One day I’d live an authentic life, but while playing professionally…. I shuddered at the thought. That would not be happening. Ever.
“You need an intervention?” Sutton eased back and stretched his arm out across the booth.
“No.” I rolled my eyes and took a swig of beer.
“Seriously, man, I know you’ve never been one to party, but… I don’t know, since the beginning of the season, something’s changed.”
Knowing he was right, I held my breath, my gut somersaulting. And looking at these blokes who I considered friends, maybe I could share a bit of honesty. “I became an uncle just after the New Year.”
“No shit!” Jayden’s brows rose high, while Sutton’s plummeted so low I could barely see the whites of his eyes.
“Why the secret?”
I lifted one shoulder in a barely there shrug. “Not a secret so much as a surprise and me getting my head around it.”
“Explain.”
I smirked at Sutton’s one-word order before telling them about my little sister and her not telling me she was pregnant. I explained how she was already doing an online course studying to be a veterinary nurse. As I spoke, I saw questions forming in their eyes. The big one was why the fuck I hadn’t known.
“Photos.” Sutton held his hand, indicating my phone.
So relieved the questions I was sure were coming hadn’t started yet, I tugged my phone out of my jeans and opened it up to my text messages. I hesitated before clicking on Nate’s name. He was the one who regularly sent me photographs and short videos, and when I thought about it, it was usually a few times a week.
I touched the photo of Ivy I’d woken to this morning. She had the basketball player plushie I’d sent in her hand, the foot of it in her mouth. “Here.” I handed it over. “Work backward.”
The pair of them did so, heads together and mouths tilted in goofy smiles. I couldn’t help but grin that these two guys, both over six foot five and solid and focused men at that, were all but clucking over the photo.
I got it, though. My niece was the prettiest baby ever, not too dissimilar from her mum. My and Amber’s age gap had meant I’d looked after her, cared for her a lot from the moment she was born. It wasn’t till we’d moved in with Gran and Mum had finally up and left—perhaps the nicest thing she’d ever done for us—that I’d come to appreciate my little sister was kinda sweet rather than being a burden.
“She’s a cute kid,” Sutton said, looking at me. “Fortunately, there’s no resemblance to her uncle.”
I flipped him off.
“Hell, your sister’s hot, man. No wonder you’ve been hiding her away.” Jayden bounced his brows up and down.
“Stop doing that. You look ridiculous and gross, man. She’s eighteen, my kid sister.”
“Looks like a MIL—”
Sutton smacked Jayden around the head before I could, cutting him off.
“Hey, I was only saying she’s hot.”
I rolled my eyes at him.
“So, who’s the guy?”
I frowned at Sutton’s question. “I already told you she doesn’t know who the dad is.” While that wasn’t the greatest thing ever to admit about my sister, I wasn’t ashamed of her. Despite her falling pregnant, she’d promised she’d been as careful as she could be with condoms, but clearly one just didn’t work out. The last thing I wanted to think about was her sexing it up either, especially with a couple of guys, but hell, I’d got my cock sucked by absolute strangers in incognito gay bars over the years. I was the last person to judge.
“No.” He shook his head and thrust my phone out so I could see. “This guy here.”
I zeroed in on a photo of Nate cradling Ivy against his bare chest. When I’d opened the text, I’d almost swallowed my tongue at the sight of so much flesh. My gaze had then drifted to my niece, and my heart had flipped that he was stepping up for my sister so massively.
I’d never be able to repay him for all he’d done,wasdoing.
I cleared my throat and dragged my gaze away, looking up to see both men’s focus was intent on me. “That’s Nate.” Both sets of brows lifted, making it clear they expected more from me. “We were best friends growing up. Since I left, he’s been looking out for my sister and Gran. He, uhm, actually moved in with them just before Ivy was born.” And wasn’t that something.
Nate was still the best man I knew, and that he was still there, looking after everyone, something I should have been doing, made my insides twist in knots.
