The Finall Play novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: Door Open

Tanner did not deny it.

He stood in the doorway of his own duplex with his duffel bag at his feet and said nothing for a long time.

"Rory told you," he said at last.

"Rory told me."

"He wasn't supposed to."

"Why didn't you?" Elliot's voice shook. "For two years I thought you stood there and waited."

"I did stand there."

"You stood there and said no to Kestner."

"Anybody would have."

"No." Elliot took a step inside. "Nobody did. The whole staff watched, and you were nineteen, and you said no."

Tanner closed the door behind him, slowly.

The duplex was dark and cluttered, with a couch piled with game film and a pizza box on the floor.

"It didn't help," Tanner said. "They sent you out anyway."

"That's not on you."

"I should've done more."

"What more? Tackled the doctor?"

"Maybe."

Tanner almost laughed.

"I stood on that sideline watching you go back out. Every time you dropped back I thought, please, please don't throw."

His voice cracked.

"And then I heard it from the bench."

Elliot's eyes burned.

"I didn't know," he said.

"I didn't want you to."

"Why?"

"Because you'd just lost everything. You didn't need to hear that the kid who got your job was sorry."

"You were not the kid who got my job. You were the kid who didn't want it."

"I wanted it a little," Tanner said honestly. "Later. After."

"Everybody would."

"I'm not proud of it."

"Stop," Elliot said. "Stop being sorry. I can't take it."

"Tell me if the shoulder hurts," Elliot said.

"It doesn't," Tanner said. "Come here."

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