Chapter 24
The Ocelots lost. Again. There hadn’t been a damn thing Rhys could do. There wasn’t going to be anything he could do about it ever again after the way he’d fallen apart in Brady’s office.
A little more than a week remained until the trade deadline. Maybe they’d send him to a team who didn’t realize what a mess he was. Even if that meant he’d only see Alfie across a baseball field again. It would be for the best. Rhys wouldn’t be able to disappoint him anymore.
It made Rhys want to hit something. He did not like feeling that way.
Not at all. He needed to find some way to work off the bad feelings.
Maybe he could convince some of the guys to hit a club with him.
Dance some of this away. If he happened to hook up with someone while he was there, well that was just a bonus.
Who cared if it wasn’t even dinner time yet?
Caleb stopped in front of him before Rhys could gather anyone to go out. “You still coming with us over to the center?”
Damn it. He had forgotten all about that.
Rhys ran a hand through his hair. So much for dancing this off. He’d made a promise, and he didn’t want to see the disappointment on Caleb’s face when Rhys inevitably let him down.
He forced a smile. “Yeah, I’ll meet you over there. It’s out on Horizon, right?”
“Yep.” Caleb’s eyes narrowed. As if he was trying to read Rhys’s thoughts. Neither of them would like that, he was sure.
He’d have to go past the coffee shop to get there. He wondered if he could stop in and see if Mel was working. No, it had been obvious this morning they didn’t want anything to do with him. It would be better for him to stay away.
Brock came up behind Caleb, pulling his attention from Rhys. That was for the best. Caleb always seemed to see too much. He’d first put the thought of ADHD, of maybe Rhys not just being a total mess of a person, a lost cause, into his head.
Someone would have figured that out about him long before this. No, they’d known how hopeless he was. Easier to wash their hands of him as soon as they could. Everyone else would realize it too.
If they already hadn’t.
He caught Alfie watching him from his locker stall. Rhys was sure Alfie had figured out what a mess Rhys was. It had to be why he kept his distance. Probably for the best. Maybe with this distance, it wouldn’t hurt when he lost Alfie for good.
When he lost everything.
“Just shut up,” he muttered as he pushed out the doors into the parking lot. And the blistering afternoon sun. July could go fuck itself. So could that voice in his head.
He didn’t have control over whether the team kept him or not. Didn’t have any say over whether Alfie actually wanted him. He could at least do his best not to let anyone else down.
The youth center was on the outskirts of Deltry. Almost in Harville itself. His hands tightened around the steering wheel as he remembered the last time he was actually in this town. Helping Brock get his possessions back when his own father locked him out of the house he’d been living in.
Rhys forced his hands to relax. It was fine. Brock was away from that toxic family, and he seemed to be so much happier. That was what mattered.
It wasn’t like he was going all the way into town.
The youth center was technically still part of Deltry.
He wouldn’t have to run into Brock’s self-important family members, who reminded him way too much of that last foster family he’d been with.
And the way Craig’s fists felt…No. He was not going there.
He turned up the radio’s volume as if that would help drown out his thoughts.
It never worked, but he tried.
He pulled into the parking lot behind the center.
It wasn’t quite what he’d been expecting.
A lot more like a warehouse than the community centers he’d seen before.
The sign on the front ensured he had the right place.
He shoved his hands in his pockets as he headed for the front doors.
And winced at the sight of the broken windows.
That wasn’t from disrepair. That was from something smashing through it. The words spraypainted across the doors made his stomach turn.
From what Caleb said, this place offered a safe space to kids who might not be able to find that anywhere else. Why did some people see that as such a danger?
He opened the door and stepped inside. And felt like the floor rocked under his feet.
“What are you doing here?”