Page 76 of Full Contact

“I knew he was unhappy. I thought we’d get through it.” I put the knife down.

Mark reached across the counter and rested his hand over mine.

I turned my hand beneath his and held it.

“I liked him,” I said. “I know this makes it sound as though I didn’t.”

“It sounds as though you wish you’d gone to the lake.”

“I do.”

He stayed with me for a moment, his thumb against the side of my hand. Then he drew his plate closer.

I glanced at Dana’s photograph, still on his phone.

“And she’s how old?” I asked.

“Fifty-three.”

“Is the course hard?”

“I fell off it twice on Tuesday.” He took the phone back. “I’ll do it eventually.”

“What’s your day?” Mark asked.

“Treatment at ten. Practice at eleven-thirty. Then nothing.”

“Production meeting at nine for me. Then the rest of my day. Felix and Dana tonight, at Felix’s. He’s testing a soup.”

When we finished the toast, Mark kissed me goodbye at the door and said goodbye to Peaches, who was back on her chair and didn’t answer. He got three steps into the hall and turned around.

I’d already picked his phone up off the counter and held it out.

“Thank you.”

***

On Monday, practice ended a few minutes early because Markel liked what he saw. I stopped at the bench outside the equipment room on my way to the garage to put a fresh roll of tape in my bag. Danny had left a box of them on the shelf with a sign that said ONE EACH, and EACH was underlined twice.

Callahan walked down the hall with his coat already zipped and his keys in his hand. Leah came out of the stairwell behind him with her tablet.

“Callahan. Do you have two minutes?”

He stopped. “Yes.”

“We’re setting up winter visits for the reading program. One of the library branches in Humboldt Park has asked for a player to come in and read with a group of kids. It would be about an hour, in the afternoon after practice—“

“Yes.”

“I haven’t given you the date.”

“I can do it.”

“You can do it once I’ve checked whether the team needs you.” She looked at her tablet and scrolled. “It will be sometime in January. After practice, assuming the schedule holds. I’ll confirm with the librarian and send you the details.”

“Okay. How old are they?”

“Six and seven, mostly. A few eight-year-olds.”