“That’s ridiculous. She doesn’t have a damn thing that you want.”
I didn’t care if someone accused me of being jealous—of anyone. I was confident enough in myself to know that I wasn’t, and anyone who would say such a thing about me clearly didn’t know me at all. I’d heard it most of my life, thanks to my sister, so it wasn’t new. The reason it bothered me when my mom said it, though, was because we were both her daughters, yet she’d always picked sides, and it was never mine.
“Anyway, Tosh…as much as I want to hear all about your talk with your mom, I called for a very specific reason.” Giddiness ran through his voice like a little kid on Christmas morning. “I need you to come down to the center right now.”
“Why?”
“You’ll find out when you get here. But you need to come now.” Dave wasn’t one to hold his own piss. The longest he’d ever kept a surprise from me was an hour, and I didn’t even have to pester him to make him spill the beans. So the fact that he wouldn’t tell me now made me a little curious.
“I’m in sweats, a week-old T-shirt, and I think I have cereal in my hair.” None of that was true; I was only testing him. “So it’s going to take me a bit to get ready.”
Any other day, that would’ve made him let the cat out of the bag. But not this time. “Whatever, Tosh. Just hurry. Look nice, but hurry.”
I had applied for a job anywhere that was hiring. He knew how much I was looking forward to being involved with the center when we were talking about adding the gaming and arcade area, so maybe he’d managed to score me a job there.
Excited about the prospect, I quickly jumped up and grabbed my keys. I made sure to be dressed and ready to go every day, just in case I got called for an interview. That way, I wouldn’t have to make them wait. Much like right now—they only had to wait the ten minutes it took me to make it to the youth center.
“That was fast,” Dave said, greeting me in the parking lot.
“Well, you said to hurry, so I hurried. Are you going to tell me now why you called me down here so fast? What’s so important that you couldn’t tell me over the phone?”
His grin lit up his entire face. Taking my hand, he dragged me inside, through the door that led to the offices, down the hallway, and into what appeared to be a small conference room. There were a couple other men sitting around a large table—which took up most of the room—all looking as though they were waiting on something.
There was no way this was all for a job.
Dave pulled out an empty seat for me to take and then sat down in the chair next to me. Still, the room was silent. It was a bit eerie, if I were honest. However, the smile on Dave’s face remained, as did similar ones on the other men’s faces in the room.
Then, it all made sense.
Actually, that’s utter crap. That’s when things became even more confusing, because once we were all seated around the table, Adam King entered the room. Dressed in a tailored suit with a leather binder-looking thing under his arm, he moved to take a seat across from me. Excitement filled the room, yet I only assumed that it was because a famous athlete was in the building.
“Before we begin, I would personally like to thank you, Adam, for making time in your busy schedule for this meeting.” Dave started it off using his professional voice—which was much smoother than his friendly voice.
Adam nodded, silently greeting everyone at the table with a smile. “I’m just going to get straight to the point. I heard that you had plans to expand the youth center to add an area for an arcade room. Is that correct?” he asked, staring right at me.
That certainly put me on the spot. For a second there, it almost sounded like I was in trouble for something. He looked very much like a lawyer right now, which didn’t make me feel any more comfortable. But I shook that off and cleared my throat to answer. “Yes, that was what I had wanted to do, but the funds fell through. So, we’ve had to abandon the plan.”
“I did hear about the funding issue, and I am truly sorry for that.” His message was received loud and clear, even though he didn’t have anything to be sorry for. “And to help make it up to you, I’m making a donation to this youth center in your name. That way, you and your friend here, Dave, can get the ball rolling on this. I think it’s a fantastic idea, and I hate the thought of it not coming to fruition simply because of financial reasons.”
“That’s incredible,” I whispered, unable to find my actual voice.
“Yes, it truly is. We are all so thankful for your generosity.” The other men in the room spoke up, but I was too lost in my head to pay much attention to anything they said.
Then Adam pulled out some papers from his leather folder. As he placed them on the table, I realized they were architectural sketches for a physical expansion to the building, which was way more than the original plan.
I held up a hand to cut in on the communal praises long enough to speak before I lost my chance. “Hold on a second. When Dave and I had brought the idea up to the board, it was just to move some things around and use existing space for this. Adding onto the building was never part of it. That’s way more money than what we intended to
