Page 197 of Falling Offsides

“We’re good now, right?” Jayden asks, falling into step with me. “Cause the scowling and growling is getting creepy and?—”

“He needs you to help him take down Matheo on Fortnite,” Eli finishes for him.

“And, I was going to say, we need to get our shit in order to kick ass this season.”

“We’re good,” I throw over my shoulder heading for my cubby.

Because it’s the truth. We’re good. Life is good. The whole motherfucking world, the universe couldn’t be better.

FORTY-ONE

COURTNEY

The onions are makingmy eyes sting.

That’s the story I’m sticking to, anyway, as I stand barefoot in Auguste’s kitchen, apron tied at my waist while I chop up the veggies for the shrimp pasta primavera and my phone on loudspeaker. I scowl at the olive oil bottle propping it up.

“I’ll do it,” I say, the words thick in my throat. “I’ll sell you my half of the property.”

I can’t call it a house or a home. Because I’ll chicken out. I’ll think about all the memories I have tied into those walls.

There’s a beat of silence before she says, “Thank you for being reasonable. Martin will be relieved.”

Good for him.I hack at the broccoli with more gusto than it requires.

“We can get the papers sorted quickly, but it might take me a little longer to get the funds… maybe we can come to an arrangement between us?”

“An arrangement,” I say quietly. “Like a payment plan?”

“Yes? It’s just that the value has gone up and… and until we find a buyer?—”

“You’re going to sell it?” My insides clench at the thought.

That’s my house.

The door clicks open ahead of me. I don’t even look. I just know—by the way the air shifts, the way my breath instantly hiccups in my chest—that it’s him.

“Hey,” Auguste mouths when I finally look up.

I blink back the burn in my eyes, still pretending it’s the onions whenhe steps closer to the kitchen island, Samson’s leash looped over one arm and a paper bag from the Caribbean store clutched in the other. Our soda.

He glances at the phone, then me, and mouths again, “Are you okay?”

I nod and tell my mom, “We can work out a payment plan or just sell it right away.”

“I was thinking we could work on a payment plan based on the house as it was when your father signed it to you. Before we renovated and modernized the place…”

Auguste’s brows pull together, his mouth snaps shut as he takes Sammy off his lead and then drops into a stool opposite me.

“Maybe we should get a surveyor to give us the appreciated value of the property without the changes you and Martin made, and we can agree on a payment plan based on that.”

That’s it. That’s all I can give her. She picked Martin over me, and now I’m picking myself over her. Over them.

“Okay, Mom, well… I have to go and finish dinner. But you get better and let me know when you’ve figured out how you want to go about the property. Bye now.”

“Courtney…” I hang on the line, waiting for her to say whatever she has to say. Hoping that she’ll change her mind. That she’ll choose me this once.

When she does nothing more than stutter, I end the call. “Bye now.”