Page 77 of Out of Bounds

“Yes, Tripp, nothing. After everything I’ve done, Big D still didn’t trust me with anything. To him I was still the horrible teenager I was when Mom died. Nothing I did ever changed his mind. We were supposed to have lunch this week, and I thought that maybe he was starting to see that I had what it takes. That I wasn’t just some spoiled brat. That I was a Sutherland and I have it in me to run this team. To run part of Southland Holdings. But no. All I have now is thirty percent of his personal assets and whatever my little brother is willing to hand over.”

Felicity’s whole body felt like it could give way at any moment as she ranted at her brother. Somewhere deep within her was still the fire and drive that had always been there, however this week had done a damn good job at trying to snuff it out.

“You can’t be team president and sleep with the coach,” he said, his tone making it clear that he thought that should be obvious.

“I am aware,” she answered. She could hear the resignation in her voice and knew that it was time to own up to it all. “I know this may be hard for you to believe, Tripp, but I’m not a monster. I have feelings. And I was not using Gunnar to get the job. The job actually had nothing to do with it. I realize I was playing out of bounds, but…I care about him…a lot…and so it was worth the risk. He was worth the risk.”

She didn’t wait for him to respond before spinning around and heading out the front door of their childhood home. Letting the latch click softly behind her, she inhaled deeply, the unique smell of the property filling her nostrils. Now that her father was gone, she probably wouldn’t be visiting this house anymore. A pang of nostalgia hit her at the thought. She’d never thought that she was particularly attached to the house—at least not any more than anyone was about the house they grew up in—but now that she was facing having to say good-bye, it hurt. BobbiJo would live here for a few more years with Lulu, and then it would belong to Dalton, who no doubt would have a family of his own with Zara by that point.

A family—just one more thing it was starting to look like she would never have. The hits just kept on coming.

She sent a text to Heather to check to see if Talia was working. She needed her chosen family right now but didn’t want to cause any kind of drama if Talia was behind the bar. Heather’s response popped up on her phone just as the Lyft driver pulled up to the gate, sending a wave of relief through Felicity. Because when life gives you lemons, you turn to those who know how to make the best damn lemonade possible. And for Felicity, that meant one thing.

The Sour Patch.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Gunnar cut the water to the shower and let the last bit of the steam surround him. He inhaled deeply, wishing that there was some kind of magical power in the steam to make everything okay. Or at least something to take his mind off how bad things actually were.

He’d managed to make it back to his flat in record time yesterday afternoon, despite rush hour Atlanta traffic, and found Talia locked in her room. Despite his best efforts—which had included begging, pleading, and bribing her with Thai food—she hadn’t emerged from there once. Nor would she even talk to him through the door. He suddenly understood all the laments of his former teammates talking about their children.

Stepping out of the shower, he toweled off, letting his mind wander back to that night in the hotel when Felicity had rescued him from being wedged in that tub forever. Had he known at the time that he would soon crave her touch, he would have relished it a lot more and fought with her a lot less. It was killing him not to call her or run over to her condo, pick her up, and take her to bed, where he could show her just how wrong she was about the two of them. That they needed each other too, and that he could be both Dad and the man she needed. Being the man she needed also meant respecting her wishes, however, so after today’s practice he’d headed straight home and into the shower.

“It’s not that simple,” Gunnar heard Cullen’s voice say from the living room, followed by Cowboy adding on, “Let your uncles Cullen and Britt explain things to you.”

When had they gotten here? He’d left them both behind at the training center this afternoon, neither of them saying anything about plans for dinner. He grabbed his phone to see if he had missed a text, but there was nothing. He threw on a pair of shorts and a T-shirt and went to go join them, but his hand paused just above the door handle. They must have been talking to Talia, and he wanted to hear what they had to say to her.

“You’re not my uncles. I barely know you!” Talia snarked. “Hell, I hadn’t ever heard of Cullen until a couple of days ago. And now suddenly you’re just going to be like the two uncles on Full House?”

“I don’t know what that is,” Cullen remarked.

“Only Jesse was an uncle. Joey was just a family friend,” Cowboy corrected her.

“Whatever,” she said, dismissing him.

“And yes, that’s what we are. Your dad’s two best friends here to let you in on a few secrets. Help you understand the man a little better.”

“I realize what you might think, based on your, err, beginnings,” Cullen said, his British accent sounding so out of place to Gunnar now that he’d spent months in America and had gotten used to how everyone spoke here. “But that’s not who your father is.”

“What do you mean by that?” Talia asked.

“Gunnar is quite possibly the most loyal man I’ve ever met,” Cowboy said. “And he loved Anya unlike anything else. Like something out of a movie. And when she died, well, a piece of him did too.”

“He became a different man after that,” Cullen explained. “He was still himself, but…different. It’s hard to explain if you didn’t know him before. But he went from a guy who loved life to a guy who only focused on work. He didn’t have a life outside that job.”

Listening to his friends talk about how he’d changed after Anya’s death made his heart ache. He’d known that he’d thrown himself into the job—it was what got him through each day back then, his purpose, so to speak. What he hadn’t realized was that anyone else had noticed a change in him, or that he’d never stopped focusing solely on the job.

“Great, but that doesn’t change what happened. They still went behind my back.”

“Neither of them was in a position to make their relationship public,” Cullen commented.

“Relationship? They were fucking,” Talia snarked.

“If your father was sleeping with her, she meant something to him,” Cowboy said.

“You don’t know that.”

“We kinda do, kiddo,” Cowboy continued. “That’s just the guy he is. I realize you don’t know that about him yet, but trust us. Because we do.”