“So, my brother didn’t murder you and stuff you down the elevator shaft?”

I looked to my right to find Geneva standing at my elbow. She reached past me with the tongs to snag more bacon and brushed my arm. Every cell in my body woke up and sang her name. I was getting into her way too deeply, unable to save myself despite the riptides and strong currents I sensed ahead.

“Not yet,” I said. “But the day is still young.” I managed a smile, and she graced me with a return grin. Just one tiny smile from her turned a cloudy day into a sunny one with birds singing.

“How did he take it?”

“Hard to say. He did admit he needed to file for divorce.”

“That’s a step in the right direction.”

“Yeah, the whole thing is fucking sad, though, especially because of the kids.” I didn’t feel good about my role in all this, despite my ignorance as to who Bria was. In fact, I felt damn shitty about what I’d done to a teammate. I might be a player, but I wasn’t the type of guy who did my playing in a teammate’s backyard.

“It is, but it’s best for everyone. I’m pretty sure the older kids knew she was screwing around on their dad. In fact, she used Teagan as a decoy a few times in order to meet with random guys.” Before we’d left on this last road trip, Teagan had admitted to being an unwitting pawn in her mother’s infidelity game.

“Now that really sucks.”

“It does. Mothers should be better than that.”

“Mine wasn’t. I haven’t seen my mother since I was nine or ten. She walked out on my dad and never looked back.”

“I didn’t know that. We have something in common. My mom ran off with a biker as soon as I came home from the hospital.”

Our eyes met, bound together by our shared misery and lack of mothering, among other more positive things.

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“Don’t be. She’s not worth the effort.”

Regardless, a girl needed her mother, a lot more than a guy did, in my estimation, but what the hell did I know? I’d grown up all right, and by what I’d seen, so did Geneva. Even if we did have our fears and Mommy issues.

Chapter 14—Second-Favorite Sport

~~Axel~~

I dreaded my after-practice hour with Jock today. I tried to get out of it by claiming I needed to spend extra time with a team physical therapist, but Ice overheard me and put a stop to it. I resigned myself to my fate rather than being labeled a whiner. I toweled off after regular practice and waited for Jock to finish his conversation with Coop.

While most of the veterans avoided me, they didn’t seem as angry as they had collectively at breakfast. Jock was treating me as if nothing happened with his usual animosity, so perhaps they’d surmised Bria was a liar.