“Don’t start up with me.”
“I’m being serious. Sometimes I think if I’d worked harder instead of being an idiot…”
“It’s not too late to turn it around.”
“I don’t play anymore, Ian. I haven’t set foot on the field for six months.”
“I know that.”
“It’s too late to play that card. At least in the world of sports.”
“You could do something else, I don’t know, be a trainer, a coach.”
He busts out laughing.
“I’m not even qualified to do that. Can you see me giving orders to others? Make them respect the rules, the training…Me? I don’t listen to anyone else.”
“That’s true.”
We lose ourselves in the silence for a few minutes.
“I was thinking maybe I could stay,” he says in all seriousness. “Not, like, forever, but you know…give it a go.”
“Sounds like a good idea.”
“I don’t think Ryan would agree.”
“Ryan’s upset.”
“I know.”
“But he’s a good guy. Sooner or later it’ll pass. Of course, if you made a little more effort to help things along…”
“I’m trying, alright? It’s not easy.”
“He will forgive you.”
“I hope so. But what about you?” he says with a sigh.
“What about me what?”
“What are you doing, Ian?”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“I saw her there.”
I glance at him.
“I thought you’d ended that, bro. And yet there she was today, sitting in the reserved seating. Is there something I should know?”
I swallow hard.
“Are you back in there?”
I lie down, covering my eyes with my arm.
“I was never out of it, Nick. I never will be.”
