I sit on the pool table, leaning my forehead against the cue.
Tyler sighs before dropping himself down next to me.
“Can I ask you something?”
I look at him.
“Why has this got to you so much?”
“Do I really need to explain it to you?”
“Yeah.”
“She’s using my daughter to get what she wants.”
“Funds for the school she’s been building up for years?”
“That’s not the point.”
“Anyway, at most she’s usingyou.”
“Is that supposed to make me feel better?”
“Look at the bright side: Skylar will get into the school, and she’ll be around people her own age. Maybe she’ll even be able to graduate. And you’d have a job.”
“Do you really think I want to work as a coach for a group of rowdy teenagers?”
“I’ll remind you that you were once one of those teenagers, back in the day.”
“I was good.”
“You don’t know anything about these kids. They might surprise you.”
“If they were good, do you really think she’d have asked me to help them?”
“See? You’re starting to agree.”
“What the hell are you on about?”
“She needs you as much as you need her.” He jumps down from the pool table and faces me. “It’s not a bribe; it’s lucky.”
“Lucky? I’m jobless, my daughter has been kicked out of countless schools, I’ve moved back in with my parents, and the first woman I’ve slept with after nine months thinks I’m a stupid dickhead.”
“Nine months?”
“That’swhat you’re focusing on?”
“It’s worrying, considering we’re talking about the guy sitting in front of me.”
“I’ll say it one more time: stop reading all that shit about me!”
“Seriously? Nine months?”
“You know what happened: I’d just become a father.”
“Your daughter is fifteen, Niall. You became a father a long time ago.”
“You know what I mean.”
