Page 44 of Sporting Goods

“Max you can’t do this,” my voice sounded more exhausted than I’d hoped. I was aiming for stern. “You can’t come by whenever you want. We had an agreement.”

“Nothing’s official.” He walked further into the long hallway, sneaking a peek into Jax’s room, then gave me a hard glance. “Unless you want it to be?”

There was that edge again.

I rolled my eyes, mostly because I preferred to avoid his eyes. “Jax isn’t here. Sam is picking him up from school.”

“Why do you have someone else picking him up? The fuck are you doing?” He plopped onto my sofa.

“Excuse me? Not that it’s any of your business but Sam works at the school, so it only makes sense—you know what, get out. You shouldn’t be here. You need to call if you want to see Jax. I’m sure he’d love to—”

“I don’t need to call or do anything if I want to stop by to see my kid, Rayne.”

“You do if we don’t have a set schedule. Which I think it’s time we set one. Like officially.”

He stood off my couch and approached me. I backed away. Not that I believed he’d hurt me. But he was just as threatening without ever touching me. “You don’t want that.”

I glared back at him. “I thinkyoudon’t want that.”

“I will come by…when I damn well please,” he barked.

“Not anymore you won’t. I’m going to speak to a lawyer—soon.”

He laughed. “Okay. For your sake, I hope he’s from out of town—no one around here will go against me.”

“Someonewill.”

“Alright enough.” He ran a hand through his hair. As though I were the problem. “I’m gonna tell you the real reason I’m here.”

I huffed a laugh. “Knew this couldn’t have been about seeing Jax.”

“Oh it is.” He moved toward me, scanning me wickedly. “Listen to me. I don’t give a shit who you fuck, but whoever you’ve been hanging out with at the center needs to stay away frommykid.”

I stepped around him, mostly so he wouldn’t see my heart pounding against my chest. After I felt like I could breathe again, a small smile crept up my face. Was it me, or was he feelingthreatened? Somehow this pumped a new kind of adrenaline through me. I turned back to him. “You want to be the only father he knows, trybeingone.”

He laughed. “You don’t want me around just as much as I don’tneedto be.”

The front door was pushed open. Jax and Sam walked in. Jax threw his backpack on the floor and raced in.

“Daddy.”

Max bent and embraced his son in a hug. “Hey, kid. Heard you’re trying out for hockey. It’s ‘bout time your mom came around on that, huh? Baseball’s for wimps.”

Jax frowned. “A lot of my friends play baseball.”

“They’re wimps. You’ll make new ones playing on the Sprouts.”

That was a sure statement to make.

“I hope I get to. I’m getting really good. And guess what? Mommy can skate… like well.”

Sam shot me a look and walked over to the kitchen, turning on the faucet. No doubt to drown out Max in the background. I met her over there, keeping a close eye on the leech.

“Hey.” I leaned in. “You and Jax didn’t hear anything before you walked in did you?”

“No. Is everything okay? Does he know about…”

“No, at least I don’t think so.” I breathed a sigh of relief. And it seemed to irritate Sam.

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