by Lexi Lewis
Chris huffed, arms folded. “Then what do you propose we do, if you’re so smart?”
“You need to work on you. It's part of the plan for you to get back in the games, right? That’s not gonna happen like this. What, you think all of Reese’s sponsors are going to drop him and then come flocking to you just because he’s out of the picture? Yeah, not how it works. At all.”
“I know that!”
“Then focus on making progress and leave Reese to me. He’s got six or so months left before he can even do anything, and now he’s on his own. He doesn’t have an agent anymore, and he never even bothered to learn anything about how I did my job. He’s going to be wading through paperwork and contracts for months. Even after he’s healed. That’s the time when you need to start impressing the right people.”
Angry as he was, Chris could admit that Paul had a point. Getting Reese out of the picture had only ever been one part of their plan. Getting him back into the spotlight was the most important part, and the part they had worked on the least.
“So you’re gonna help me?” Chris asked, and Paul finally cracked a smile.
“You think Reese climbed up so high because he’s talented?” he asked. “Please. It’s part of it, but any idiot can ride a bike or a skateboard. I’ve got the right connections, and I can help you get to where you want to be.”
He should have been wary of trusting Paul after the fiasco of the interview, but something made him grin and nod. It sounded good, being back at the top, where he’d been before Reese had come onto the scene and rocketed past him.
Chris wanted it, and there was no hiding that.
Paul held his hand out. “Do we have a deal?”
“Yeah,” Chris said. “Deal.”
CHAPTER 4: MEET THE FAMILY
“This is probably the worst idea I’ve ever had,” Reese groaned, dropping his head into his hands. “Why are there so many of them?”
“Because it’s a transitive sport and plenty of people come and go, especially in the semi-pros?” His father replied, setting a plate down at Reese’s elbow.
Reese snorted and rolled his eyes. “You’re just quoting me now. Don’t think I don’t know where you heard that from.”
Anthony grinned. “I’d never try to pretend like I came up with that. So it’s a long list?”
“Yeah. And I mean, I’m crossing off people who I’ve never met or competed against because I’d like to think that people who don’t even know me wouldn’t have an issue with me, but that might just be wishful thinking, I dunno.”
“I don’t see why people have an issue with you anyway. It’s not like you’ve been cheating your way through this or anything. You’re honest and talented. Why should they have a problem with that?”
Reese smiled at his dad’s earnest words. His parents had been being nicer to him than he really knew what to do with since they’d come home the night before to find him hunched over on the couch with his head in his hands. Apparently being stabbed in the back by someone you trusted was enough to get sympathy from even his mother, and while it still hurt to think that Paul had done this to him, it was nice that for once, no one was blaming him for what had happened.
“I dunno, dad. I guess some people might have seen me as an interloper or something. I beat a lot of records in my first year, and a lot of people weren’t happy about it. Of course, narrowing those people down is hard work.”
He glanced at the clock when he pushed his laptop away and turned his attention to the plate of fries his father had placed on the table. Eve was due to arrive to pick him up at seven, and it was already after six thirty.
His mother was still working, as usual, but Reese wondered about letting his dad meet Eve. If anything serious or long term was going to happen with them, then it would have to happen sooner or later, and Reese had met her brother, which was a big deal and a show of trust. Part of him wanted to make a similar show, but he wasn’t sure how that would be taken.
Reese ate the fries and drummed the fingers of his free hand against the table. His bag was already packed and hanging from the back of the chair he was sitting in. It would be easy to just go out when she showed up with a brief goodbye to his father.
Or…he could invite her in and make introductions.
Decisions, decisions.
He finished the food quickly and then headed back to his room to grab a coat and brush his hair one more time, and he was halfway into his coat when he heard his father opening the door.
“Reese, your friend is here!” Anthony called, and Reese snorted at how much it suddenly felt like he was a kid going on a play date.
“Be right there!” he called back, heading back through to the kitchen to grab his bag. When he glanced out the window, he could see Eve getting out of the car with what he often referred to as her ‘work smile’ on her face. She was still in her scrubs, though she’d thrown a long coat over them, and her hair was falling around her face and shoulders. She looked lovely, but he thought that every time he saw her, and from the way his father looked taken aback, Reese could tell that he was probably reevaluating his assumption about the nature of their relationship.
Well, that took the decision neatly out of his hands, and he hurried over to the door so he could at least be there when she was meeting his father.
“Hi,” Eve was saying and shaking his dad’s hand. “I’m Eve. It’s nice to meet you.”
“Anthony Abbot,” his dad replied. “Likewise. My son didn’t tell me he had such pretty friends. I was expecting some sports nut to pull up.”
Eve laughed and shook her head. “I’m definitely not a sports nut at all. Honestly, I don’t know what he sees in me since I think he’s crazy for flipping around on boards and bikes all the time. I like my feet firmly on the ground.”
“You and me both,” Anthony said, laughing. “I don’t even like roller coasters all that much. You know, I can’t remember the last time Reese had a female friend. He was never very popular with women until he got a bit famous. Before then he was just so shy.”
“Okay, okay!” Reese said, making his way down to where the two of them were standing. “That’s enough of that. Eve doesn’t need to hear about how girls used to terrify me, Dad.”
“Oh, no, it’s fascinating, actually,” Eve teased. “Please do tell me more, Mr. Abbot.”
Reese glared at her, but he was so relieved to see her after the last couple of days that he couldn’t even care that he was getting teased right in the driveway of his parents’ house. It was almost fully dark by then, and Reese was going to suggest that they get going when headlights behind Eve’s car caught his attention, and he noticed that his mother was pulling in.
Oh, god.
He could see the quizzical look on her face from where he was standing, and she got out of the car after turning it off, walking up to them with a raised eyebrow.
“Is everything alright?” she asked.
“Yeah, Mom. Everything’s fine. This is Eve. My friend who I said I was going to go spend some time with?”
“Ah, yes. Hello, Eve, it’s nice to meet you. I’m Carolyn Abbot, Reese’s mother.” She offered her hand, and Eve shook it with a wide eyed expression.
Reese’s mother had that effect on everyone pretty much, so it didn’t even surprise him. She was intimidating to her very core, and he could tell from the way Eve was looking at her that she was remembering all the things he had told her about his mother and putting them together with the woman in front of her.
Carolyn smiled, and Reese was sure there was something mischievous in it that he was pretty sure he wasn’t going to like.
“Why don’t you come in for a bit?” she said. “It’s cold out here, and I’m sure you wouldn’t mind taking a small break from driving before you head back to the city.”
Eve glanced at him, and he shrugged. It wasn’t an ideal situation, but telling his mother no wasn’t something he was prepared to do. And she had been incredibly nice to him following Paul’s
betrayal, so he didn’t feel like arguing about it.
“Uh… sure,” Eve replied, smiling. “That would be nice.”
“We’ll get you a nice cup of cocoa for the road,” Anthony said, and he winked at Reese as he and his wife herded the two of them back up to the house.
Reese just shook his head. In the grand scheme of things, being embarrassed by his parents was low on the list of traumatizing things that had happened to him since he’d been back with his parents, so there wasn’t much he could complain about.
“This might get embarrassing really fast,” he whispered to Eve as they lingered in the doorway. “I’ve literally never brought a girl home before, and they are going to be so embarrassing about this.”
Eve snorted. “I think I can handle it. I’ve never been brought home to meet the parents before, but how hard can it be?”
“Don’t say that. My mom can make things hard. It’s like her favorite thing to do.”
“Are you two coming?” Carolyn called, as if she’d heard them talking about her.
“Be right there, Mom.” He kissed Eve’s cheek and sighed. “Let’s get this over with, then.”
She surprised him by slipping her hand into his as they walked into the kitchen, and sure enough, neither of his parents missed it. Anthony smiled and Carolyn’s ever present arched eyebrow went up just that much more.
“I thought so,” she said. “And how long has this been going on, Reese?”
He rolled his eyes and ushered Eve into a chair at the table before he took his own seat. “I’m not a teenager, Mom,” Reese reminded her.
“I know that. I’m not scolding, I just want to know how long you’ve had someone.”
“Not long, Mrs. Abbot,” Eve responded with a shrug. “It’s only been a few weeks.”
“And how did you two meet?” Anthony wanted to know.
“I was his nurse when he was in the hospital. You might have seen me, I don’t know. We got to talking, and one thing led to another, I guess.”
Reese grinned down at the table. Talking was one way to put it. Really they had been attracted to each other nearly instantly, and had done things in the hospital that were surely frowned upon. But his parents definitely didn’t need to know that.
“I’m sure he was a handful,” Reese’s mother was saying as she warmed up milk for the cocoa. “He was always terrible at staying in bed when he was sick as a child, and he hasn’t gotten better at it as an adult.”
Eve giggled into her hand. “He did spend a lot of time talking about how he’d rather be snowboarding or skating or whatever. Luckily we never had to tie him down or sedate him or anything like that.”
She smiled at him, and there was something in her eyes that had Reese thinking about what would happen if she did tie him down. That was definitely something he shouldn’t have been thinking about with his parents right there (no matter how much he was suddenly intrigued by the idea), so he cleared his throat. “Thanks, so much, really. Anyway. We do need to get going eventually, so you two need to get this out of your system.”
“You’re being careful, aren’t you?” Anthony asked suddenly. “What with Paul turning out to be untrustworthy, I would hate to think of something happening to you just because you associate with Reese.”
“I’m being as careful as I can,” Eve said, smiling at him. “I only met Paul a couple of times, but I can’t believe he’d do this to Reese. I don’t know why anyone would want to do this to Reese. He’s one of the most genuine people I’ve ever met, and it seems like you’d have to be a special brand of heartless to want to hurt him.”
Carolyn was smiling as she placed a warm mug in front of Eve and sat down. “I quite agree. And Paul had better hope that I never run into him somewhere, or I plan to make him regret ever thinking about treating my son like he is something disposable. It’s unforgivable.”
Suddenly warm from the show of support from the people he cared about the most, Reese smiled. Things weren’t ideal, but that was alright. He didn’t have to deal with this alone, which was the important thing here. Eve was going to help him try to go through his list and narrow things down, and his parents were on his side. Neither of them had even mentioned how things would be better if he just quit since everything had come out, and it seemed like they were finally coming to understand what this meant to him.
It made him even more determined not to give up.
He put his hand on Eve’s leg under the table, smiling when she grinned into her mug and then answered his father’s question about her job. This was much nicer than he had been expecting, and he almost regretted not introducing Eve to his parents sooner. Almost.
It was another half hour before they managed to extricate themselves from the warmth of the kitchen, and Eve was grinning as they headed out into the darkness to get into her car.
“I like your family,” she said as she got in and cranked it up, turning on the heat and letting the car warm up before she started pulling out, moving neatly around his mother’s car to back into the street.
“They’re pretty good,” Reese had to agree. “It’s kinda funny how much better we’ve been getting along lately. I don’t know if it’s just because they feel sorry for me after everything that’s happened, or if we’ve reached some kinda turning point in the relationship, but I’ll take it. It’s way better than them being on my case all the time.”
Eve nodded. “Yeah, I can see how that would get old fast. But I’m sure it was just because they were worried about you. My mom used to be hard on me sometimes. Like there were things that she wouldn’t bat an eyelash at because she knew that it wasn’t a big deal, but then there were other things that sent her into full on ‘mom mode’ and we would argue about it. But as I got older and started looking after Devin, it was kind of easy to see how some of the things I wanted to do worried her, I guess.”
Reese sighed and drug his fingers through his hair. “Yeah, I know. I mean, I’m their only kid, and I know it can’t be easy to watch me do the things I do. I think…you remember how when I was in the hospital, this felt like the worst thing ever? Ending up back here with them?”
“Yeah, I remember. You moped a lot.”
He snorted. “I know I did. But I think maybe it’s been good. I think maybe once we get through this whole mess, we’ll actually be happy to see each other at Christmas and stuff.”
“That’s good,” Eve replied, smiling softly. “I mean, I can say from experience that not all family is worth having around, but if you’ve got family that loves you, you should hold onto them as much as you can.”
He could hear the wistfulness in her voice, and he wondered if she was missing her mother or thinking about the fact that her father sucked. Either way, it wasn’t anything pleasant more than likely, so Reese put a hand on her thigh while she drove. “You know, you’re a really good example of good family. Devin’s lucky to have you.”
There was a shadow in her eyes, and this time he knew the reason behind it. He wanted to ask if Devin had been having more issues at school, but something told him that it wasn’t the best timing.
“I do what I can,” Eve said softly.
“And it’s enough. Trust me. He adores you.”
She smiled gratefully and then seemed to shake herself. “Thanks. So what do you think? Should we get some food before we dive into trying to figure out who’s trying to bump you off?”
Reese laughed, and it was kind of amazing that he could find anything funny about the situation at all. “Yeah, let’s do that. I’m at least gonna need some ice cream before trying to put all this information together.”
It really was so amazing to him how even terrible situations could seem less bad when you had someone you cared about beside you.
CHAPTER 5: RESPITE
After a quick stop at the store for ice cream and microwaveable snacks, Eve got them back to her place. Devin was still out with Michelle, probably having dinner or spending time at her hotel, and there was a note on the refr
igerator that told her that they’d packed a bag for Devin and that she would take him to school the next morning.
It was something of a relief to have a break from child rearing when she knew that she wasn’t going to get a phone call in the middle of the morning saying that something had gone wrong.
Devin had been clinging to Michelle from the moment she’d arrived, and she knew that he would be fine with her.
In the meantime, Reese seemed to be making himself right at home in her apartment, and he immediately went to put the ice cream in the freezer and stick the bagel bites in the microwave, humming to himself as he did so.
It was kind of funny how much she liked seeing him in her kitchen, cast and all, and she knew somewhere deep down that she was going to miss him a lot when he got better and went back on the road again.
That was something they hadn’t gotten around to talking about yet, and she wondered when they would. It seemed like it was too early to do it now, especially since there were still several weeks left before Reese could even start physical therapy. It would be months before she had to face the thought of him leaving, and she didn’t want to get worked up about it just yet.