time she returned was when she came to videotape that one time. Still, it had become a habit for me lately. Occasionally, I would catch her dashing from underneath the bleachers to the parking lot nearby, a blur of black clothes and blue hair.
Not today, though. The last I spoke to her was on that field four days ago. The rest of our communication had been solely through messages, including the idea I had for the next date.
Planning them had become fun with the more I learned about Una. After the soccer field, I knew I had to do something exciting.
