Offsides - A Forbidden Summer novel · Chapter 24 of 24
Chapter 24: Offside by a Toenail
The den had gone quiet again, but it was a different quiet.
People weren't staring now.
They were finding reasons to look at the floor, and the pretzel bowl, and the replay on the screen.
Devin's arms were still around me.
He didn't ask if I wanted to stand.
I stood on my own, though, and smoothed my yellow dress, and walked to the kitchen doorway where my mother waited.
Up close, she looked older than she had on Thursday.
The pearl earrings were crooked.
"All right," I said. "I'll say it to you."
"Please."
"I love him."
My mother closed her eyes.
"I didn't plan it," I said. "I sat on his lap the first day because I wanted to, and I didn't know you'd gone. When I found out, I stayed, because I'd have done it anyway. I know that part is hard to hear."
"It is."
"I'm not sorry about him. I won't say I am."
She nodded very slowly, without opening her eyes.
"But I'm angry at you," I said. "For eleven weeks I thought I was stabbing you in the back. I cried in the bathroom. I practiced an apology. You let me carry that so you could have a clean Sunday."
"I know."
"You could have called me in April and told me yourself. I would have been upset. I'd have survived it. I'm a lot tougher than you thought."
"Yes," said my mother, in a whisper. "You are."
She opened her eyes, and they were wet, and for the first time all day, they were just hers.
"I was ashamed," she said. "That's all of it. I was ashamed and I was happy, and I didn't know how to be both in front of you."
Devin had come to stand at my shoulder, not touching me.
Keep reading free with an account. Start Offsides - A Forbidden Summer from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.
Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend