Page 56 of Sporting Goods

“Oh wow, I can’t believe I left that,” I shook my head, taking the bag from him. “I guess I was a little…”

“Distracted?” he finished.

I looked up to meet his smiling eyes. “I was going to say in a hurry. But thank you for bringing it over.”

He nodded. “Of course. I think Brody also wanted to say hi to Jax if that’s okay?”

I opened the door further. “First door on the right.” I smiled at the kid as he raced in.

I let Josh step into the hall while he waited. I ran through seven different ways of bringing up earlier to settle any questioning, but his focus was somewhere else.

“H—Hi. I’m Josh.”

Sam pressed her lips together and her cheeks turned rosy. “I know. Hi. Sam.”

He smiled and after a long moment, finally peeled his gaze off my friend to turn back to me.

“Josh, about who you saw me with earlier…”

He put a firm hand up. “Ray, you don’t have to explainanythingto me.”

“He’s just training Jax,” I tried. Though I knew I wasn’t fooling anyone.

“Well there’s no one better, honestly.” Was that a little bit of a dig against Max? His own teammate?

I couldn’t help my laugh. “That’s what he said.”

There was still something Josh was holding back. A concern? More questions? I couldn’t tell.

“How’s he doing?” he asked after a minute.

Since I already examined him, I couldn’t discuss his condition. So I just shrugged and hoped he took the hint.

He looked past me and scratched his head.

“If there’s something you want to say Josh, just say it.”

He glanced at Sam, who turned and walked out to the balcony, giving us some privacy.

“Listen, Ray. It’s none of my business, but you should be prepared. At least for Max to find out about Logan…and any involvement he might have with the two of you.”

My chest rose. Josh was overstepping. And I was starting to feel attacked. “You’re right Josh, it’s none of your business,” I told him as Brody came back out. “Thanks for stopping by.”

More guilt.

That was what I needed tonight.

I felt guilty for my son not being given a fair chance. We’d both stressed over the tryout for weeks and all Max had to do was make a freaking phone call.

I felt guilty for lying to Logan. Not that I’d told a flat lie. But let’s face it. I was lying. And it was showing.

It broke my heart how amazing Logan was not to push me earlier today.

I’m going to screw this up.

That much was inevitable.

And now I felt guilty for barking at a friend when I knew he was just trying to help a tough situation. I couldn’t help getting defensive. At one point, Josh and Max were close. Until my ex lost some teammate respect after that awful game against the NY Dexters.

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