Page 87 of Who's Saving You
“How was Dante?”
I furrow my brows as she grabs a push pop from the dish next to her and begins to unwrap it. “How’d you know I saw him?”
“Creature of habit, Nik. You play the good guy, then you punish yourself and play the bad guy.”
I shake my head. She’s right. The betting has always been exciting. But now?She’smore seductive than any tip or big win I could get.
“Can you tell me about growing up? Your dad, your sister.”
I exhale. “Diving right in, huh?”
She shrugs and sucks on the candy, avoiding my eyes. “I’m curious.”
“You’re seriously going to suck that lollipop while asking about my family?” She huffs a laugh, and I shake my head. “What did you find?”
She looks at me now. “I’m not sure, but that’s why I'm asking. Talk to me about your dynamics at home.”
I reach for her hand, gently stroking each of her fingers absentmindedly as I talk. “Well, we were like any other normal family, I suppose. Not rich, but we had a nice home in the suburbs, just outside of Philadelphia.”
“What about your relationship with your sister growing up?”
I shrug, dropping her hand. “I mean, she was ten when I was born, so there was no rivalry, ya know? She was one of my biggest cheerleaders when I started playing football.” I laugh. “I remember being in the yard with my dad, I was probably seven or eight, throwing the ball around. Eva wanted to join in so badly. Dad kept telling her football was a boy’s sport, but she was insistent. He finally let her throw it; it was so bad and veered way left. But she just stood her ground and said she’d find another way to be involved.”
“Did she go to your games?”
“All the time. She really started learning the game when I played. She and I would go over plays constantly, see what worked for me, and how it changed the field. She told Dad he’d be just as proud of her when she owned her own team.”
Noelle smiles at me, but it looks forced, like she’s turning something over in her mind. “Owning a team would be expensive. Is that when she started talking about a PR company?”
“I guess. I think we all knew she’d never own a team, but when scouts started looking at me as a sophomore in high school, that’s when she started diving into the workings of a PR company. She asked a ton of questions, more so than my dad, when those scouts would talk to me, or wait for me after a game.”
“Did she know about your dad's gambling?”
I close my eyes, hating that I have to go back to this time in my life. “Yeah, she did. It wasn’t bad when I was growing up, a game here and there. It became fun for us, the three of us would sit and look at picks. He’d ask her opinion, and she thrived on that. She was finally able to be a part of the ‘football’ talk. I can still hear her say, ‘It’s not just for boys, Dad!’ And when she gave picks and he won? Well, the two of them became a team. But he would win and then we’d go to a fancy dinner out, or he’d buy us extra stuff. Looking back at it now, I can see how toxic it was, how inappropriate for a family to be living that way.”
I pause because all of this is such a mess.
“But it was escalating, and by the time I was in high school, it became a weekly thing. And he wasn’t always winning. My sister was out of the house at this point; she had just started Papas & Family and was struggling to get it off the ground. My dad had fronted her some money to start it up, and when it didn’t take off like they both hoped, he began to turn on her.”
“Turn on her how?”
“I’m not really sure what went on, but I felt the distance between them grow. They would argue, and he would drop comments about her not knowing the game as well as she thought she did. But I was so focused on my playtime, training, scouts, and writing essays that I didn’t pay too much attention. And, of course, when the scouts were hanging around, Dad was more interested in getting me into a division-one school.”
She nods her head, still licking that push pop, and as I speak, the words become clear to me. Dad was focused on who could make him more money.
“I did what I did, then made sure it was buried so Icould get to the draft. I promised myself I’d never be in that position again, to be so deep in debt that the only way out was …” my words drift off. “It was too many highs and lows. Some weeks, we had so much food and extras, and some weeks, I was eating at Loving’s or Soba’s house.”
“Did Eva know he owed all that money when you were in college?”
I shake my head. “No. I never told her.”
“But did he?”
I hold her stare. “I threw the game so Dad could pay off his debt, and everything would be fine. He and I never spoke about it; he never came to me to say he was in trouble, that bookie threatened Mom and that’s how I knew. I went to Dante and begged for his help. But dad ended up disappearing shortly after that. So I did it for nothing anyway.”
“Nik, I found documents with dates that Eva’s business really took off shortly after that game.”
I shake my head. “No, she opened doors my freshman year.”
