Page 169 of Offside Rules

His jaw works before he answers.

"Yeah. I do."

For a few seconds, neither of us speaks.

I set the keys on the counter because they’re digging into my hand.

"You don’t have to like him," I tell him. "I wasn’t asking you to forget what happened."

"I thought—" He stops and shakes his head. "It doesn’t matter what I thought. You tried to talk to me, and I wouldn’t let you."

"I should’ve told you sooner."

"Probably. But after the way I acted, I can’t really stand here asking why you didn’t."

That gets my attention more than another apology would have.

Beau pulls his hands out of his pockets and rests them against the edge of the counter.

"I’ve been angry at him for six years. Every appointment, every time my leg hurt, every time I wondered whether I’d ever get a real chance to play. It was easy to keep putting all of it on him."

"He knows what he did. He was going for someone else and he hit you instead. He knows that’s no excuse. He just wants a chance to make it right."

I wanted him to listen three days ago. When Wolf was still here. When I could’ve gone upstairs after this conversation and told him Beau might actually hear him out.

"I called him," Beau says.

My head turns. "Did he answer?"

"No. I left a message."

"He only turned his phone on this morning."

"Then maybe he’ll listen later."

"He might not want to."

"I know." Beau looks at me. "I’m still going to apologize. Whether he wants anything to do with me after that is up to him."

I fold my arms, mostly because I don’t know what to do with my hands.

"What did Mom and Dad say?"

"Dad wants to talk to him too."

"About the hospital?"

"Yeah."

"And Mom?"

"She’s worried about you."

"She was worried about me before. That’s how we got here."

Beau lets out a breath. "Nobody’s going to give you a hard time about being with him, Baylor."

"You can’t promise that for everybody."