“I’m so glad you decided to come back to Dallas,” I told Beau as I sprayed and wiped down the counter. “And those idiots in there, too.” Knowing that I eventually wanted to settle in the DFW area, my brother had opened his own security company, DFW Security Force, here last year after he left the navy. The other “uncles” worked for him now.

I did a mental headcount. “Hey, where’s Bode?” I asked, realizing who was missing.

Beau grinned at me. “He had a date. Put on cologne and fixed his hair and everything. We gave him so much shit about it.”

“Y’all are just wrong,” I said as we walked back into the living room. Having abandoned the broom, the guys now had Carrie shooting the cheese balls into the trash can like mini basketballs. She made one from pretty far out, and her little face stretched into a wide, proud grin.

Woody was commentating in his best sports announcer’s voice. “Cavanaugh takes the pass. She shoots. She scores. And the crowd goes wiiiiiild!” Woody picked a giggling Carrie up under her arms and held her over his head as the rest of the guys made ‘AHHHHHHHH’ noises to simulate the crowd sound.

I loved that my daughter was so happy with this big, goofy family full of adopted uncles that adored her. Who the hell needed Axel Broxton anyway?

11. Axel

Axel

A couple of days after I revealed what I suspected about Blaire’s husband to my brother, he called me back for a chat.

“Bro, I really don’t think you should say anything to her because you just don’t have enough information. Maybe you could… I don’t know… just talk with her when you see her at the practice facility. Kind of feel her out about her relationship. Maybe she’ll let something slip.”

I agreed that might be the best plan of action and was determined to spend some time with Blaire. To be entirely honest, it wasn’t just to pick around the edges of her marriage situation. After being separated for five years, I just wanted to be fucking close to her. Well, I wanted to do a lot more than that, but the fact that she was freaking married was a bit of a deterrent.

The only problem was that I barely got to see Blaire when she was at the facility. She stayed busy tending to injured players, and they had all started calling her Li’l Doc now. They also flirted endlessly with her just to aggravate me, but I did my best not to react, as that would only make them worse. I was tempted to fake an injury just to get time with Blaire, but then I might get put on the injured reserve list.