Page 41 of Sidelined Love

“You're seriously telling me you don't see it?” She waves the flowers in the air as if they were evidence in a trial. “Come on, Hailey. When was the last time someone got you flowers just because?”

I bite my lip, not wanting to acknowledge it would have been my dad years ago.

Jade places the flowers on the coffee table carefully before making her way over to me and gently squeezing my shoulder. She softens her tone, maybe sensing my discomfort. “Look, all I'm saying is that maybe it doesn't hurt to see where all of this goes.”

“There's nowhere to go because nothing's going on, J. Anyway, what were you watching?—”

“Hailey Reed, queen of the chessboard and deflection,” Jade accuses, but her tone is light, teasing.

Who needs enemies when you have friends like this? This time she's on the receiving end of my eye roll. “Why can't a guy give a girl flowers without an agenda? He literally said they were a thank-you gift.” I am talking more to myself than to Jade. “Why are you making this more complicated?”

“Because we're human and this is complicated,” she fires back immediately. “And that guy isn't justa guy. Levi Jamison is Crestwood's hockey god?—”

“I don't care about his status,” I cut in sharply, surprising myself. Why am I defending him?

Thankfully, Jade doesn't pick up on my snarkiness. Or if she does, she doesn't call me out on it. “Oh, I know you don’t,” she says, dragging out the words in a singsong voice. “But there’s no denying that the hockey captain has got you overthinking everything, and that's something you try to avoid doing.”

“Yeah, because it takes up too much brain power to sit here debating this. I have other things I need to worry about… like myneeding to go to work tomorrow.” I know I'm bluffing because I'm going to be thinking about this for the rest of the night.

Jade gives me a look but walks past me to go to the fridge. She's about to say something more when my phone's ringtone plays. I guess I forgot to turn it on vibrate before entering Brewed Beginnings.

It takes me a moment to fish the device out of my bag. My eyes land on the phone screen and see Dad's name. My stomach does a weird flip. Why is he calling instead of texting?

“Hey, Dad, gimme a second.” I look over at Jade and say, “I'll be right back.”

I leave the room without waiting for Jade's response, and once I'm in my bedroom, I close the door behind me. “Okay. What's up?”

“Hey, sweetheart. Did I catch you at a bad time?” Dad's voice is warm, and I can't detect anything strange in it.

“No, no, it's fine,” I let out a burst of air from my lungs. “Just got back from… a thing.” I sink onto the edge of my bed and cross my legs.

“A thing, huh? Sounds mysterious.” There's a teasing vibe to his words. “Also sounds like you don't want to tell your old man about it.”

“There's nothing really to tell.” That is only sort of true, but I didn't want to do a deep dive into it.

“That's okay. I won't pry. Just wanted to check in on you.”

“Everything's good here. How about you?”

There's a pause on the line and I brace for what he's about to say. “Things are going well here too. Work is work and I'm doing a couple of things around the house. You'll probably notice them when you come home.”

That doesn't seem too bad. It isn't the first time he's fixed or improved some things while I've been away at school. “Are theprojects major things? Is there anything you need help with? I can come home one weekend and help.”

“Oh no, no, no.” I can feel him waving me off through the phone even before the words come out of his mouth. “I've got everything under control. If I want to do anything drastic, I can ask Henry to come and help out.”

I nod along to my father's words. Although Crestwood isn't far from my childhood home, I'd been worried about my dad and how things would be once I moved away. It might be a strange thing for me to think about, but it has been the two of us for so long, I was worried about the change.

Or maybe it is me projecting my own feelings onto my father.

But things have gone well, and Dad still has Henry and others in our community to count on. And for that, I'm grateful.

That reminds me of something. “Dad, I'm putting together an event at Oak Terrace in a few weeks. We're going to have a chess night for some of the citizens there. If you want to come and be there for it…” My voice trails off as I wait for his response.

“Are you kidding me? Of course I want to be there. Just tell me the date and time and I'll be there.”

I smile, feeling the warmth of his enthusiasm through the phone. It's a comforting reminder that no matter what else changes, he is a constant in my life. “Thanks, Dad. I'll text you the details later.”

“That sounds great, Hailey. But there's something else I wanted to tell you. Related to something we talked about when we went out to dinner.”

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