Page 96 of Untouchable Player

My whole body floods with warmth.

“I think I’m in love with him Mom.”

She lets a squeal out and I allow it this time.

“I get it,” she says.

“What?”

“He’s a hunk.”

“Please stop, you’re worse than Katie.”

“Well… he is! I didn’t think he’d be your type.”

“Me neither, but, you can be wrong sometimes.”

Mom lowers her eyes.

“Areyouokay?”

She pastes a smile on, “yes, of course.”

“Mom?”

“Okay, you’re an adult now, I’ll be straight with you. It hasn’t been easy, but your father and I are working it out.”

“But how can you…” what can I say that won’t insult her? “You deserve to be treated better than that.”

Her smile is more genuine, but still tinged with sadness. “I know I do. But people make mistakes. Trust me, I’m not going to allow myself to be treated poorly. You don’t think less of me, do you honey?”

“Why would I think less ofyou? You didn’t do anything wrong.”

She sighs and picks at a cuticle. Her nails, now I look at them, don’t look anywhere near as perfect as they usually do.

“Your father and I have a lot of history, twenty-five years of marriage and two kids in college. That’s a lot to lose.”Maybe he should have thought about that before he cheated on you.“Some things are worth fighting for. And maybe I won’t be able to forgive him, but I want to at least try. Do you understand?”

I nod.Kind of.

“But Nate, I don’t want you to think that this is okay. At your age… if Jesse cheats on you, I want you to leave, right away, if he can’t be faithful to you now when everything’s fresh and new…”

“Jesse would never do that.”

Mom squeezes my hand. “Just promise me you won’t let someone treat you badly.”

That’s easy. The way Jesse treats me, he’s set the standard so high, I don’t think anyone else could ever meet it.

“I promise.”

She pats my hand and stands from the table.

“You want some eggs or something? You hardly ate that toast.”

“Yeah, well, you distracted me.”

She laughs, “are you watching Harrison’s game tonight?”

“Isn’t it away?”

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