Page 61 of Sometimes You Fall

Penn winces. “That good, huh?”

I wipe my hands on my napkin and toss it onto my empty plate, the burger completely gone. “I don’t know, guys. If I had it my way, Scottie would have a ring on her finger and would already be moved into my house.”

Parker’s eyes bug out. “Fuck. Really? Marriage already?”

Penn gives his brother a pointed look. “Not everyone is against marriage, little brother.”

Dallas chuckles, but Parker glares back at Penn. “Well, get fucked over by your fiancée, and you’d be against it too.”

“Anyway,” I interject, steering the conversation back on track. “Like I said, I want that, but Scottie doesn’t.”

“That’s what she said?”

“More or less, but I know she has feelings for me too.”

Parker groans. “Oh god, are we gonna have to watch you two tiptoe around each other for years like Penn and Astrid did before they finally admitted their fucking feelings?”

Penn shoves his brother off his stool as Dallas shrugs. “Parker does have a point, Penn.”

“We fucking figured out our shit, okay? But our situation was much more complicated.” Penn turns to me now. “Did she give you a reason why she won’t give you a chance?”

“I mean, she doesn’t want to ruin our friendship, for one. But I feel like after we slept together, nothing was going to be the same again anyway.”

“Valid point,” Dallas says.

“But I have a feeling a lot of it has to do with her ex-husband.”

Dallas winces. “Ex-husband drama can be complicated.”

“Is he in the picture still?” Penn asks.

“I honestly don’t know. I know he was a shitty father who let his son down a lot.” But there’s something else that she’s not telling me, and I haven’t been able to figure it out yet.

“How are things going with the kid?” Dallas asks.

“The kid has a chip on his shoulder, that’s for damn sure,” I reply. “But I don’t blame him. When he’s on the baseball field, though, he and I get along just fine. He’s fucking talented as hell.” The corner of my mouth lifts. “Reminds me a lot of myself at that age.”

“Nice,” Penn says.

“But at the garage, it’s a different story. He doesn’t want to listen and is clearly pissed about being there. I get it, but I was thinking maybe if I get him to help me fix up the car, he might not see it as a complete waste of time, and it could give us a chance to get to know each other better.”

Penn nods. “That’s a good idea, Grady. Especially because you’re still going to be in his life once your kid is born.”

“Exactly.”

“I remember trying to bond with Bentley after Brandon died. Granted, Bentley was a lot younger than Chase and already knew me, but it was still tough. One day when I corrected something he did, he got mad and told me that I wasn’t his dad.” Penn shakes his head. “It fucking killed me because I know how badly he wishes Brandon were still here, but since he isn’t, all I could do was explain that it’s okay to have other role models in your life.”

Penn’s words force me to swallow down the lump in my throat because I know that feeling well. Mr. Rogers was the man I looked upto in so many ways, and he taught me everything I know about cars. If it weren’t for him, I probably would have gotten in a lot more trouble as a kid and I wouldn’t have had something to keep me sane after losing baseball.

“So, you think the car thing could help?”

Penn nods firmly. “Yes. He’s going to push back, of course, but for every push he gives, you just push back harder. He’ll come around.”

Dallas chimes in. “We see it a lot with the boys we coach, Grady.” Dallas and Penn coach a soccer team each year in the fall. Most of the boys on the team have fathers in the service, so they aren’t around for large stretches of time. I can’t imagine having a dad who comes in and out of your life like that. It makes me grateful that at least mine left and never returned because suffering that whiplash could be even harder to fucking deal with.

“Okay. I’ll give it a shot.”

Parker, who’d been silent during this discussion, clears his throat dramatically. “Well, now that you three have a plan for how you’re going to save the world, one broken boy at a time, I gotta get back to work.” He starts to stand from his chair, but Penn grabs his shirt by the collar and yanks him to his chest. “What the—”

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