Page 9 of Romancing My Grumpy Goalie

“Mom.” I tilt my head toward Nolan and shake my head, mouthing, “Not now.” I hate it when she bashes Jeremy in front of Nolan. I get that she’s mad, but it will only put more stress on the little guy to hear bad things about his dad from other family members.

Nolan is still bouncing and thankfully, hasn’t noticed our exchange. He’s getting more and more out of control.

“Hey, buddy. Time to take it down a notch.”

But he doesn’t hear me.

“Nolan, get your backpack. We need to grab dinner.”

“Oh, you can eat with us,” Mom says over his continued bouncing.

“No thanks, Mom. I appreciate your offer, but we need to eat on our own sometimes. You help too much as it is.”

Crash!

Nolan has flung himself into a vase on an end table, and now it’s all over the floor, shattered to pieces. “I hope that wasn’t expensive.”

After ten years of having a grandchild, you’d think my mom would have kid-proofed her house, but she refuses, saying the children can learn to never touch the items.

Nolan’s eyes are huge. “Sorry, Gran.”

“It’s okay, sugar.” Her eyes are sad as she says it—that vase meant a lot to her. She’d gotten it from Japan when she’d traveled there with my dad last summer.

“If you’d listened the first time, this wouldn’t have happened.” I grit my teeth to keep from fussing at him too much.

“I can clean it up!”

I consider that for a moment.

“It’s glass, and I don’t want you to cut your hands. If you use a broom and dustpan, you can clean it—but be very careful.” He has to learn sometime how to be safe around glass. “You should do something to work hard to replace this vase for Gran.”

“What if I cleaned her bathroom?”

“You would have to do it a bunch of times. Vases can cost a lot of money.”

My mom opens her mouth like she wants to say it wasn’t very expensive or make some other excuse to get him out of taking responsibility.

“What if I did it three times?” Nolan offers.

My heart swells. My boy is learning to be a decent human being. I nod. “I think that sounds fair. For the next three weeks, you will need to clean the bathroom once each week.”

“I can do that.” His voice is lighter, like the guilt is being washed away.

Most people never learn to own up to their mistakes and work to make them better. If I can attempt to teach my boy, then I can do a small thing to leave the world a better place.

After he gets the broom and sweeps up the mess, I grab a brownie and head out the door with Nolan. “Bye, Mom.” I hug her. “Thanks for everything. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

She waves a hand like it’ll dismiss the mistiness in her eyes. “He’s my blood. What other choice is there?”

I shove the last bit of the brownie into my mouth, and we drive home to grab a quick dinner of leftover spaghetti before we head to the soccer field. It’s been raining for the past few days, so the field is muddy. Laundry will be fun later. I’m a master when it comes to getting grass stains out. Luckily, mud isn’t as hard to clean. At least I don’t have to worry about seeing Lucas today, since Jace seemed to be feeling better at Dixie’s Tavern. The guy is such a grouch, honestly. I can see why he’s still single. Who would want to date someone with that kind of bad attitude? I mean, can he even speak without grunting? Nolan grunted a lot as a two-year-old, but that was because he didn’t know enough of the English language to put together sentences. What’s Lucas’s excuse?

Speak of the devil. I was wrong to assume he wouldn’t be here, but he’s currently standing next to Jace. But why? And whydoes it matter to me where he is? Lucas means nothing to me. I would never go for a guy with an attitude like that.

I wore the wrong shoes today. My heels keep sinking into the mud. I was running late this morning, and I knew if I wanted to stop by Josie’s that I’d have to hurry, but when I went to look for my favorite shoes, I couldn’t find them. So, I grabbed the first thing I could get my hands on, which was a pair of pumps that were unfortunately impractical for the soccer field. It wouldn’t have been a problem if the ground weren’t so soft. I didn’t even think about switching my shoes.

Lucas scowls from the folding chair he’s lounging in and reaches down to adjust his knee brace. Something I hadn’t noticed before. He’d been wearing pants the last two times I’d seen him. Was he injured or something?

I’ve been walking on my toes all this time, but as I stare at Lucas, I lose my concentration, and my heel sinks in faster than I expect and I step forward, thinking it’s free. My foot pops loose from the pump, and I fall forward.

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