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“I don’t see why I can’t get three tickets,” Maddox grinned.

“For when?” she asked.

Chance bit back a laugh. Judging by the face that Leah was making, she was mentally running through any believable reason not to come to a game.

“I will let you two work out the details,” he eased his way out of that conversation. “Emmett, I’ll see you soon.”

He didn’t reply and Chance turned to leave, more disappointed than he thought possible, only to almost get knocked over. Emmett was hugging Chance’s waist for dear life. Chance bent down and hugged the boy back.

“I promise, you’re still my friend,” Chance told him.

“Okay,” Emmett finally said.

He sent him back to Leah and Maddox and went to his car. Chance wasn’t usually prone to emotions outside of anger and frustration, but Emmett had gutted him tonight, and he needed to get out of there and back home before something else happened.

That had to have been the fastest drive home he’d ever made. Lost in his thoughts, he didn’t even remember the trip, just functioning on autopilot. He was damn lucky nothing had happened on the way home.

It was still relatively early, so Chance headed for the kitchen, only to be interrupted by a doorbell. Turning back around, he headed to see what new bad thing was on the docket for today.

He opened it to Sam on the other side. “Hey,” Chance said.

Pulling the door wide, he motioned for Sam to come in. All formalities anyway since the place belonged to him.

“Chance,” he blew out a breath. “I saw the videos. The whole internet saw them.”

He sighed. “Do you want a beer?” Probably not the best offer, but he was in his home, for now anyway, and he wanted one.

Sam nodded. “I’ll take one.”

They went to the kitchen and Chance pulled out two bottles of beer and handed Sam one. He led Sam to the small kitchen table and took a seat, waiting to see what he had to say.

“I know that he was disrespecting your girlfriend, but you can’t do that,” Sam told him.

“She’s not my girlfriend anymore,” Chance admitted.

“What? Since when? Over this?”

Chance shrugged. This was the most casual conversation he’d ever had with Sam but he also felt like he needed to share. “Since Saturday when I took them to the stadium. She heard a few of the guys pretty much congratulating me on getting a single mom girlfriend to help fix my image.”

Sam took a long pull from his beer. “Is that what you were doing?”

“No,” Chance slapped his hand on the table. “No. Sorry. Shit. I didn’t even hear them talking to me. My image was the therapy and the clinic. It had nothing to do with her. I didn’t even know she worked at park and rec until after I talked to the director.”

“Did you tell her that?”

Chance nodded. “I did. She didn’t talk to me for a few days before I got to tell her. She apologized, but we are done. You can’t have a relationship if there’s no trust.”

“Well, it’s early. I don’t know what happened with her and the ex-husband in the video, but I would say she is more of the type you have to earn trust with rather than it being freely given, and that’s not a reflection of you.”

“She trusts me with her son. Said I could still go play with him,” Chance told him.

“Have you done that?”

Chance shook his head. “I can’t be near her right now and Emmett is hurt. I think we all need space.”

Sam looked up like he was thinking something through. “You did this to defend her after you two broke up?”

“Yeah,” Chance said. “In my defense, it was because her son was right there next to him while he said those lies. No man should talk about their kid’s mom like that in front of them. It’s fucked up.”

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