Page 71 of A Scoring Chance

To his credit, he doesn’t say a word, waiting patiently for me to give him some more information, but that ain’t happening. It’s one thing for Ma and Alise to lie to me. And yes, they lied. A lie of omission is the same thing as an outright lie in my book. I should be used to it by now, but this still stings. Makes me wonder what else they might be hiding from me.

His eyes shift from each of our faces, trying to make sense of what I’m asking, but he still says nothing. No one does, each of us waiting for someone else to make the first comment.

“Whatever you say, Coach, the answer is always no.” Darius winces as Cooper releases his arm. “I’m going to my room. This ain’t got nothing to do with me. Good luck, Coach.”

“Thanks,” he mumbles as Alise snickers loudly. “What are you asking again, Beauty?”

“Don’t try to butter me up, Cooper. Did you know about this?”

“I’m not trying to butter you up. I seriously have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“She’s asking if you knew that Auntie Mel and Auntie Na were besties.” Alise huffs loudly, as if this isn’t a big-ass deal.

“They are?” Cooper is just as confused and surprised as I am.

“I wouldn’t say besties, but we have gotten a lot closer since you two started seeing each other. We talk on the phone once or twice a week.” Ma waves away our concern as she turns to head back into the living room.

“You talk to each other on the phone. Regularly?”

I know I keep harping on this, but I’m having a very hard time wrapping my head around what’s going on right now. This new information adds one more layer to how much my relationship has changed everyone’s lives and how much it would change if things didn’t go well.

It would’ve been naïve of me to believe that nothing would change if we got together. He’s Darius’s hockey coach, for goodness’ sake, but I doubt Cooper would cut Darius off or change the way he acts toward him because things between us didn’t work out. Besides, the reality of the situation is that once the season ends, we’d never have to see him again. But now that our moms are friends, keeping out of each other's lives is going to be much harder than I expected.

“That’s what one does with their friends. Besides, if you’d give me more information about what’s going on between you two, I wouldn’t have to rely on Alise and Melanie to tell me.”

“You’ve been feeding my mother gossip?” I whirl around, pointing a finger at Alise as she hides behind Cooper. “He won’t save you.”

“She's right. You're on your own with this one, Lissy Loo Loo.” Cooper steps away from her, more than likely wanting his own answer to my question.

“Like I said, she scares me more than you. Besides, who else am I going to discuss my theories with about when you’re getting married?”

“We aren’t getting married,” I respond without hesitating, but it seems Cooper has other ideas.

“Yet.”

If I wasn’t freaking out before, I’m definitely doing so now. He’s already thinking about marriage while I’m waiting for the proverbial other shoe to drop. Things have been going great between us, but marriage? It's only been about six weeks since we went on our first date. Sure, we know each other a lot better now, but we haven’t even spent any real time together. We need to talk and soon, but not with these two within earshot.

“See,” Ma, Auntie Peggy, and Alise say in unison as there’s a loud knock at the front door. Ms. Melanie strolls into the house with an oversized tote bag hanging off her shoulder.

“Did I miss anything?” she asks, giving her son’s shoulder a hard squeeze before wrapping me in a tight hug.

“Only the fact that you and Ma are besties and neither of us knew about it.” I motion between Cooper and me. Just like Ma, she waves it off.

“We were friends before this and will still be friends after. There’s no sense in making a big deal about it.”

I know she’s right, but I can’t let this go. Not because they didn’t tell us, but because it feels like there’s some cosmic force bringing us together. And that terrifies the shit out of me.

“Now, enough of these excuses. You two have a date to get to.” Ms. Melanie plants a kiss on my cheek before heading straight for Ma and Alise.

“We can’t. Darius got hurt at the game today.”

“But—” Ms. Melanie begins, but Cooper cuts her off with a smile.

“Okay, ladies. Get started on whatever you planned for this evening. Ramona and I need to chat for a minute.”

Cooper grips my hand, pulling me toward the door before turning left into the kitchen. The minute he stops, I pull my hand free. “I’m not going all the way to the city when Darius is hurt. What if he needs me or something happens?”

My breathing picks up as my mind spirals. Every possible horrible thing that could happen to Darius flashes through my mind on a movie reel, each one more terrifying than the last. There’s a small part of my mind that knows most of these things can’t happen, but I can’t seem to stop them.

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