“Oh, my,” my mother says finally, and I just blink.
“What are you doing here?” I ask him as quietly as I can.
“I wasn’t going to let you talk to your parents about us and not be here,” he says, making my mother come out with another “Oh, my.”
“Shall we sit?” my father says, and I just nod at him and watch them walk to my couch while Manning slips his hand into mine.
“You didn’t have to do this,” I tell him, wiping away the tear that is about to escape. He takes our hands and kisses my fingers. I walk over to the couch, and we sit side by side.
“Before we start,” Manning says. “I would like to apologize to you both first.” I look at him, and my mother has these goo-goo eyes for him. “I’m sorry about the scene that happened.”
“It’s not your fault,” my father says. “Not even a bit.”
“But it was,” he says, and he looks at me. “I saw your daughter and the earth shifted.” He puts an arm around my shoulders and pulls me to him. “I should have walked away, but I couldn’t.” He smiles shyly now. “I couldn’t do it. It was wrong, and I know it was, and I will be forever sorry that I put her in that position. But I can’t be sorry that we met. I won’t be.”
“You were married?” my father now says. “You are married.”
“In name only,” he says. “Four years ago, I asked her for a divorce, and she took my son away. I would have promised her anything to get him back. I was waiting until he was old enough to have a voice and choose. But sometimes things happen, and you have to jump.”
“This woman attacked my daughter in front of her colleagues,” my father says, and now I’m the one who speaks.
“She didn’t attack me. She confronted me, and she caught me off guard. I’m not going to justify our relationship. By no means should it have happened, but it did.” I wipe the tear away. “I sent him away and told him I couldn’t see him,” I tell my parents.
“When you thought I was sick, that was me with a broken heart because the man I was falling in love with was married, and I knew it was wrong. I know it’s wrong. But,” I say, my shoulders going straight, “there is a huge but. Some things went on that you aren’t privy to. They are private, and I’m not going to be the one to tell the story. But that woman does not deserve him. I don’t even know if I deserve him. I do know I’m going to hope like fuck I can prove I deserve him.”
“What if the press finds out?” my mother asks now.
“I don’t care,” I say, throwing up my hands. “So they find out we are seeing each other. We were seeing each other.” I look at my parents. “It’s us.” I look at Manning now. “It’s us, and we will get through this.”
Chapter 33
Manning
I get to the arena, and I know there is going to be press there. For the past two days, they’ve been trying to get in touch with me, and I have ignored them. Candace released one statement, and that is all I’m going to say.
When I step out of my car, I don’t know why I’m shocked to see Miller and Ralph standing there waiting for me. “What are you doing?”
“Walking in with you,” Ralph says, and I smile.
“I just want to be pictured next to you and get more press,” Miller says, laughing.
“How’re you doing?” Ralph says, ignoring Miller.
“As good as can be, I guess,” I tell them. “Murielle calls no less than fifty times.”
“A day?” Miller asks, shocked.
“An hour,” I tell him, and his mouth hangs open.
“What does she want?”
“To tell me what a mistake I’m making. To tell me that she is going to do a tell-all.”
Miller laughs. “A tell-all of what, how you became a monk?”
“How is Evelyn?” Ralph asks, and I shrug my shoulders.
“She’s pretending she is fine, but I know that this whole thing bothers her. I met her mother yesterday, and it was rough.”
“It was rough?” Ralph asks. “Have you met my brother-in-law, Evan Richards? The Evan Richards who is in town with his team. The one who tried to put my daughter in his jersey. The same one who hid my wife from me.” He mentions his brother-in-law, who plays for New York and who is here tonight.
“To be fair, she wasn’t your wife at the time.” Miller points out, and we start to walk into the arena. I stand in the middle of the two of them. I see the five cameras aimed toward us as we walk.
“Manning,” one of them shouts, “can we get a statement?” I put my head down and walk into the hallway. When the door closes behind me, I let out a huge sigh of relief.