Page 30 of Waiting for Friday Night

“Did anyone else overhear that?” That was the most important thing. If this had already gotten out, he needed to know how much damage control he’d have to do.

Zachariah shook his head. “I don’t think so.”

Quinton’s eyes narrowed. “You don’t think so or you know for sure?”

“No one else was in the hall when I heard. I was coming down looking for you to make sure things were good when I overheard. I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop.”

“But you did.”

Zachariah held up his hands in defense. “Aye, I was just coming down the hall when Shania blurted it out. I wasn’t eavesdropping like that. Besides, that’s a conversation you have behind a closed door.” He pointed to the shut office door.

Quinton sighed. He had a point. “Alright, I’ll give you that.”

“So you and Halle...”

“It’s not what you think. In fact, I don’t really want to get into it. For now, please, just keep what you heard to yourself. We’re still trying to figure this entire situation out.”

“What’s there to figure out? Either you’re her dad or you’re not.”

“It’s complicated,” Quinton said. Two words that were the biggest understatement he’d ever heard.

Things were more than complicated. They were tangled and twisted and could spiral out of control. He wanted to be a part of Shania’s life. Being a part of her life was also being a part of Halle’s life. But from the way she’d rushed off his porch with her hand in Gregory’s reminded him that he was not Halle’s type. He may be clocking for her, but she most definitely wasn’t thinking about giving him the time of day. Gregory was whom she wanted for Shania’s father. Not Quinton.

“Damn right it’s complicated,” Zachariah said, scattering Quinton’s thoughts.

“Huh?”

Zachariah scooted forward to the edge of his chair. His eyes intent as they met Quinton’s. “I know you’re not going to act like you don’t know how this changes things.”

He had a good idea that this would change a lot. His life. His relationship with Shania. Everything was changing, but he wasn’t sure how that was Zachariah’s concern.

“Changes what things?”

“The team,” Zachariah said as if that was the obvious answer. “Its dynamics. The way the rest of the school and the district is going to view things.”

Quinton wanted to play dumb, but he immediately understood. “I don’t play favorites.”

“It doesn’t matter if you don’t play favorites or not. When you have a kid on the team it’ll look that way. You’ve already gotten into Clyde’s ass about not including Shania enough.”

“I did that because he wasn’t. He doesn’t want a girl on the team.” In the practices since then he’d done a better job of including Shania, but only marginally.

“You think he’s going to care about the reasons after this gets out? He’s already a borderline crybaby. He’s going to assume that anything you say to him about the way he coaches her is because she’s your daughter. Then there’s the district.”

Quinton scowled. “Why would the district care?”

“They’ve let us make concessions for Shania playing ball with us. But they also want to see us win. No matter how you frame it, Shania being on the team is already something they weren’t sure we’d be able to accommodate. We have, but any other requests might be viewed the same way. Then there are the parents who’ll get mad that she’ll get play time and their kids don’t.”

“She’ll get play time because she’s a good receiver.”

Zachariah placed a hand on his chest. “I know she’s good. You know she’s good. But all they’ll see is a parent letting his kid get play time instead of putting their kid on the field.”

Quinton held up a hand, realized he was mimicking Halle, and dropped it. “Look, I get it.”

“Nah, you don’t get it. It was easy for you to ignore some of the taunts before because they were just directed at you. Now they’ll be at you and your kid, and you can’t pop off.”

Quinton blinked and drew back. “I don’t pop off.”

“Wait until someone talks about your kid. I almost got into it with another parent at my kid’s soccer game when they were eleven. It’s why I’m glad he stuck with that over football. It hits different when it’s your kid.”

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