AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The silence in the room stretched. Needing to fill it in with something, I turned to Paxon and Justin. Those two, I could talk more easily with. “Aren’t the two of you supposed to be at practice?”
“Yup,” Toby said with a huge grin.
“I’ll make up for it in the morning. It’s the off season, so there’s more flexibility.” Justin didn’t seem too concerned.
“Same for me.” Paxon was just as dismissive. “I’ll just say my little brother had an emergency. Coach will understand.”
After making a humming sound, I asked, “Aren’t you being a bit irresponsible?”
Paxon shrugged. “It’s still early in the season and Coach won’t bench me for missing a couple of practices. He’ll just make me run extra tomorrow.”
“Yeah, we’re going to have to get the ice packs ready,” Toby teased.
Paxon rolled his eyes, still not caring.
Seth came back with a bowl of soup and gave it to me. I stared down at the sloshing liquid in the bowl in my lap as I slowly stirred the contents around. When was the last time someone got me soup because I didn’t feel well? Dad used to do it for me.
“I’m not sick,” I grumbled. Still, I took a spoonful. It was a basic chicken noodle, but his kindness made it the best canned soup I’d ever had.
My heart ached. Still, I managed to smile through their antics as they talked and I listened. Once I finished the soup, I got up, ignoring their pleas for me to remain sitting. I needed a breath away from them before they swept me up into their pace.
The silence of the kitchen was welcoming as I rinsed out my bowl.
“I’m sorry,” Seth said, making me jump. I dropped the bowl and it clattered in the sink, shattering from the sudden impact.
Shit.
“Damn. Now I’m double sorry,” he said, moving to my side. He carefully edged me out of the way before scooping out the pieces and putting them in the trash.
“About what?” I asked, feeling tired.
“I think we overstepped your boundaries.”
“So you get it?” I asked, giving him a look that said I thought he was just trying to be understanding.
He looked down at the sink for a moment and released a sigh.
“You’re a private person, extremely private, with trust issues.”
I opened my mouth to rebuke him, but he stopped me. Probably for the best before I spewed more lies.
“I get it. I do. And I should have thought of that before letting everyone come over here to bother you, especially without warning.”
“You’re apologizing for using Calvin?”
“Would you have let us in otherwise?” he asked, rubbing the back of his neck before dragging his hand over his hair.
“Probably not.”
He snorted. “I get it. We probably came out of nowhere to you, and we can be a bit much sometimes. We do this every time one of us gets sick, so it was natural to do the same for you. You kind of fit in with us pretty well. So, I’m sorry if this went too far.”
I tapped at the marbled counter for a moment. “It wasn’t too bad,” I said in a low voice. “I’m just… this is different for me. That’s all.”
“Good different?”
I snapped my gaze to his, noting his smirk and the teasing light in his dark eyes. “I don’t know yet.”
He chuckled. “Fair enough. If we ever do this again and you don’t like it, kick us out. We’ll understand. No reason to worry about our feelings. Once we get something in our head, we tend to get a little swept up in the idea and forget to slow down. The same happened today.” He glanced at the garbage can. “And I’m sorry about your bowl.”
