Page 48 of Untouchable Player

‘Never mind, hunky hockey player just told me he took you home ;-)’

Jesse sends me a message, asking if I’m okay. Despite how shit I feel right now, it makes me smile.

I can’t believe I practically begged him to help me lose my virginity.He didn’t say no though, did he?

No, he didn’t get a chance.

Jesse’s sweet, and hot. And now I’ve noticed how attractive he is, I won’t be able to ignore it. But me and him would never work. If Harrison found out, it would cause so much trouble and it would only be worth all of that if we were meant to be together. Which we’re not. Jesse has made it very clear he doesn’t want a boyfriend. And if I want casual sex, surely I can find someone who isn’t on a team with my brother.

But when I message him back, we end up talking late into the night.

It looks suspiciously like flirting. Him teasing me for my taste in movies, me teasing him for his taste in…Cher!

If I forget this is Jesse, the guy who chugs the most beers at every party, my brother’s teammate, it feels like what I imagine having a boyfriend to feel like.

Katie messages again, asking if I’m hungover and can I talk. I’m not ready to go into whatever happened, or is happening with Jesse, so I send her a message saying I’m hungover and I’ll talk tomorrow.

The following morning, I come downstairs and find my dad sitting at the breakfast table, eating pancakes and drinking coffee.

“It’s nine-thirty, why aren’t you in work?”

“I took the day off,” he says, “your mom and I have an appointment.”

“Where?”

“Nate…”

“At therapy,” Mom says.

She gets another plate from the cupboard for me.

“Oh.”

Dad puts his coffee cup down and looks at me. “Nate, I’m sorry about last night, and… I’m sorry about a lot of things, but I really do love you and your mom and your brother and I want to make things right. I made a mistake and I hope you can forgive me one day.”

Mom pauses with the frying pan for a second, maybe she’s waiting to see if I’ll say anything. When I don’t, she slides apancake onto my plate and pushes the maple syrup across the table.

Katie nods with her serious ‘therapy’ face on while I tell her what happened with my parents. I know she’ll approve of them going to counselling, and my dad’s speech. She’ll be no use if I still want to trash him.

When I’ve finished speaking, she puts her coffee down and asks me how I feel.

“Fine,” I lie. “Well, not fine, but, it’s not my relationship.”

“But it is your parents, and it’s okay if you’re upset.”

I sit back in my chair, I don’t want to talk about it anymore.

“Stop therapy-ing me, please.”

I wait for her to correct my bad grammar, god knows I do it enough to her. Or tell me she’s not training to be a therapist, and that psychiatrists are different.

“Okay,” she says, picking her coffee up, “I’m done. Now tell me about hunky hockey player.”

I glance around the coffee shop to see if anyone is listening and she laughs.

“We need a code name, how about HHP?”

I wrinkle my nose, “it sounds like a disease.”

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