Page 53 of Scoring Grey

“You’re four hours away!” There’s a long silence before he says, “You were never planning on coming to my game, were you?”

“Yes, I was. Dash was only an hour away. I was going to bring him back to the house and come, but he needed these shots. He’s new at work and?—”

“And your mother got him the job. He has a job regardless of the shots. I thought after this morning and everything that happened, the one place you’d want to be is here. I thought for once maybe I’d be a priority.”

“Cal, that’s not true. You know I care.”

“Do I? As I recall, I’m the one who’s been chasing you. I’ve been chasing you since the day I met you. I don’t remember a day where I can say you’ve done the same.”

“Cal—”

“I gotta go.” He cuts the call before I can give him any more words.

“Trouble in paradise?” Dash says as I stare at my phone, stunned that he just hung up on me.

“I’m not sure you can even call it that. We haven’t ever reached paradise.” I stuff my phone in my pocket and add, “But yeah, he’s not happy.”

“Does he really believe there’s a chance you and I will hook up, or is it something else?”

“It’s a lot of things, but it’s mostly me right now. I let him down.” I dust the dirt off my ass and aimlessly start picking up things on the old workbench in the cabin. “He had a game tonight, and once again, I was a no-show. In his eyes, I chose you over him.”

A piece of wood pops loudly in the fireplace, and I turn to check where the ember has landed.

Dash’s regretful eyes find mine. “I should have called roadside assistance, but honestly, I thought a can of fix-a-flat would do the job.” He grabs a shovel and scoops up the stray ember, then tosses it into the fire. “I wouldn’t stress about it too much. It’s nothing a solid night of make-up sex can’t solve.”

I shove my hands in my back pockets. “He’s right. I’m an ass. I should have prioritized his game, especially after everything that happened this morning. We haven’t had sex in six damn years, and I left him holding his dick once again when his coach showed up with Blair. I practically pushed him into her arms this time, and for what…” I throw my arms up. “A hunch?” I turn around and kick an old watering can. “I don’t even know who I’m protecting anymore or why… I probably sacrificed my own happiness for a lie,” I say quieter but aloud nonetheless.

“What was that?”

Damn it. “I shouldn’t have said anything. Forget it.”Seriously, Eloise, what did you just do?I squeeze my eyes shut and bite the skin on the edge of my nail bed.

“No, Lou, I won’t.” He blows out a long, exasperated breath. “I mean, that was a lot of overshare. When we talked about everything that went down on the ride up here, you left out the part about what was happening before they showed up. That is definitely playing into his emotions right now. I mean, six years…” He starts to stumble over his words, suddenly uncomfortable. “Listen.” He tosses another log into the fire. “Look around. We have time and like it or not, you said something you can’t just take back.”

I stay quiet as I consider his offer. I said if anyone deserved my truth, it was Cal. I also promised him no more hiding; maybe this is how I get to a place where I can tell Cal that his father not only didn’t want me to have our son, but he threatened me and my family.

Dash pulls up an old footstool beside the fire and takes a seat. “I’ll start because on our hike, it was on my mind, and given the truth bomb you just let slip, I’m going to go out on a limb and assume the two issues you’ve brought up today, i.e., your past with Blair, and the secrets you just mentioned, aren’t unrelated. So here’s my hot take. Obviously, I don’t know Blair. What you’ve shared about her could be spot-on, and she’s just a spiteful bitch carrying on a tradition of hate for a vendetta she doesn’t understand, or she’s trying to get answers too.”

I flip over a bucket, set it across from him, and sit to warm my fingers. “I’ve considered that.” It’s possible, like me, she was given an ultimatum.

“People will turn into someone they’re not and blindly hurt others in search of the truth.”

I can’t help but notice the faraway look in his eye as he pokes the fire. “Why does it sound like you’re speaking from experience?”

He shrugs. “Because I am.”

I’m quiet as I wait for him to say more. The Dash I’ve known since I started visiting Copper Falls in the summers when I was young is a free spirit. He’s a master at keeping things lighthearted and putting a smile on your face. It’s rare to catch him like this, and because of that, I wait. That’s what a friend does.

“I’m adopted.”

My eyes widen in surprise. I feel like that’s something I would have known after all these years, but I suppose there’s a good reason I don’t.

“Bates and Pippa are as well. Our parents were never able to conceive naturally, and they couldn’t afford IVF. I knew from a young age that I was adopted after overhearing my parents talk about it on the back porch one evening after they thought we had all gone to bed.”

“I’m sorry, Dash. That must have been hard to hear.”

He shakes his head. “Surprisingly, it wasn’t, or maybe I was too young to understand it. But you know my parents. I haven’t met a person who doesn’t love them. I was never treated like anything but theirs, and neither were my siblings. My sister, or adoptive sister, found out at a young age, too. That one I felt bad about. I had an assignment in fifth grade where we had to put together an ancestry tree of where our grandparents came from. I had been staring at the assignment for a while, getting angrier by the second because I couldn’t answer any of the questions without lying, but worse, I realized then that I didn’t know who I was. When my mother asked me what was wrong. I lost it and said, ‘Because I know you’re not my real mom.’ I’ll never forget the sadness I saw on her face, and I twisted the knife and said I know you can’t have kids. None of us are yours. At that moment, Pippa peeked her head out from behind the couch. I didn’t know she was there.” His brown eyes find mine. “To this day, I regret those words. I couldn’t even tell you why I said them, but you know what kills me inside? She didn’t get mad at me. Instead, she got out of her chair, came around the table, wrapped me in the biggest hug, and said, ‘We may not share the same blood, but blood doesn’t make you my son. Love does, and there hasn’t been a day since I’ve had you that I haven’t loved you with my whole heart.’”

“Your mother truly has a beautiful soul. What happened with Pippa? Is that why you don’t discuss it? Did she not handle it well?”

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