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She had watched him so many times at games and now it was different. Now she knew who he really was and that hurt. Meeting the famous people you admired wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.

“Hey,” Leah snuck up behind her.

Tori jumped and pressed a hand to her mouth to cover the squeal she let out. “What the f--heck?” she asked, slipping into work mode and barely remembering to change her language.

“I told you I was coming by tonight after work.”

“You did. But did you have to scare me?”

“If you weren’t so wrapped up in trying not to like Chance you wouldn’t have been scared.”

“Stop. You know what happened.” Tori rolled her eyes at her friend and turned away from the fields.

“I know what you heard. We don’t actually know what happened,” Leah reminded her.

“It fits too well to be anything else.” She had wondered if there was more to the story but who’s to say that wouldn’t also be a lie?

“You still should have talked to him. This was going really well and he was putting in the effort.” Leah folded her arms as she repeated the same thing she had said to her Saturday.

“You know you can still talk to Maddox if I’m not with Chance. I don’t care if you do,” Tori told her.

“That’s not what this is about.”

“He was using me,” she whispered shouted. “Me and my son. Just to improve his image to keep playing this game.”

“No. Someone accused him of doing that and you are taking another person’s words and holding them against him without giving him a chance to defend himself.”

“I can’t. I could fall for more lies,” she whispered.

“I am not wrong about this,” Leah pressed.

“It doesn’t matter if you are,” Tori threw her hands up, dropping them to her sides. “I can’t risk it. I only make shitty decisions when it comes to men.”

“One divorce is hardly a worse track record than most people.”

“I’m not doing this right now,” Tori finally said. “I’m going to try to watch Emmett and then help get everything broken down.”

“Fine.”

They stood side by side, watching the clinic happen. It was great to see how excited the kids were. Leah didn’t press any further and despite the doubts that Leah had, Tori couldn’t let them change her mind. This was too important.

As the clinic ended, Tori sprung back into action. Leah was in charge of Emmett and she could relax a bit into her work and breaking things down without having to look for him constantly.

“Tori,” Chance’s voice caused her to freeze. “Can we talk after, please?”

She blew out a breath but didn’t turn to face him. Maybe she needed to tell him what happened so he would know and stop trying.

“If Leah will stay and watch Emmett,” she answered.

“If not, Maddox will.”

She felt him walk away. One of the hardest things she’d ever done was let him go. She wanted to jump in his arms and tell him to make it all better. She was an idiot.

“You okay?” Ellis asked.

Tori nodded. “Just tired.”

It wasn’t a lie. She had barely slept since Saturday.

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