“What?” she asked. “Did you think I would walk out of that house assuming that he’d play fair?” She focused on me and repeated, “I told you I was fine.”
6
Kelcie
June
When I returned home, James had the divorce moving full steam ahead. Amber had been humiliated by her own actions this time—although she would never admit it—and was eager to have me out of town. This, in turn, made James eager to divorce me with all expeditiousness.
I planned on moving back to Keysville. This did not go over well with James because of the inconvenience it would cause him. But when faced with alimony payments to support me while Aaron and I lived in our current home, he dropped the issue, and we split the house sale.
Shaw’s brother, Dylan, owned a duplex property he was renovating—two attached homes that shared a porch. He was done with one half and had been working on the other half for a few weeks, so he offered to let me live there at a reduced rate while he finished the other side.
James was too busy with his new life to interfere with Aaron and me as we acclimated to our new routine and environment. I started my new job with the physical therapy practice in town, and Aaron spent his days with Grace’s Aunt Maeve until school started.
One day, Shaw texted me, asking if Aaron and I had a minute to jump on a video call. Curious, I called Aaron into the room and pulled up my laptop. Shaw hadn’t seen Aaron since he was a small child and only in passing at a few events the whole group attended. He’d never made a point of mingling with us, trying to minimize the drama.
I’d known Shaw as a skinny, pimply teen with a squeaky voice and feet too big for him to run a straight line without falling. But I’d seen him bulk up in size and confidence. I’d held his head when he had the flu, and I’d held his hand the night he was drafted, reaching his lifetime goal of playing professional football.
Yet, the man’s smile always took me by surprise. When he smiled at me, for a heartbeat, I’d lose my ability to form words. He’d appear happy to see me, and for the briefest moment, all the history between us would fade.
For a few seconds, I could pretend he wasn’t a celebrity football player but just a boy I’d grown up with, a man I’d fantasized about.
Then my brain would come back online, reality would hit me upside the head, and I would remember who I was to him. I was the friend who found a date for him to take to prom, the pal who’d helped him pass high school English so he’d get his scholarship.
I thought back to the day I ran to his house to tell him I got a lacrosse scholarship from the same college he was attending—something we both had wanted. Then I heard him in his locked bedroom with Maxine Vanderson and knew I couldn’t go through four years of that.
The tears that had welled in my eyes at hearing him with another girl…again. It just hit me—I wasn’t just one of the guys. I felt more than friendship for him. We needed—no, I needed—to go in a different direction. It was time.
My dad had been right. We needed to live our own lives. I tore up the letter and never told him about it. From that moment on, everything changed.
And even though he still managed to take my breath away with that dangerous smile, I needed to salvage our friendship first. Then, with luck, I’d be able to face my unresolved, unrequited feelings for him later.
“Hey, ya’ll, how’s it going? How’s the summer been so far?” I’d video-chatted with him a few times since he started training camp, mainly updating him on how we were settling in.
“Good,” Aaron and I chimed together.
Shaw began walking again, but a door shut behind him. Keys rattled on a table.
“Where are you?” I asked.
“Just finished my afternoon workout. I’m home and about to get cleaned up, but I wanted to catch you two while I had a chance.”
He stopped for a moment. “Aaron, my man. Good God, now that you are standing by your mom, I realize how big you’ve gotten. Are you taller than your mom?”
“Not yet. I’m five feet two inches, and she’s five feet five inches. But I’m close.”
“Well, if you take after your mom’s side of the family, you will bypass her by the summer's end. Your grandfather is almost as tall as I am.” Shaw drank some water and was walking around what I guessed was his home in Charlotte.
“Dad says I’m more like him than Mom’s side of the family.”
I gritted my teeth and said nothing. Shaw was quiet for a moment, and the tension in his smile indicated that he was biting back a snarky remark, too.
He managed to resist. “Yeah. Okay. Well, your mother told me you were a Baltimore fan.”
“Yes. Dad and I love Baltimore football.”
Shaw tilted his head, narrowing his eyes at my son in mock seriousness. “Well, you know I play for Carolina.”
