Page 131 of His Hungry Wolf

“Are we playing again next weekend?” One of the kids asked me with her mother standing behind her.

“I have a game next weekend. I think you do too, don’t you?” I asked looking up at her mother.

She shook her head.

“Oh yeah, I forgot,” the little girl said with a smile.

“I’ll let your coach know. It should be in a few weeks.”

“Okay, thanks, Cage,” she said waving bye.

Her mother mouthed ‘Thank you,’ and the two walked off.

“Is there anyone who doesn’t love you?” Quin asked turning me around.

“All I care about is one,” I said without thinking.

“Who’s that?”

I had meant it to be something casual and flirty. Of course, Quin would call me on it.

“Anyone.”

“Just anyone?”

“I meant, I would be happy as long as I had someone to love me.”

“And, you have that don’t you?”

“Do I?” I asked wondering who he was talking about.

“Yes. Tasha.”

This had to stop. Every time Quin brought up Tasha, he made me say something about our relationship which wasn’t necessarily the case. Yes, she and I were together and we were trying to make it work. But, trying to make it work, and succeeding at it, weren’t the same thing.

“Tasha and I aren’t what everyone sees us as.”

“Oh,” Quin said suddenly giving me his full attention.

“Yeah. I mean, we’ve been dating for a while and we’ve talked about our future together. But sometimes it feels like there’s something missing. Actually, it feels like that a lot.”

“What do you think is missing?”

“Her presence, for one. She’s never around. And, that’s fine when I’m in the heart of football season with twice-a-day practices. That might even work if I were to get drafted and spend a third of the year on the road. But, shouldn’t she want to spend time with me more than she does? Shouldn’t I want to spend more time with her?”

“You don’t want to spend time with her?”

“It’s not that don’t want to spend time with her. It’s that I don’t care whether I do or not. It’s harsh to say out loud, but it’s true.”

“If you don’t want to spend time with her, then why are you with her?”

“It’s not that I don’t want to spend time with her.”

“I get it. I get it. But, it would seem to me that if you two are talking about, um, spending a long time together, you should look forward to it.”

“I can’t argue with that,” I told him.

“Then, why don’t you?”