by Toni Aleo
I look to Claire, who is bouncing in her seat, and I’m sort of thankful for the change of subject. The thought of Mom dating makes me gag, and the looks Mom and Coach have been sending each other are hard to ignore. But thankfully everyone glances up at Claire, and by the looks on everyone’s faces and Claire’s and Jude’s smiling faces, I’m sure we all know what is about to be said. For some odd reason, it’s way easier to think of my brother and his wife making babies than my mom dating. Probably because I’ve walked in on them more than once, and the thought of walking in on my mom makes me want to die. Plus, what they are about to say is expected. They’ve been married like five years or something, Jude is killing it in the NHL, and Claire is rocking her job in Vegas.
First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes my sister-in-law and brother with a baby strapped to his chest.
It’s just so disgustingly cute.
I look over to see my mom grinning hard as she wiggles with excitement. She is about to be super happy and that’s good. She needs this. She really wants another grandbaby, but I haven’t heard anything about this. They must have been keeping it a surprise.
Before they can even confirm or deny, Mom yells, “You’re pregnant!”
“Mom!” Jude cries as Claire laughs, shaking her head.
Oh. Okay.
“That’s the first thing I thought,” I say, surprised.
“Me too,” Lucy and Jayden say at the same time.
“Oh, wait, you’re not pregnant?” Baylor asks.
“Oooh. I want a cousin,” Angie proclaims.
“Can someone pass me the mashed potatoes?” Markus asks and I shake my head.
This family.
“No! Jeez. Am I getting fat or something?” Claire asks, more to Jude than anyone else. Like the good husband he is, he shakes his head, holding her hand in a reassuring way.
“No, not at all,” my mom adds quickly. “It’s just you’ve been married so long.”
“Not even a year, Mom. That’s not long.” Jude shakes his head. “Jesus.”
“Really? I thought it was like five years.”
Lucy scoffs at my math. “I know. They are so sticky sweet in love, it makes us feel like we’ve been subjected to it longer than we actually have.”
I laugh in agreement as Claire clears her throat.
“Anyway…” Claire sings with laughter in her voice. Really, that’s all she can do.
Laugh at the insanity of this family.
“We bought a house here,” Claire says excitedly, her hands waving in a jazz hands sort of way that has my brows rising. I guess she figured everyone would be excited too.
But looking around, I’m sure everyone is thinking the same thing I am. “Why?” Jude sends me a dirty look at my question, and I hold up my hand. “I mean, I don’t understand why you did that when you live in Vegas and Jude lives in Cali.”
“My contract with the burlesque club is coming to an end, and I’ve turned down the renewal because I miss Jude and I want to be home more. I’m already turning over more to my Assistant Choreographer to make the transition faster.”
Silence comes after that last statement, and I can tell everyone is confused. Well, everyone except Coach, Markus, and Angie; they are all eating happily. Not a care in the world.
“I don’t get it,” Lucy says and I smirk. Leave it to my sister to say what all of us are wondering. But like he did to me, Jude starts to glare at her. “What? How is buying a house here helping?”
“Because, when the season is over, we will be living here.”
“Yeah, starting next year, I’ll be running my aunt’s dance studio a lot more since Reese is so busy with the boys,” Claire adds happily, speaking of her…er…cousins? I don’t know how that works. Phillip is her uncle, so, cousins? But before I can try to figure it out, everyone is nodding, so I do the same. Still not getting it, but oh well. Maybe I’ll actually see Jude more now. That is, before I sign my own contract and ship on out.
“So we’ll have a house in California and one here.”
“I’ll spend half the week here and half the week there,” Claire says.
“That’s a lot of travel,” Mom says, concern on her face.
But Claire nods. “Yeah, but it’s what’s best for us. We are happy.”
“And that is all that matters,” Mom says with a grin. “Because then you’ll start trying for a baby, right?”
“Ugh, Mom,” Jude groans.
“What? I want more grandkids.” Mom’s gaze then falls on Baylor.
“Whoa! Don’t look at me. They are more likely to have kids than us,” she says, hooking her thumb to Jude and Claire.
“Um, no, and it only makes sense that you guys have a kid first ’cause you live here. Easy babysitters,” Jude teases down to Jayden and Baylor.
“No, I can’t play and be pregnant, dumbass.”
“So? Do your job as a woman and have a baby,” Jude throws back at her, his eyes playful. But even I knew he was a dead man the moment he opened his mouth. The women at the table gasp, and laughter sputters out of me.
God, he is a dumbass.
“Jude Marshall!”
“Really, Jude?” Lucy asks as Claire shakes her head.
I look to Coach, but he’s just laughing. “Man, she’s gonna kill you.”
“Your funeral.” Somehow Markus is able to comment around stuffing his mouth as I sit back and watch the show.
As I expected, Baylor’s eyes narrow, her face turning red as she declares, “My job as a woman is to murder you, Jude Sinclair.”
“And I won’t stop her,” Jayden adds.
“Neither will I,” Claire says and Jude just shrugs his shoulders.
“Bring it. I’ll take you out like I did last time.”
That has Baylor’s eyes blazing even more. “It was a cheap shot, and you know it.”
“You took her legs out,” Coach hollers. “On a breakaway!”
“Like a pussy,” Jayden declares with a nod.
“I had to stop her.” Jude shrugs like it was a given, but it was a dirty play. And when Baylor punched him square in the jaw, man, that was probably my favorite thing ever to watch.
That girl is twenty shades of nuts on that ice.
“Whatever. I’ll kill you dead, Sinclair,” she sneers and Mom throws her hands up.
“Enough. It’s over. Baby talk done. I’ll shelve it for another time.”
“It’s gonna be a while. No babies here,” Jude says.
“Or here. Make sure to dust that shelf, since no one is bringing it back up,” Jayden adds.
“Definitely not here. Say hello to your one and only baby doll.” Lucy cups Angie’s face. Angie sends a big, toothless grin to my mom and she smiles.
“And she’s more than enough, aren’t you, stinker?”
“Yup,” Angie cheers then as my mom’s smile grows. I know that her initial request wasn’t directed at me, but I decide to throw in too.
“Sorry, Mom. I can’t give you a baby either. No woman,” I tease and she smiles.
“Thank God. The world isn’t ready for another Jace Sinclair.” She pats my hand lightly and I scoff.
“For sure, man. That would be a spoiled, whiny-ass baby,” is Jude’s opinion.
“Annoying as hell too,” Lucy decides.
“Ugly as hell,” Jayden says with a shake of his head, which throws everyone into fits of laughter.
“Whatever, dude. You’re just jealous I’m hotter than you!”
But no one pays me any mind, and soon I’m laughing too as I look around the table at the people I love. I know I need to go soon; I need to set up and get ready for tonight, but as my gaze goes from person to person surrounding me, I decide I want to be nowhere else but here. Why would I want to change this insanity when they are my reason for smiling? No one can come close to my family. But as soon as that thought comes, a pair of turquoise green eyes appears in my head and then I’m really smiling.
Not sure what that’s all about, but I wan
t to find out.
And that means no matter how much I don’t want to leave, I have to.
Because I gotta save a beer for No Dating Diane.
After dinner, we only stay a little while longer before I say good-bye to everyone. As much as I want to hang out and chill, I have to get back to the house to prepare. My phone has been blowing up with questions from some of the guys, and honestly, I’m really reconsidering taking this leadership position. But I can’t. Both my brothers were captains of the Bullies before they went into the draft. It helped them in the long run—hell, there is even talk that Jayden will be the captain of the Nashville Assassins when the famous Shea Adler retires. That’s huge, and I want that. I want that security, so I need to work for it.
That’s the one thing about hockey.
It’s the only thing I’ll truly work for because it’s my one true love.
Hugging my sisters-in-law and then my sister, I kiss Angie before loving on my mom and sending an awkward wave to Coach. I’m trying not to be weirded out as I watch Coach help my mom clean the kitchen. Nope, I just wave and don’t make eye contact. But it’s weird, like, really weird.
“Do you think they’re dating?” I ask as Jude and Jayden walk with Markus and me out to my car.
“I don’t know. It’s odd,” Jude says, crossing his arms over his chest as Jayden nods.
“Baylor didn’t know anything. I asked.”
“Does she think so?” Markus asks and Jayden nods sullenly.
“Yeah, she said for her dad to clean up and be sober for something other than hockey, that means he likes her. Not sure how I feel about that.”
“I don’t like it,” Jude decides.
“It’s weird,” I say once more as I lean against the car, and they all nod in agreement. When Jayden’s eyes fall to my BMW, I see the question in them before he asks it.
“Where’d you get the wheels?”
I look down at my beauty of a car, the fading sun shining on the blue finish before I cross my own arms to match my big brothers’ stances. Markus must have felt the tension thicken in the air because he’s moved to the side of the car, almost as if he is trying to hide. But he is almost seven feet tall, a huge, burly dude—there is no hiding him if he tried.
“Dad bought it for me,” I say simply, because I have nothing to hide. Did I ask for it? No. But really, what nineteen-year-old turns down a new BMW?
Not this one.
Jayden looks away as Jude shakes his head in disgust. “He’s trying to buy your love, Jace. I hope you see that.”
I shrug. “Sure, but I needed a car. I’m too hot to be walking. Come on, dude.”
“So buy one. I told you, you can buy my bike off me.”
“And I said you could buy my car off me.”
I roll my eyes. “So either I pay you two or I get a free car? A slick, woman-getting one at that. I think I’ll go for the free, guaranteed pussy-wagon.”
I’m trying for a joke to lighten them up, to make them see it doesn’t matter, but all my comment does is piss them both off. But I don’t want to fight. I really don’t. What do they expect? If they were my age, they would have done the same. Hell, they did before my dad was a cheating bastard. “I’m doing the same thing y’all did.”
Man, I shouldn’t have said that.
Jayden is in my face in seconds, taking me by my shirt and lifting me up onto my toes. While Jayden is the chillest dude I know, he has a temper. And anything that deals with my dad brings out the crazy. “I worked for everything I have, and you know that. I didn’t and don’t take free handouts, especially from the dick that broke our mother’s heart.”
Jude’s hand comes to Jayden’s chest, stopping him, but his green eyes are wild and locked with mine. It is true; Jayden does work for everything he has because he wants to. Before, he didn’t want to owe anyone anything, and I respect that, I like that about him. But I don’t owe my dad shit.
“I never said you didn’t, Jay. I’m just saying, if Dad wants to buy my love, he can go ahead and try. I’ll answer the phone and say hi, but it doesn’t mean I like him much. I just needed a car.”
“Then you should have worked for it. Things aren’t gonna get handed to you because of who you are. You’ve had this easy life, Mom spoon-feeding you, up your ass twenty-four seven. Coaches dubbing you as the golden player and not making you work for things. You have been given everything, and soon there will be no one to do that for you. You have to work for what you want,” Jayden stresses. This isn’t the first time I have heard this.
“I hear you,” I groan because he’s been preaching that shit to me, hard, since last year. He took the divorce the hardest, and I get it. But damn, I’m tired of the broken record. “But I don’t know what the big deal is about taking a car when I need one to get around campus and shit.”
“Because you don’t need that asshole for anything.” His voice is full of venom, and it’s obvious who hates our dad the most.
It’s the big dude who has my shirt clenched in his even bigger hand.
“He’s our dad.” I don’t know why I say that. To them, he isn’t. But to me, he is. I want him to be the man I loved for so long, not the cheating bastard he is now. I’m still hoping he’ll turn back into that man. I know it’s dumb to hope that, naïve even, but I really wish it would happen.
“No. He’s a sperm donor, and you best remember that because if you keep on, he’ll hurt you. I promise you that,” Jude says this time, and it kind of surprises me. While he doesn’t get along with my father, he hardly ever talks badly about him. It’s usually just Jayden and Lucy. “We just want you to stand on your own two feet. You’ve been fed with a silver spoon your whole life. One day, you’re gonna have to support yourself, bro. Better start preparing for that. Mom isn’t going to be there to clean up your messes forever.”
I nod. “I got this.”
And I do. I’m good. I want to enjoy my last year of fun before it’s time to adult, but these two don’t want to give that to me. They want me to be them, and it’s not realistic. They had their time of fun, living off my dad. Why shouldn’t I get that? Because of a divorce I have nothing to do with? That’s not fair. I get what they are saying and I’m watching my back, but I’m not gonna refuse a free car. Or money.
“Have you gotten a job?” Jayden asks and I shrug.
“Working on it.”
That has both of them rolling their eyes, but my dad said he’d send me money. Why do I need a job? I’m not telling them that, though. I need to focus on hockey; I need to have fun. I’m still a kid, damn it!
“I hope so,” Jayden says and then his arms come around me, hugging me tightly. While he does have a scary temper, he loves harder. That’s Jayden for you. You take the crazy with the real good. He’s a good brother. A pain in the ass, a broken record, but a damn good brother. “I love you. Call me if you need anything.”
“Love you,” I mumble as he hugs me, and I know he’d rather I call him than my dad, but it’s just easier. I feel like my dad will give me what I want with no strings attached and no lecture. But with Jayden and Jude, I will have to pay them back, own up to what I need, and I don’t want their disappointment.
Jude takes me into his arms next, hugging me tightly. “I love you, Jace. We just want you to be a good man, you know that?”
“I do,” I say back and he hugs me harder. “And I love you too.”
Pulling back, he looks deep into my eyes, urging me to listen. “It seems great now. He’s doing everything, sending money and buying you shit. But he’ll burn you, and then what will you have? Nothing. So get it together now, prepare yourself, because that money train won’t last. Believe me. He’s burned us all. Plus, you don’t want to be that guy, the one who depends on other people. You are stronger than that.”
For fuck’s sake, I’m nineteen, people. Let me be a kid.
I can’t say that, and as I bite the inside of my cheek, I nod. “I hear you.”
“Good. I love you, do
rk. Call me if you need guidance on how to pick up chicks. I know you’re struggling with that.” His face breaks into a grin, and before I can push him away, he is tackle-hugging me again, squeezing me tightly.
“Remember, don’t be a fool, wrap up the tool…if you can even get that far,” Jayden jokes, and I break from Jude to push hard against his chest as he laughs, smacking the side of my neck with his big hand.
“And remember there are two holes. One is good, the other is also good, but most of the time, girls freak the hell out,” Jude says between laughs.
“Plus, the boobs are not handlebars, they are love cushions.” Jayden cups his own chest and I roll my eyes.
These guys are fucking sixteen-year-olds, not men.
“You guys are assholes,” I say as Markus wheezes on the car.
“Hey, we are trying to help,” Jude says. “Can’t send my brother out to lose his V-card and not know what to do.”
My jaw drops. “Dude, I’m not virgin.”
“Of course not,” Jayden says with a wink. “I’m sure some girl will believe that.”
Closing my eyes, I take in a deep breath as I shake my head. I want to chase them, but then my phone is vibrating in my pocket with text messages, and I know I need to go. Pulling it out, I see I’m right. Without looking up, I say, “I hate you both.”
“But we love you, Jace, so much,” they say together in a repulsive way that sets my teeth on edge. I swear they were put on this earth to drive me batshit.
Still though, I love them. “You guys don’t want to come tonight?”
Jude scoffs. “No way, Claire would throw a bitch fit.”
“And Baylor would help,” Jayden laughs. “No, we are gonna hang with Mom. Be old and shit.”
“Lame-ass bitches,” I tease, walking around to my car. “Fine, go put your tampon in, but if by chance you change your mind, come on out and watch your baby bro pull girls left and right.”
Markus heckles. “You couldn’t pull a wagon. Really, guys, he sucks at pulling girls. You failed him.”
I glare as Jude and Jayden chuckle. “I don’t like you.”
“I looooooooooove you,” Markus laughs as Jayden cups my shoulder.