Page 47 of Pick Me This Time

“I’ll let you know,” I said. “I appreciate the offer.”

She nodded, then suddenly grinned and waved at someone over my shoulder. My heart yanked. That has to be Daphne.

I twisted in my seat, so eager to see her, but it turned out to be her parents instead. Her mom, Janet, zeroed in on me, tossing her arms around my shoulders. She got all misty-eyed as she pulled back to look at my face.

“Oh, Sterling, honey. It’s so good to see you.” She sat down next to me. “We’ve missed you.”

Marty, Eric and Daphne’s dad, reached past his wife to shake my hand, sending me a beaming grin of his own. “Welcome home, buddy. This must be quite something for you, huh? Sitting up here when the game is happening down there.”

Marty and Janet had been like second parents to me growing up. Janet had been best friends with my mom and Marty had always had a way of seeing right to the crux of a matter. He liked to say it was because he was a dentist.

He could identify the source of pain without looking around too much because, once he started looking, it was always too easy to find more problems. So he focused on the stuff that was causing the issue right then.

In my case, he clearly thought that was the football game. He wasn’t wrong either. He just didn’t know that there was a second half to what was bugging me—the fact that his daughter wasn’t here.

“It’s weird, alright,” I agreed, chuckling in an attempt to hide the turmoil raging through me. “This team is good, though. This is their time. We’ve had ours.”

“Fair enough,” Marty agreed, settling into the seat beside Janet’s. He waved enthusiastically at Eric when he appeared on the field.

Janet seemed more interested in catching up with me. “How are you, honey? You must be missing your mom today. I know I am. She would’ve loved that you’re here right now. Gosh, I just wish she was too.”

I jerked my chin in a nod, conflicted but understanding where she was coming from. She and my mom had attended this very school together. They’d watched every homecoming parade and game together since they were kids, until the very last one my mom had been alive for.

It had to be hurting her at least as much as it was hurting me. I reached out and gave her a sideways hug. “I do miss her, but I know she’s watching too. She wouldn’t miss this.”

Janet chuckled, her gaze rising slowly to the sky. “That’s so true. What a wonderful way of thinking of it.”

A slight smile tugged at my lips. Part of me felt better for knowing I wasn’t alone in missing my mother today and it was nice talking about her for a change, but the other part was still wondering where Daphne was. I couldn’t leave things between us the way they had been when I’d left last night.

After chatting to Janet about my mom for a while, I finally found an in to ask about her daughter. “Where’s Daphne? I thought she’d be here with you guys, cheering on Eric and the team.”

“Oh, she wanted to be,” Janet assured me. “She hasn’t missed one of these before, but she wasn’t feeling well.”

Worry ripped through me. “Is it the fire?”

She shook her head. “I think she’s just tired. She’s been burning the candle at both ends lately. We’ll check on her again when we get home and she said she’d still chaperone the dance. It’s nothing serious.”

“Of course,” I said, waiting as long as I could stand to after our conversation so it wouldn’t be obvious where I was going, but when I finally got up, I had every intention of going over to her little house to make sure she was okay. “I’ll see you guys after. I just remembered about something I need to do.”

“Something you need to do right now?” Jake asked in disbelief.

I nodded. “Yeah, unfortunately. I’ll give you a call when I’m done.”

Marty and Janet watched me with sympathy in their eyes, and I was pretty sure they thought this was just too hard for me. Being here but not playing. Attending one of my mom’s favorite events but not having her here.

As I left, I saw Janet moving into my seat and bending over to talk to Rachel, but I didn’t really care what they thought. It was too hard to be here, but I would’ve stayed anyway if I hadn’t been so damn worried about Daphne.

She’d worked her ass off to help everyone with the preparations for today and then she hadn’t come? That didn’t sit right with me.

Especially considering she’d inhaled all that smoke yesterday.

Breaking into a run, I reached the parking lot and made my way through it, happy I’d parked down the street so I wouldn’t be caught in the hullabaloo around the school. Just as I walked out of the gate, I noticed a gaggle of women walking in my direction.

They seemed vaguely familiar. Then one of them stepped to the side and my stomach dropped. Appearing like a ghost right from the center of their group was none other than Fiona Marksmith.

My ex.

I hadn’t seen the girl in ten years, but she hadn’t changed much. She had the same halo of long, shiny red hair and the same wide, glittering green eyes. She still seemed to have a penchant for too high heels and micro-skirts.

And when her eyes met mine as she stepped out between her friends, she gave me that same possessive grin I’d always hated. Fuck.

I’d known she was coming for the reunion. I just really hadn’t wanted to see her again. Especially not right then.