Page 49 of The Do-Over Girl
“I’m always on the side of decency.”
“Right. Except for that one time—”
I take her arms before she finishes. “Quit it, Kali. We agreed not to talk about it. Stop throwing that incident in my face every time you find something good to say about me. It’s like you need to keep any positive qualities I might have balanced against one fucking incident from our fucking childhood. We both behaved badly that night. Let’s leave it at that.”
Her mouth tightens, and I can see she still doesn’t accept her share of the blame, that in her mind and heart I’ll forever be the one mostly at fault no matter what. A sigh shudders through me, and I drop my hands. “Fuck it,” I whisper more to myself than her.
Steve appears behind her.
“Everything okay, Kali?” He’s looking at me.
“Everything is dandy,” I say. “Not that it’s any of your business.” I’d like to ask him what he’d do about it if things weren’t fine, but I save it because Steve’s a decent guy, and I need to walk the walk if I’m going to talk the talk about taking the side of decency.
“I’m going for a walk.” I leave, bursting the bubble I thought we had, the past all too easily rearing its ugly head—thanks to Barbara fucking Smith.
Ending up at Andie’s Point Pizza, my home away from home—or I should say, home away from the inn, which alternately either feels like home or a nightmare from my past, I pull out my phone, determined to do something to keep my mind off Kali, determined to keep my focus on the mission.
It’s what I’m here for, right? I’m definitely not fucking her to resurrect the ghost of a romance past.
Scrolling through my contacts, I find the number for Spencer Logan, the Coach for the Portsmouth Whalers, and I proceed to call him and invite him and his scouts to look at my guy, Dylan Zappola.
Next, I talk to the coach at the University of Maine, though I don’t know him. He’s happy to take my call and promises to send a scout.
My phone pings. It’s a text from Kali. I not only don’t answer it or even look at it—I delete it.
