After toweling off and changing into some clean clothes, I headed out to look for my parents. I wondered if Danika would still be around, but I had no idea what she was doing at the game and not in New York in the first place. School didn’t start for a couple more weeks.
Before I exited the locker room, Mac rounded the corner and almost ran straight into me. “Hey, man, Danika’s still here, so I’m gonna catch a ride with Dayton.”
“Oh,” I said through my surprise. “Okay. I’ll see you back at the house. Thanks for the heads-up.”
“I expect a full report.”
“I know you do.” I faked a groan before following him outside.
“Hey, honey,” my mom said with a big smile as soon as I came into view.
Danika stood at her side, talking to my dad, but I noticed the quick look she threw my way. My mom hugged me and then congratulated me on the win and my game.
“Thanks, Mom.”
“Look who I found,” my dad announced, his arm wrapped around Danika like he had picked her out special just for me.
“Hey, Little Spitfire,” I said without thinking as the nickname slipped out, and she grinned.
“Hey, Hotshot,” she said back before moving to give me an awkward hug.
Or at least, I was awkward, not knowing where she stood with Jared, seeing her for the first time in months in front of my parents. It was all a little too weird.
“What are you doing here?” I hadn’t meant to sound so confrontational, so I tried to recover. “I mean, I thought you’d be in New York until the semester started.”
“I know, but I came back early,” she said before looking between me and my parents, who now stood, holding each other.
“I can see that. But why?”
“Jesus, Chance, give the girl a break. Be happy she’s here,” my dad said, reminding me that we were having this conversation with an audience. One who wouldn’t keep their opinions to themselves.
“No, he’s right, Mr. Carter,” she said, defending me. “I was supposed to be gone still. But I broke up with Jared, so I came back.”
Excitement and shock tore through me at once.
Did she come back for me? Did Jared admit what he did?
“He actually told you?” I asked.
She shifted on her feet, her facial expression completely changing into something unreadable. “Told me what?”
“Oh.” I looked at my parents. “Nothing.”
“Chance, I don’t care that your parents are right here. What do you think he told me?”
I cleared my throat. “That I saw him over break at a party. He was with some other girl. We had words.”
Her face changed again into an expression I wished I didn’t recognize. Danika was pissed.
“Okay, wait a second. You thought Jared had cheated on me?” she questioned and waited for my answer.
“Yeah.” I kicked the dirt because I felt like a schmuck.
“And you didn’t tell me?” Her eyes searched mine, and the utter disappointment shining in them nearly broke me in two.
“I tried.” I started to tell her about the night I went over to her place, but she wasn’t having it.
“You tried? What’d you do, Chance? Call me and tell me? Send me an email? Text me, so we could talk about it?”
I swallowed around the rock in my throat. “No.”
“Then, you didn’t try to tell me shit,” she barked, completely calling me out.
“Danika, I went to your apartment,” I tried to defend my silence on the matter, but I knew that I’d made the wrong decision when it came to her. No matter what I’d been told last summer, this situation was different.
Danika faced my parents and stunned us all. “Excuse me, Mr. and Mrs. Carter, but I’m really pissed off at your son right now, and I need to go,” she said before turning to me. “Don’t follow me, Chance. Leave me alone.”
“Shit,” I breathed out before apologizing to my mom for the bad language even though I knew she didn’t really care.
Danika stormed away, her black top and jean shorts fading away quicker than I liked.
Squeezing my eyes closed, I sucked in a breath before looking directly at my mom. “I messed up, huh?”
“Her boyfriend cheated on her, and you didn’t tell her?”
I blew out a breath. “Yeah. I mean, I saw him at a party with another chick.”
“You should have told her. Why didn’t you?” My mom sounded genuinely confused and interested in my answer.
“You should not have told her,” my dad interjected, emphasizing the word not.
My mom unwrapped herself from him and pinned him with a look. “Excuse me, Jack? Of course he should have said something.”
My dad made a weird sound. “It’s not Chance’s business. As guys, we don’t get involved in other people’s shit like that. It’s not our place.”
“Not your place? Oh, really? Doing the right thing isn’t your place?” she argued, and I felt like there was some double meaning behind her words that I wasn’t quite aware of.
“Kitten,” he said, calling my mom by her nickname that always made her roll her eyes but also made her melt. “We don’t think the same way that you ladies do. We mind our own business. How would it have looked if Chance had told Danika and she didn’t believe him? What if she’d thought Chance was lying or just trying to cause trouble because he liked her and wanted her for himself? What if it had backfired on him when he was just trying to tell her what he saw?”
My dad made some very valid points. They were exactly what I’d thought and how I’d convinced myself that I had done the right thing by staying quiet after I tried to tell her once.
“But now, she feels stupid,” my mom started to explain. “Do you know how embarrassing it is to be the last one to find out something like that? And she thought you liked her.”
“I do like her.”
“Then, you should have told her. Even as a friend. She would have wanted to know what you saw.” My mom inhaled before putting her hand on my shoulder. “Turn the situation around. If you were dating someone and Danika had seen that girl with another guy at a party, would you want to know about it, or would you want her to keep the information to herself?”
My stomach dropped as I imagined the scenario. “Of course I’d want to know.”
“Exactly.”
“Shit. Shit. Shit.” I kicked the ground some more. “I need to fix this.”
“You will.” My mom was encouraging, and it made me feel marginally better.
“You don’t think she’ll hate me forever?” I asked her since she spoke girl and my dad and I obviously did not.
“She doesn’t hate you now. Like I said, she’s embarrassed. And disappointed that you didn’t say anything to her. She doesn’t understand why.”
“Your mom’s probably right,” my dad added.
“Probably?” My mom shot him a look.
“Fine.” He reached for her and pulled her hard against him. “She’s always right. Listen to the woman.”
“Thanks, you guys. I’ll call you later,” I said as I took off jogging toward The Beast, a few thoughts in my head.