Page 8 of Secret Love

Weston

Caleb is expecting to see his Unca Hen, so you’d better hurry.

Tell him I’m on my way.

Rhodes

You totally forgot, didn’t you?

No. I need this meeting. I…I’ll explain everything when I get there.

Rhodes

Color me intrigued.

Penn

He’s met someone. You have, haven’t you? Have you finally listened to me and Rhodes and gotten laid?!

Bowie

Back off. He said he’s on his way, and it’s not like we’re in a rush to leave. We’ll be here, Hen. Take your time. I am curious about your answer, though.

I snort at their ridiculousness, but I also speed up to just one mile over the speed limit. The Silver Hills police department claims to love me, but they don’t hesitate to give me a ticket if I’m five miles over the speed limit on Jupiter Lane, our main drag.

A couple of times a month, I meet up with the guys who have become my best friends since we started playing for theMustangs. What started out as coffee once in a while with a couple of single dads on the team, Rhodes and Bowie, has turned into a necessity in my life. I don’t think I’m the only one of us who feels this way either.

Rhodes’ son Levi is such a cute and funny little boy. He’s three now and there’s never a dull moment when he’s around. Bowie’s daughter Becca will be eight soon, and she’s a sweetheart. She’s smart and adorable and has Down Syndrome. She gives the best hugs and her sunny smile has brightened many of my days.

It’s not just Rhodes and Bowie—now there are five of us who get together.

We talk about kids and life and women, not always in that order. Much to the amusement of the only non-dad in the group, Penn, who I guess started coming because of FOMO, we call ourselves the Single Dad Players. Penn and Weston would show up randomly here at the coffee shop or listen in when we were talking on the road, and I swear, fatherhood must be contagious. Weston suddenly found himself with a baby last year, and Penn started tutoring a kid who’s in the foster care system and got attached. So after teasing us about our meetings for so long, both of them now show up needing lots of advice. Rhodes, Bowie, and I started writing our thoughts on fatherhood in a notebook aptly named The Single Dad Playbook that we bring each time we’re together, but let’s be honest—we’re all winging it 99.9% of the time.

Case in point: the way I’ve crashed and burned today.

I walk into Luminary Coffeehouse a few minutes later, still feeling like a prick. I don’t know what got into me earlier. I’ve never confronted a teacher…or a woman like that before…ever. I leave my aggression in the gym and on the football field, and I’d like to keep it that way.

Knowing how hard Cassidy worked on that project and hearing that a teacher made her feelless than…it wrecked me. My gut is still twisted in knots over how desolate she looked this morning and how she tried so hard to pretend that she was fine after bawling her eyes out.

She hasn’t been herself for a while now. I want her to know I have her back. I want her to know she can always count on me.

But she’d be so pissed if she knew I talked to her teacher the way I did. I’m fucking pissed at myself.

And it wasn’t even the infamous Mrs. Carboni at all.

As soon as I step into the shop, my favorite coffee shop owner, Clara, waves and motions for me to head back to the room where the guys are waiting.

“I’ll bring your Solar Latte in a few minutes,” she says.

“Thanks, Clara.”

I’m hooked on her latte with honey, vanilla, and a sprinkle of cinnamon. Even during our regular season, it’s the one thing I’m not willing to sacrifice.

I wave at a few of the regulars. Marv and Walter are here every time I come in, and they usually stop arguing with one another to say hello, but today, I overhear them discussing the Bubbling Brook soup from The Fairy Hut.

“It was inedible last night!” Marv says.

“You’re outta your mind. It was delicious, as usual. It’s your faulty taste buds. You need to go to the dentist, I keep telling ya,” Walter says.

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