Page 14 of Scoring Chances

I shift the car into reverse, “Whatever.”

Keelan steps back and waves enthusiastically. The ass. He knows what he’s doing. Rubbing it in my face that I now have responsibilities and he's free to do whatever he wants.

And why does he care so much that our PR manager is bringing a date? What’s it to him?

Those two have had a weird push and pull since Rina Lopez was hired full-time last year. Like they have a secret that nobody else is privy to. And I’m going to find out what it is.

The tires screech as I back out of the driveway and onto the main road. And as I do, I see the curtains move upstairs where Parker and Maddie’s room is.

Chapter 5

Cassidy

“Hey Cassidy! Watch this!” Maddie does a jump twist onto the giant flamingo floaty in the pool, and Parker and I clap for her.

“I wanna go!” Parker says, jumping off the pool lounge.

“Oh… Parker, wait up!” I quickly slip out of my shorts and tug my t-shirt over my head, abandoning both things behind me, as I chase after the toddler.

He stops just at the pool's edge and looks back at me with a smirk.

“Do you know how to swim?” I ask him, then look at Maddie. “Does he know how to swim?”

She shrugs, now fully seated in the pink flamingo as it spins away carelessly.

Parker inches closer to the edge. “Parker, don’t jump. You can dip your feet in but that’s the deep end—"

He slips and tumbles straight into the pool. I shriek out his name and jump in after him. I’m able to grab him and lift him up out of the water before he takes in too much. He clings to the edge coughing. I hear the back patio doors slide open and Joshua comes running out.

“What happened?”

I cough out water too, not realizing I had swallowed so much myself.

“He jumped,” is all I can get out.

“Oh my god. Parker!”

“Daddy was teaching him how to swim before he left on vacation,” Maddie says matter-of-factly.

I stop coughing because what the eight year old just said, takes me by surprise.

“What?” I ask her.

Joshua coughs now trying to say the words, “She doesn’t know.”

I paddle to the side of the pool. “Are you serious? Where does she think he is?” I say a little too angrily, but low enough that she can’t hear.

Joshua tugs the boy out of the pool and motions for me to follow him.

I pull myself out from the water and wrap an arm over my midsection to cover up as much as I can.

Joshua gives me a smooth once-over before tossing me a dry towel.

“She thinks he’s on a long vacation.”

I wrap the towel around my chest and wring out my braided hair.

“And what are you planning on telling her when she realizes that daddy’s been gone for months and isn’t coming back?”

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