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It’s also the only reason that I stay for another beer when I want to get out of here and go back home. Since it’s my turn, I go to the counter to get us another round. But while I’m waiting for my order, I run into the last person that I thought I’d see here. Not to mention, the last person I wanted to see.
But from the looks of it, I was the only person he wanted to see.
I steel myself for whatever it is he wants to say as he settles himself beside me at the bar. He signals to the bartender and asks for whiskey — the choice of liquor for my oldest brother — before turning to me. “It’s good to see you mingling with the team.”
“Doctor’s orders,” I tell him.
His lips quirk up slightly. “Well then, it’s good to see you following her orders.”
I shrug. “Kinda don’t have a choice, but sure.”
The bartender places both our orders in front of us and I’m about to take my leave. If he wants to discuss my therapy sessions, he can do it in depth with the doctor herself. I’m not going to stand here and analyze my shit with him.
When he says the one thing that has the power to keep me here.
“Tempest’s nice,” he murmurs, taking a sip of his whiskey.
Leaning away from the counter, I instantly go on alert. “What do you want?”
He looks at me, a frown on his forehead. “What do I want?”
“Yeah.” I stand with my feet apart. “What is it that you want from me? You came here to see me, didn’t you? Because there’s no way you’re here to celebrate someone’s birthday. That’s not your style. You send your lackeys to do that.”
“My lackeys.”
“Stellan.” I tip my chin toward the corner he’s standing in with a couple of players and another assistant coach. “Right over there.”
Shep isn’t here tonight, which I’m glad about. Because if he were, it would be tough for Stellan to mingle on Conrad’s orders. He would’ve done it for sure. But it would’ve been a chore, or rather, more of a chore for my other big brother.
Looking away from Stellan, I focus on Conrad. “So what is it?”
He regards me silently, my straight spine and my battle stance. Then, shaking his head, “Nothing. Just wondering how I missed it.”
“How you missed what?”
He shrugs, taking another casual sip of his drink. “That you’re in love with her.”
I suck in my gut.
The impact of his words is so strong, it’s like a sucker punch.
An implosion even.
Jarring me to my marrow, jangling my bones.
Stealing words, stealing thoughts from me.
When I don’t say anything — I can’t, he goes on, “You are, aren’t you?”
I still don’t speak.
I still haven’t gathered enough sense to form words, let alone put them in the right order to spill out sentences.
Turning to me, he keeps going, “Because I’ve never seen you this way. Well, I’ve seen you angry and agitated. But I’ve never seen you be that way for anyone outside of the family.”
At ‘family,’ I bite out, “That tends to happen when everything I’ve heard from your mouth regarding her has been bullshit of the biggest variety.”
I’m not lying.
I still don’t know what he said to her the day she visited me at practice about a week ago. I’ve asked but she won’t tell me. She keeps insisting that she’s fine and that Conrad didn’t say anything objectionable to her. Which is kinda hard for me to believe, given how much of an asshole he’s been about her pregnancy.
I knew that would be the case though.
My brother gets really triggered any time he hears the word ‘pregnant.’ He flipped his shit when Callie got pregnant last year. I’m ashamed to say that I was with him at the time. Only because of whose baby it was.
But Conrad has deeper reasons.
Our mother had him when she was only eighteen, a high schooler, and Conrad thinks that that was a mistake. That if she hadn’t had him that young, maybe things would be different now. Although I don’t know how that’s possible. Our father would still be an asshole and our mother would still be dead.
But anyway, when I broke the news about Tempest’s pregnancy — even though it was none of his business, I wasn’t going to hide it either — needless to say he didn’t take it well.
He did what he always does, judge and lecture.
While looking extremely disappointed in me and my ‘rash and thoughtless decision-making process.’ That would not only ‘ruin my life but now someone else’s too,’ including those two babies that she’s carrying in her body. And did I really need that when my focus should be on getting my almost-destroyed career back.
Granted, all of his disappointment was directed at me, but still it’s not a stretch to think that he may have said the same things to her as well. And if he has, I’m not going to be held responsible for what I do to him.
