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“Take tomorrow night off. I’ll be here and can make sure it runs just fine. I know you put yourself through a lot to get this off and running.”

“Thanks. I’ll see if I can.” Emmett would be here so unless some miracle happened and Isaac wanted to take him she needed to be here anyway.

“I will be here either way.” Ellis squeezed her shoulder before her walked away.

Ellis wasn’t mean but him being this nice meant that he knew something was wrong and she wasn’t hiding it as well as she thought. That also meant that Emmett had probably picked up on things.

“Mom. Did you see me?” Emmett asked.

“I did watch the clinic. Did you have a good time?”

He nodded enthusiastically. “I did. I’m getting better at the backward passing.”

“That’s great, baby,” she bent down and kissed his forehead.

“Gross, mom.” Emmett wiped it away.

For a moment she forgot her baby was growing up and kisses from mom weren’t okay. “My bad.”

“Come on, kid,” Leah said. “You need to show me some of it, I was late.”

“You’re always late,” he laughed.

“I’ll help you show her,” Maddox said as he approached.

Chance was steps behind him and Tori had to take a few steadying breaths to settle her nerves. It didn’t work well, but what could she do?

“Tori,” Chance started.

She shook her head. “Not here.” There were still too close to everyone and she didn’t want anyone else involved in her conversation. She was doing a good enough job beating herself up over it.

They moved to the fence where no one else was around.

“What happened?” Chance asked.

“I heard you and your friends,” she told him. “Talking about how I was perfect for your image reset and telling you what a good job you were doing at fixing things to get back on the team.” It didn’t feel any better to have it all out in the open.

Chance looked at her like she was crazy. “What? I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“At the stadium. You walked away with some of the other guys and that’s what they were saying to you.”

“I wasn’t even listening to those idiots. I have no idea what they said.”

Tori closed her eyes and tried to get her racing heart under control. It wanted her to believe him.

“What did I say to them?” he asked.

“I didn’t hear you reply, you guys walked away,” she admitted.

“I didn’t reply to them. It hurts that you keep doing this to me, Tori. You could have at least given me a chance to tell you what was going on.”

He looked hurt and not for the first time. She felt a twinge of guilt.

“I thought we already talked things through.” He clenched his fists and relaxed them a few times. “But, since I won’t have you out here acting like I did you wrong, I’ll tell you what’s going on.”

“You don’t have to explain that to me,” she told him.

“This clinic was me repairing my image. You should know, you helped me come up with the idea even if it was by accident. Therapy was the other half. You weren’t part of it, neither was Emmett. I guess now I know what you really think of me.”

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