Page 126 of Hitting the Goal Line
“Sorry,” Selena says as she stands in the threshold of the open door. Her eyes darting from me to my brother. “But, um, your dad is here.”
The high that I was just on starts to slowly dissipate.
What is he doing here? Why is he here?
“What? My dad? What the hell is he doing in San Francisco?” Hunter asks the questions that are floating through my head.
Roy Jacobi is supposed to be in Florida last I heard. He only comes west when he’s coming to one of Hunter’s games or if it’s to benefit his work. There’s no reason for him to be here now.
Unless he’s here for me.
I fucking doubt it, but what do I know? I thought he wasn’t going to call me when he found out I got arrested.
Selena looks from my brother over to me. Pity and sadness in her eyes. “He’s looking for Blake.”
Great.
I guess it’s time to have a conversation with my dad, something that I haven’t done in months.
This should be fun.
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
SOPHIA
In all theyears that I’ve been friends with Blake and a part of his life, I can count on two hands how many times I have interacted with his dad. From the ages five to ten, he was there but not very active in Blake’s life, like a dad should be. Like he was with Hunter. After the divorce and his move, Roy barely came by to support Blake. I swear, I’ve seen him more when Blake officially made it to the NHL than I did when I was a kid.
Roy was never my favorite person, but I’ve always been respectful whenever he was around.
That’s how I’m trying to be right now, especially because my mom and Patty are both in the room, but it’s starting to get hard.
Mr. Jacobi knocked on the front door about 5 minutes ago, which Selena answered. The second that she waved him in, he gave her a look of indifference, like he wasn’t walking intoherhouse.
And here I thought that Hunter was his favorite. You would think because of that, he would show some love to his fiancée, but I guess not. And given the way Selena gives him a tight smile, she noticed the same thing I did.
As he walks in, Selena guided him to the living room where my mom and Patty were with Eliana.
We had been upstairs, mostly just crying all of our eyes out about everything that I’ve been through, when we decided to distract us a bit and have Selena give my mom and Eliana a tour of the house.
We ended up in the living room when the doorbell rang.
I watched as Mr. Jacobi greeted my mom and then his ex-wife. He was cordial but other than that he was projecting the same indifference that he was giving Selena. At least they got some type of greeting, Eliana and I were invisible to the man until I became the bigger person and said hello to him.
He gave me a nod before quickly turning his attention to his ex-wife to tell her that he was here to see Blake.
How did he know Blake was even here?
“I’ll go get him,” Selena said to him, another tight smile on her face and she scurried away.
Part of me wanted to go with her, just so I didn’t have to witness all the awkwardness that was going to float through the room.
But I didn’t speak up fast enough and now, here I am with my eyes playing tetherball between Mr. Jacobi and Patty.
“So, Patty how have you been?” Mr. Jacobi asks his ex-wife.
With the way that they are interacting, you would never think that these two people were married for almost seventeen years.
“I’m fine, Roy. How is Florida?” Patty answers, the sweetest smile imaginable on her face.
