“Hmm, I wouldn’t be so sure. Watch her next practice. I agree with your niece.” He laughed as he headed toward the stairs. “Soccer seems fun.”
9
EMILY
“What areyou doing here so early?” I asked Sabrina when I found her perched on the bench outside of the indoor field, jiggling her empty cup of iced coffee in agitation before she saw me. Our first game was at ten and I’d told the team to be here by nine, but I’d wanted to get to the field early to set us up for the morning and deal with any first-game nerves before the kids and parents were around to notice.
“What? It’s our first game. I thought maybe, you know, I could help you strategize or something.”
“Help me strategize,” I repeated. “It’s a scrimmage game between my kids and Penny’s team. It doesn’t even count on record. Other than making sure they pay attention and kick in a mostly straight line, I don’t have a high-level game plan,” I joked.
“Well, maybe we should. I could be useful.”
“Useful?” I squinted at Sabrina and sucked in my cheeks to hold back a laugh. Sabrina had never played a sport in her life. She was a great cheerleader, but from the stands and not the sidelines.
“Well, yes. I could do more as your assistant than just hand out papers and water. Maybe I wasn’t a soccer star like you, butI know things that could help you.Rock Bottom Girlwas my favorite Lucy Score book, and I read it like three times. I’m sure I learned something about being a soccer coach that could be helpful,” she said as we made our way over to our part of the field for the afternoon and dropped our bags on the bench.
“Okay, then.” I came up to her and crossed my arms. “Do you want to draw a chart of X’s and O’s to show the kids how to line up when they get here, or just tell me what’s bothering you that brought you here so early?”
“Fine,” she huffed, shaking her head as she took a seat on the bench. “I’m here so early because I did something stupid, and I want to forget about it.”
I held in a cringe as my mind immediately went to Caden. I knew they were hanging out sometimes, but I hadn’t asked for any details. It was none of my business if they were falling into old habits, but I worried about her.
“Do I even want to know?” I asked her and took a quick sweep of the field. I waved at Penny as she set up the cones around the goals, but I didn’t find anyone else. Before Sabrina confessed anything that wasn’t suitable for children’s ears, I wanted to make sure we were alone.
“I went on Facebook and looked up Austin.” She held up her hands. “I know, I know. Nothing good comes from that. I was feeling low and had hopes that maybe the universe righted itself and he was miserable and ugly now.”
She dug through the cooler and pulled out a bottle of water.
“I thought you were going to block him so the impulse wouldn’t be there.”
“Blocking doesn’t work.” She unscrewed the cap and took a sip. “You can just unblock. Anyway, his baby is two, and his wife is pregnant again. Well, she’s pregnant for the first timeashis wife, not the woman he was seeing while he was married to me.”
“Honey, I’m sorry.” I squeezed her shoulder.
“Don’t be, because I did it to myself. It was enough of a gut punch to knock the wind out of me and keep me awake, so here I am.” She stretched out her arms.
“However you stumbled upon it, it sucks, and I hate that you were hurt all over again.”
“I’m over it. For the most part, anyway. I’d been telling you for the longest time that we were having problems before it all blew up. We went over it plenty of times, and I’m too undercaffeinated to regurgitate any of it. But, yes.” Her gaze drifted over the fake grass. “It still hurt.”
I looped an arm around her shoulder.
“Yes, it does hurt when you see it, which is why it’s not a good idea to look for it. But I’ve had plenty of my own weak moments on social media, so I really can’t fault you for it.”
“Thank you for not making me feel worse,” she breathed out as her head fell onto my shoulder. “I needed a distraction. It was either come here or take Caden’s offer to meet him later. He’s a nice guy, but I can’t do that again—and not in the state of mind I’m in. I can’t hook up with someone just to forget someone else.”
She rubbed the back of her neck and shook her head.
“It’s not like high school, when it was a fun game. Now, I’ll just feel more like shit.”
“Yes,” I said finally, because I couldn’t help myself. “I am very, very happy that you came to that conclusion on your own. I was keeping my mouth shut, but I admit I was a little worried.”
“It’s good to know that I’m not too far gone, then.” She chuckled when she turned her head toward me. “How are you holding up? Nervous?”
“No. Or I shouldn’t be.” I peeled off my hoodie. “This game doesn’t even count. I just want the kids to have a good time.”
“I think some of the moms want to have a good time with Jesse.”
