I hesitated about the mother, but figured they’d kept quiet about his sister. I hoped they’d keep quiet about her mother as well. “He paid off the mother, not the daughter.”
Hannah snorted, fixing the binoculars on them again. “Yeah, right. I’m sure she got a nice settlement.”
Beth punched her in the shoulder. “Stop that. He’s trying for a relationship with his daughter.”
“You don’t know that.”
“He brought her to this game.”
“Yeah, his legitimate son’s game. If he wanted a relationship, don’t you think he’d meet her in private for a while, father/daughter bonding and that crap? My bet, it’s some guilt manipulation to work on Jesse. And why are your parents here as well?”
I sighed. I gave them some explanation, but like my falling-out with Jesse, they had heard from Tiffany about my real relationship with them as well. Finally, I murmured, “I have no idea what my parents are doing here. But they like Malcolm. They went to one of Jesse’s games last year with him too.”
“Yeah, but that was before it was out of the can. Right? That they had dumped you.”
Swallowing over a tight knot in my throat, I willed my body to relax. I couldn’t dwell on what they’d done or even the last time I had talked with them. I’d been healing since coming to Grant West. I intended to keep healing. My parents would not have that power over me anymore. I refused to allow myself to relapse back to the slightly crazed state I’d been over the past summer.
Beth punched her cousin again. “Hannah, you’re being really rude. Watch what you’re talking about.”
“What? I’m just trying to get all the facts straight. Mute Girl here doesn’t say two bits to us all year. She finally opened up and I’m capitalizing. She knows all my embarrassing stories.”
I grinned. “You and Jamie. Fond memories.”
“Shut it.”
Reaching over, I snagged the binoculars from her. “Not that I don’t understand, but like Beth said, I’m a little sensitive with some of this information being talked about like it’s the weather.”
“I’m being a friend.”
“You’re being nosy and you know it. Stop it.”
Hannah stuck her tongue out at her cousin before she slumped back in her chair.
Hip hop music blared in the gymnasium and the crowd stood. Excitement started to build. The players would be coming out. They didn’t do grand entrances, not like some teams, but I knew when they came the place would go crazy. And as the air filled with deafening cries, I was right. Jamie was the first on the court. Not a shocker. Jesse trailed towards the end. His head was bent to the side as he was listening to something a coach was saying. His hand was on Jesse’s shoulder. The two passed where my parents and Jesse’s family was sitting without any acknowledgement of them. I knew that’d been intentional. He never enjoyed when Malcolm went to his games.
Hannah fanned herself with the program. “Holy, Alex. Why are you not sleeping with him again?”
“Sssh!” Beth hushed her, looking around us.
“No one can hear over the screeching.” Hannah shook her head at the crowd. “I think that woman over there pretended to have Jesse’s baby and give it to him.”
“You don’t want your stuff broadcasted so stop broadcasting Alex’s business.”
Her cousin rolled her eyes. “You just don’t want me to talk about your stuff. And you’re scared because I’m happy.”
Beth explained to me, “When she’s happy, she’s chatty. About everyone else except whoever’s screwing her.”
“I’m happy. So sue me.”
I frowned at both of them. I was starting to think I should’ve come alone, but then I tuned them out. They bickered throughout the entire game—when it started, during the halftime, and towards the end. It wasn’t the normal dynamic. I was used to Beth’s silence and Hannah’s anger, but now Hannah was happy, giddy almost, and Beth didn’t like it. As Hannah kept asking me questions about my relationship with Jesse, I was starting to understand her cousin’s reluctance. She was nosy.
As the buzzer ended the game, we’d won by ten points. Jesse had been fouled and earned eight of those himself, but it’d been a close game.
“That was fun. I’m excited for this year.” Hannah was all smiles as we followed the crowd from the stands. When we got through the stairs that opened onto a wider area behind the stands, I started for the players’ door. Hannah called after me, “Hey!”
I turned around. This was the part I hadn’t shared with them. “Hey, uh, I’m going to go and say hi real quick.”
The two gave me similar looks. They were dumbfounded.
Hannah frowned. “You’re going to what?”
Beth was smarter on the uptake. “What are you really doing?”
Well, here we go. “Jesse didn’t ask me to come to the game. He asked me to go to dinner with them.”
Hannah’s mouth dropped while her cousin prodded, “With everybody everybody?”
“His dad. I’m assuming the girlfriend.”
“And your parents?”
“Holy f**k! I can’t believe you’re going to do that. Are you kidding me? Why did you even break up with him?”
I’d been asking myself the same question, but then I remembered the pain in his eyes. I succumbed every time so I only shrugged. They wouldn’t take that as an explanation. “I have to. Jesse and I are family.”