Page 77 of Scoring Chances

“What are you talking about?”

He pulls out a stool and watches me drop the dirty dishes into the sink.

“You haven’t cooked anything in the entire year you’ve lived here,” he says. “You hardly ever wake up before nine unless there’s practice. And even then you’re almost always late. So… as I said–what have you done with Hicks?”

Cassidy strolls into the kitchen, she’s freshly showered, her hair sitting on top of her head in a topknot.

She grabs a mug and doesn’t look at me, before saying good morning to Keelan from over her shoulder.

Keelan’s mouth drops.

I shake my head, silently warning him not to say a word.

He mouths, “you mother fucker” and points a finger at me. Cassidy is now stirring sugar into her coffee and turns around to see us silently motioning to each other.

“What’s going on?” she asks.

“Nothing,” we both say a little too fast.

“Okay…” she turns to me. “I was thinking of taking the kids out today. It’s supposed to be pretty cool out. We don’t get many of these days in the summer.”

“Sure,” I say. “Maybe the park? I know a place we can take out some kayaks.”

Her eyes brighten. “Kayaks might be cool.”

“Let’s do it.”

“I’ll go get them ready.”

She leaves and Keelan stands waiting until she’s all the way up the stairs before laying into me. He turns, rubbing a hand down his face.

“Hicks.”

“Don’t,” I say.

He sighs heavily. “You’re both grown. You’re going to do what you want, I get it. But this is going to blow up in your face. It’s a ticking time bomb.”

I turn the faucet off. “No, it’s not. Because we have an agreement.”

He scoffs. “Oh, an agreement,” he laughs sarcastically. “You should’ve told me you had a fucking agreement.” He throws his hands up.

“Keep it down, you nut. You’ll wake the kids.”

“Hicks, I love you, man. I really do. But sometimes you make really stupid decisions.”

I turn, stepping up to him.

“I make stupid decisions? Wow, that’s rich coming from you.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about you and Rina, Lando. And you sneaking out of her room at ungodly hours. You know, Rina? The one getting married this weekend? Or did you conveniently forget that when you buried inside her at the beach house?”

His eyes go from chocolate to black at the mention of her name.

“You have no idea what you’re talking about. You don’t know what you saw.”

“I can take a wild guess. So you want to judge my decisions? Why don’t you look at yours first before you think of yourself as so high and mighty, Captain!”