The basketball hit the side of the rim but dropped in, and his brother pointed his finger to the sky.
“It’s not a championship,” Gabe mumbled, dribbling the ball. He lined up his throw and missed.
“Sorry about your luck there, bro.” Cole swiped at the ball and fired it over his head, landing the next basket. “I win!” His brother punched the air.
Gabe grabbed his beer from the deck, taking a long pull. For his brother, everything was a competition. Who could run furthest, who could ride their bike the fastest, and who could date the most girls. When they were kids, he was always out to prove that he was better than Gabe. As he got more into playing hockey, it was all about being the best.
Gabe was longer, leaner, and never cared about sports. His dad and brother called him a wuss. Gabe was good at school and didn’t want to bring any attention to himself, so he kept quiet while Cole loved the spotlight.
His brother and father never understood why he didn’t chase fame or money, but Gabe was comfortable in his skin, and the chase of the mission was fulfilling enough to him.
“So, was the ice cream any good?” Cole towelled off the sweat on his brow.
“What are you talking about?” Gabe turned away from the view of the water, cursing as his palm skimmed a splinter on the deck railing.
“Yesterday morning, you were eating ice cream with that cow on the beach. You haven’t broken up with her yet?”
Gabe glared at his brother, his skin heated by the anger humming through his body at that smirk on his face. He crossed his arms over his chest.
“How did you know?”
“You’re such a Luddite. She posted it, obviously.” Cole held his phone out to him, and Gabe snatched it out of his hand. His jaw clenched as he saw Ivy sitting on a bench, holding her tiger lily ice cream cone. She had captioned the photo with, ‘This is the sweet life.’
Gabe grunted and passed the phone back to Cole.
What was his Princess thinking? He told her he hated her posting about them on social media, and she kept doing it.
They were kinky in the bedroom, and he controlled her orgasms, but they didn’t have a set of rules to follow beyond that, even though Ivy had brought up how she wanted more structure.
He didn’t see how she could follow rules if she couldn’t respect his wish of not posting about their life every moment.
“Where is she? Why wouldn’t she come to your send-off dinner?”
“Ivy’s at work.”
“Hey, leave him alone, Cole. If he wants a sugar mama, that’s his own business.” Their dad joined them on the deck. “Your mother made money and left with it.”
Gabe turned his back on them, looking over to where kids were building sandcastles. He clenched his jaw and tried to breathe. His dad claimed their mother was selfish and only wanted to make money. That’s exactly what his dad cared about, so it was an odd argument.
It wasn’t until Gabe met Jordan and his friend pointed out how false the narrative his dad had spewed all these years that Gabe realized how toxic his dad was. Things were still tense between him and his mom. He hadn’t seen her in years.
“The chick also made me money,” Cole said. “So I guess if you’re happy sitting at home gaming, that’s fine.” He and his Dad laughed as if that was the funniest thing, but the tension climbed up to Gabe’s neck.
Gabe never understood his brother’s dislike of Ivy, other than Cole was just that superficial of a person. His dad didn’t like how opinionated she was, and Ivy reminded him too much of their mother. Gabe frowned, realizing that Ivy had a lot in common with his mom for the first time.
“I signed on with Ribbon of Aid today.”
“Good.” His brother crossed and stood right beside him. “See that you don’t screw this up. Did you meet the whole team?”
“No.” He checked his watch. Ivy said she’d be here.
“Yeah, I’m putting my name on this. It’s going to bring me more connections.”
“I wish you all the happiness,” Gabe said sarcastically.
“All right, boys, I’m putting on the steaks. Is she coming or not?”
“I don’t know, Dad. We can cook something for her when she gets here.”
