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Avery looks up and tilts her head. “He is. How did you know?”
She looks to me and I shrug as my dad says, “I’m a lawyer, I know all.”
Avery isn’t convinced, though. “Yeah. That’s my dad.”
“Cool, I’ve known Benny for a long time. Good guy.”
She smiles, but it isn’t true and that makes me smile. “Yeah.”
“Your brothers, too. Man, great players. Didn’t you play with Matty, Jace?”
“I did,” I answer, lacing my fingers with Avery’s under the table.
“Cool, good family. How do they feel about this?”
She shrugs. “Doesn’t matter how they feel,” she says and my dad holds her gaze.
“No?”
“Nope.”
“Can I ask why?”
She shrugs and I say, “Doesn’t really matter, Dad. She isn’t very close with her family.”
“Oh. Okay.” The way he says that bothers me, and I can tell it bothers Avery too. It’s like me saying she wasn’t close with them was a piece of the puzzle or something. It’s weird, but he is grinning like a kid in a candy store, and I really don’t know what he is up to. “Well, nonetheless, I bet you’re excited?”
She smiles politely. “Excited?”
“For everything. Married to the prospected number-one draft choice. Hell, he looks good too. So you know the baby you’re having is going to be a looker. In my opinion, you hit the lottery, honey.”
Ellen laughs with him, but I just stare, glare really, as Avery eyes him suspiciously. “I’m not sure what you’re implying, Mark. But all that stuff is just bonuses to the fact that I love Jace. Him. As a person.”
I look back to my dad, and he’s just grinning. “I wasn’t implying anything, sweetheart. Just making conversation.”
“Oh, well, then, yes, I’m very excited to be married and expecting with the most amazing, perfect guy in the world,” she says, looking at me with a smile, but when I wink, her grin grows. “I got lucky.”
“Please, I’m the lucky one,” I say, emotion thick in my voice.
“Aren’t y’all just sweet? Aren’t they, Mark? They sound like us,” Ellen coos and he smiles, kissing her cheek.
Meanwhile, I’m gagging and rethinking how I flirt with my wife. Looking at Avery, I can tell she’s thinking the same. Before anyone else can say anything, our salads come and we start eating. In silence. Thick, tension-filled silence. I don’t want to be here, and every glance Avery throws me lets me know she feels the same. I just don’t trust my dad, and I know I’m not the only one. Hell, I don’t even think Ellen trusts him. I don’t miss the way she watches him every time a waitress comes to the table asking us if we want refills.
He’s a fraud, and I think he’s the only one who doesn’t know that.
But I need him to give me my trust fund.
So I’ll play nice.
It’s just so painful. All through the next course he talks happily with us, telling us about their trips all over the place and even how he picked up three new clients. “I tried to get Jayden and Jude to sign with me, but they weren’t having it.”
“Their loss,” Ellen says with a wave and I glare. But before I can say anything, Avery’s hand covers mine, shaking her head.
It isn’t worth the fight.
By the time dessert comes, I’m sitting on the edge of my seat, dying to know what is going on. He hasn’t brought up my trust fund, and I don’t want to because I really don’t want Avery to know I asked. I don’t want her to know I’m desperate enough to go to him, but it may come to that. I might have to look weak in front of my wife. That thought almost has me keeping my mouth shut. But all I can think about is the conversation with my coach this afternoon where he said someone complained about Avery basically living in the house. He told me he didn’t want to cause an issue, but I need to stop having her over. I understand that, I do, but she’s my wife. I want to sleep with her, make sure she is okay.
Damn it.
