About an hour and several tequila shots later, the sleepover started to morph into something any unrespectable male only dreamed of. The paperwork from the special box where Storm had discovered her father’s infidelity was now spread out across the table and onto the floor. The bedroom was a mess with clothes everywhere. At Storm’s request, both Molly and I had joined her to try on outfits for the weekend. We then danced around the room in our underwear, singing (badly) to a selection of songs played through the Alexa whilst getting more drunk. It was great fun, and the fuzz I had been given from the bottle of spirits was a welcome one as I slumped down onto the floor and pushed my back against the bed.
Molly and Storm were over by the dressing table, where Molly clutched the picture of Reed and held it in front of her face. Her impression of him wasborderline ridiculous, and I laughed along with them as I grabbed a pile of old photographs by the side of the spilled box of secrets.
I wondered how the boys were getting on. My phone had been quiet for the last hour, but both Molly's and Storm’s had pinged away. Should I be jealous that they were getting more attention than I? Probably, but it wasn’t as if I was unused to that.
Hazily scanning through the pictures in my hand, I glanced down at what looked like a medal that had fallen by my foot as one of my favorite Nickelback songs came on.
Leaning over, I picked it up by the rainbow-colored ribbon. It was gold and shiny and fit perfectly in my palm. That urge to take itsurgedthrough me. To be honest, I had felt the need to take something as soon as Storm came out of the bathroom. The dress ring with the large diamond-looking stone, which she had on in the car that day, was now hanging around her neck on a chain. But apart from ripping the chain from her throat, there was no way I’d be able to easily take it. No, the medal would have to do, for now.
Glancing at the girls, I could see their attention was now taken up with the other pictures on the corkboard, the ones from school. Molly was pointing to a snap of Storm and Tate, and her nose was wrinkled in distaste as Storm said something to her. I couldn’t hear due to the loud music.
Skimming my finger across the surface of the medal, I saw it was a college, ‘coming first’ award. Something to do with sports, considering the image of the football on there. That feeling to steal it was so strong that I discarded it and dragged a pile of scattered photographs across the floor towards me.
They were taken at a college football game, from the size of the stadium. They were clearly old, some stained at the corners, and I felt a twinge of sadness. Why had they not been looked after? Photographs were memories. I’d sell my soul to have the ones back of my family, before they’d been destroyed in the fire.
There weren’t any of theother womenin there; they were all football players. Boring.
And then I came to the last one, and I flinched as my heart almost stalled.
I flicked a glance of shock towards Storm and Molly, who were now rearranging the collage of pictures on the corkboard.
Swallowing, I glanced back down at the image in my hand. It was a picture of a strong young male. He was standing with a sponsor in front of a sports stand. The player had dark hair and brown eyes (whisky-colored), and was holding a brass statue of a football player with the words Butkus Award etched beneath it.
My heart began to race in my chest as I stared at the image of a young Dominic Summers and how proud he looked.
He was breathtaking, an image of an elite athlete who oozed confidence and pride.
And he was thespitting imageof Phoenix Carter, a boy whocouldhave been his son and the possible result of an affair that was, after I redid the math,nineteen yearsago?
If I was right, the truth of what that made Storm to Nix, hit me like a bullet.
PHOENIX
After I sent my last message to Harper to apologize for being so withdrawn, I waited for her reply, but the two ticks to say she’d read it didn’t appear. I held back my smile. She was probably ignoring me on purpose, trying to drag shit out as chicks did.
Rolling my eyes, I pocketed my phone and jogged towards the stairs to meet my brothers in the den. Despite the Coach’s rules about not drinking before the gamethat weekend, we’d decided to have a quick tipple before heading off to the movies to see Jaws on the big screen.
Over the last few days, I’d been struggling to comprehend my mother’s bullshit, and so I’d done what I usually did: swallowed those feelings and avoided dissecting the situation. That’s why I had put Harper at arm's length again. I was a moody fucker when I didn’t understand something, and I refused to ruin the truce we had going on. I’d done the same with Hudson to a certain extent. Harper and Hud were the only two people who saw beneath my bullshit, and I needed to get things right in my head before I invited them back in.
So, I had kept my distance.
“Nix, you’ve got a visitor,” Hudson's voice drifted up from downstairs. The hairs on my arms stood on end as a breeze hit me on the stairwell. As I turned the corner and made my way down the last few steps, Hudson was standing with the front door open. I couldn’t see who was on the porch as his broad shoulders and massive fucking head were in the way. I sure hoped it wasn’t Courtney.
And then a surge of panic mixed with excitement thumped through me. I had left her my address; maybe it was my mother? But that strange feeling was short-lived.
As Hudson stepped back, I almost collapsed into a heap as Alex, my half-brother, stood there.What the actual fuck?
Hudson glanced between us with a confused expression as I powered towards them. The frown on my face was so hard it hurt, and I knew I needed to calm down. I didn’t want to scare the boy off before finding out what the fuck he was doing at my house.
My eyes drilled into the top of my brother’s head, myrealbrother, and a muscle hammered in my cheek. “Alex, what are you doing here?” I said, stepping around Hudson and placing my arm on the doorframe.
“Thanks, I got this,” I said to Hud.
My foster brother nodded and pointed a thumb towards the back, where the den was. “I’ll go tell the others you need five, OK?”
“Yeah. I won’t be long,” I reassured him, trying to tramp down that bitter taste in my mouth.
Hudson knew I had a half-brother, and as he didn’t question me, I could tell from his soft expression that he knew who my unexpected caller was. Hudson rarely did soft.
