Blitzed(42)

"Dani's going to get her doctorate?" I ask, shocked. Dani and I have kept in touch over the years, but it's never been about academics, but instead about other things. She mentioned something about her study, but I thought she was going into social work, not something that requires a doctorate. "Harley Quinn’s getting an MD?"

The door to the kitchen opens, and Dani, still tiny and wearing her hair in twin blonde ponytails, comes out. "Psychologists get PhDs, actually, Troy. Psychiatrists get MDs. And by the way, you are about the only person left in town who is allowed to call me Harley. How're you doing, big guy?"

We exchange hugs, and I have to admit, Dani looks beautiful, mainly because she looks so happy. I sit back down and watch as she gives Pete a kiss before taking a seat on the sofa next to him. I feel the little twinge inside, and I know it, I'm jealous. They look so happy together. "So the honeymoon's set too?"

Pete nods. "We're not exactly rich, you know, but we figured it out. We're going to go up to this lake in Canada, just north of Vancouver for a week. They rent out cabins, and we're going to enjoy the time before fall session starts for Dani. I already got the time off with the city, and things are going well."

I shake my head, amazed. "Good for you guys. I mean that."

"So what's up, Troy?" Pete asks. "When you called and said you wanted to come over, you sounded like you had something you wanted to talk about."

I nodded, my smile fading. "Actually, Pete, if you don't mind, I'd like to talk with Dani alone, please. Just for a few minutes. I promise, I won't tell her about that time we went out in the woods with just a jar of peanut butter and no spare underpants."

Pete laughs at the old joke and gets up. "Sure. You guys want the living room?"

I shake my head, getting up as well. "Actually, if you don't mind, Dani, can we talk in the back yard?"

Dani gives me a nod, and I can see she's slightly nervous. We go into the back yard while Pete settles back on the couch, and I close the glass door behind us, leaving the curtains open so that he can see that I am behaving. After all, I am in the backyard with his fiancée.

"What's up, Troy? You know, if it's about a wedding gift, the register is not the only thing that . . .”

"How long have you known?" I ask quietly, standing in the grass a few yards out from the end of the concrete patio. "About Whitney?"

Dani stops, then sighs. "That she's been back in town? About a week now. She got in with Laurie and Lorenzo on Monday."

"You knew for a week, and you didn't think to mention it to me?" I ask, trying to control my temper. "You, who knows more than any other person in the world how much I've hurt for the past five years? You knew, and you didn't tell me? Why?"

Dani's struggling with her emotions now, and she walks further out into the backyard, probably to prevent Pete from overhearing. "This hurts for me too, you know!" she finally says, turning on me when we reach the fence. "How do you think it felt to have my best friend of fourteen years just up and leave the country? How do you think it feels to watch you, the guy that I consider my best guy friend in the world, tear himself apart in his personal life even as he tears apart every * who crosses his path on the football field? How do you think that feels, huh? So yeah, I knew. And yeah, maybe I played it a little selfish not telling you. But, I'm getting married next Saturday! I was hoping, praying, that I wouldn't have to face this situation until after I got married. Is that too much to ask?"

I turn and lean on the back fence and look into their neighbor's yard, trying to control my feelings. "She came to the game with her daughter and that man," I said, my weight causing the fence to groan. They've got a dog, a little dachshund, but it's tied up at the moment, yapping away on its long lead. "Laurie asked me for an autograph, and I had no idea who she was, until he comes up and takes her by the hand, and then out of the f*cking blue, Whitney's there next to them. She invited me to see them at the Cafe Italiano, and things didn't go well. I nearly lost my temper with Laurie's father."

"Laurie's . . .?” Dani asks, not understanding I mean Lorenzo. "What happened then?"

"I gave Whitney my phone number, hoping she'd call. I'm not saying I have to have her back. Yes, it hurts, and that moment on the sidelines, it felt like time slipped back, except it didn’t. All the want was there, but all of the pain and anger too. I feel bad for RJ on the other team. I didn't mean to break his wrist."

"I bet," Dani says. It was in the news—the quarterback I sacked broke his wrist on that last play. He's going to be out another six to eight weeks, and for a quarterback to hurt his throwing wrist like that, it could be even worse. At least it happened in the first week of the pre-season, and he'll have some time to heal. If the Hawks beat his team in the regular season, I want it to be straight up, not because they're playing at less than full strength. "You were a beast out there. Reminded me of your game against Northern."

"Yeah . . . Northern," I reflect. "Where my heart was torn out right afterward. Dani, do you know? Do you know why? I'm guessing from something in the way Whitney said your name at the cafe, you two have been in contact. She didn't just look you up on Facebook, I bet."