Page 42 of Personal Foul

“What happened?” she asked quietly.

His heart jolted, so happy she talked to him.

“I walked in on my father fucking a person who wasn’t my mother, on the kitchen table.”

She winced. “Wow.”

“For years, my father drilled it into my head that I had to focus. To sacrifice for my career. To not get distracted by mundane things like a wife and kids. He always said I had plenty of time to find someone after I retired.”

“Was he married when he started playing?”

“No. He met my mom a little later, and she got pregnant with me right away. I remember him saying that he regretted having me so early in his life. Wished they had waited to start a family. He thought it hurt his performance.”

“That’s a terrible thing to say to a child!” she said, scowling.

He shrugged. “I didn’t take it like that because I understood. All I wanted to do was play football. I didn’t want any distractions.”

“I get the feeling there were distractions,” she said dryly.

“Best laid plans and all that.” This next part was the hardest to say because he’d never told a soul what had happened. “There were two incidences that kind of derailed my focus. First, I started dating the daughter of the team’s owner. Actually, let me rephrase that. I began fucking the daughter of the team’s owner.”

Her eyes widened. “Damn. Ever heard the phrase, ‘you should never shit where you eat’?”

“What can I say? I was thinking with my dick.”

She smirked. “I take it the other incident was your father’s indiscretion.

“Yeah,” he said grimly. “Except … damn. I thought this would be easier to say. He, um, was fucking my best friend.Nick.”

Romilly’s eyes almost bugged out of their socket.

“I mean, I don’t care that my dad discovered he’s gay,” he was quick to say. “It was the sneaking and the lying and fucking Nick in the house he shared with my mother that messed me up. Now throw in a narcissistic socialite living off Daddy’s money, and the past year of my life just imploded.”

“Is your mom okay?”

Kaiden shrugged. “She still loves him.”

Romilly covered his hand with her own. “That’s her decision, you know.”

“I just don’t understand it.”

“Maybe you don’t need to. You just need to accept it.”

He placed his elbows on his knees and hung his head.

“I’ve never told another soul this,” he whispered.

“So, you bottled it up.”

He nodded.

She reached out and took hold of his hands. Electricity shot through him, and his heart thumped heavily in his chest.

“I understand,” she said.

His brow furrowed.

She smiled softly. “I understand why you’d do anything to salvage your career. Why you did what you did. Thank you for trusting me.”

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