“Can we play monster when we get there?”
Monster. The dumbass game I’d invented when she was little. I’d never live it down. I had to walk like a zombie and pretend to get her while sounding like aWalking Deadcharacter. “Please, please, please!”
“Maybe. If you can sing my favorite song to me.”
“Hey now, you’re an all-star.”
“That’s my girl. I am an all-star.”
We made the short trip to the neighborhood park after it took ten minutes to put on my brace. I despised the mechanical piece, but it let me still do active things—like take my favorite mini-human outside. I sent a quick text to her mom. I spent most of the time away playing ball and another wave of remorse hit me. I hated leaving Quinn during the season.Hated it.And I needed to cherish the little moments. I only got to babysit her from November to February, and I wanted her to love every second with me.
I had to make up the time for not being there much because of the injury.The fucking injury, root of my problem.I smiled when she forced me to watch her go down the slide, and jump off the swing, and do ten cartwheels…but I did. I smiled like hell and instantly became her biggest fan. Because if a seven-year-old could love me, then I wasn’t a total piece of shit, despite what my coach and teammates must think.Why did I blow up at them? And on camera?One bad day could ruin my future. “Mr. Titan?”
“What?” My entire body stiffened at the interruption of my self-deprecating thoughts. I had never gotten used to it—the photo requests, autographs, smiling and touching strangers. But I was scolded for not being morefan-friendly.This kid appeared to be about ten or so, and I wiped my hands on my pants. I could play nice for a kid. “How’s it going?”
“I can’t b-believe I’m meeting you. I’m a huge fan. The hugest. Are you feeling better? How’s your leg?” He pointed to the wrong one, without the injury, and his entire face paled. I held out my hand, forcing myself to smile.
“Love meeting fans. I’m working on getting better. What’s your name?”
“Peter O’Callahan, sir.”
“Well, Peter, thanks for rooting for me. I need to hang out with my family so we’ll talk later, okay?”
“Sure thing!” He smiled and showcased his missing teeth, and ran off toward a nervous-looking woman, who I assumed was his mom. I diverted my attention back to Quinn, and had to go through five more experiences like that before everyone took off, leaving just the two of us in the park.Thank god.
The older carbon copy of Quinn met us there with a wave a short time later. Quinn dangled from the monkey bars from one hand, and I knew a lecture was on the way. In three, two, one. She opened her mouth but I held up a hand. “Cheryl. Don’t start—”
“I told you…” and I tuned my older sister out. Quinn and I shared a look.Here we go again.Cheryl lectured about safety and Quinn and I disregarded it every time. We all knew I would do damn near anything for Quinn. She was perfectly safe with me. Shit—Cheryl worked as a nurse and spent an insane number of hours at the hospital. Quinn had suffered a life-altering papercut once in myentiretime watching her. So Cheryl could calm the hell down. “Gid! Do you even listen to anyone besides your own ego?”
“Woah, shots fired.” I shook off her comment even though it hurt to hear. My ego—a topic of popular conversation between her and my coaches. They all harped on at me aboutsorting outmy priorities. Quinn played the role of obnoxious older sister a little too well.She has to without having parents around…My heart clenched.
It irked me because she wasn’t the only one who’d said shit like that to me lately. My agent, older teammates—even my recent hookup had said‘I can’t believe you’re still on the team after what you said to Tate. He’s like a living legend here.’I shook the memory away.
But I did what I did best and forgot about it. More self-critical thoughts would come later, after a drink or two—that was for sure—but I always chose to live in the present. “Come on down, Quinn.Motheris here.”
“Mother.” Quinn mocked and I got a deserved smack to the arm. I hid my chuckle until I got a closer look at Cheryl’s face. She had been crying.Shit.
“What gives?” I set Quinn down and she took off toward the swings.
“Nothing. Let’s just watch Quinn for a bit.” She brushed me off, the Titan family trait we all succeeded at. I put my hand on her shoulder and stopped her from walking away.
“Spill it,” I demanded. My sister and her spawn might annoy me, but no one messed with them.No one.
She rubbed the bridge of her nose for a solid five seconds and a bubble of worry formed in my chest. Thoughts snowballed, one idea worse than the other, and my anxiety took hold of all my senses. “Cheryl, please.”
“It’s…it’s Quinn’s father.”
“What does that piece of shit want?”Piece of shit. Scum of the earth. Asshole. Liar. Sleazebag. Any name works.
She met my eyes, her deep brown ones filling with pure fear. “He wants custody. Vic wants custody and I-I can’t l-lose Quinn.” Her entire body began shaking and I put my arm around her.I will kill this guy. Fuck Vic.
“He can’t get full custody, right.? He hasn’t fucking been around in seven years. Best-case scenario, he gets supervised visits.” I held her tighter. “I’ll help any way I can. You know this.”
“Rationally, I know he can’t. But there is a small part of me with thewhat ifand my world crashes down. I c-can’t imagine my l-life with her.” Her chin met her chest and soft sobs came out. I rubbed her shoulder and kept an eye out for Quinn. My heart ached for her—Cheryl had escaped a bad situation when she left Vic. He would not win this case. No sane lawyer would think he had a chance. An unsettling, disgusting thought entered my mind about his intentions, but I didn’t voice it. I would do my own research. Cheryl needed to focus on Quinn and that was it.
“We’ll figure it out. Do you need to go pull yourself together somewhere? Get your nails done or a drink? I can stay with Quinn. Hell, she can spend the night if you want.”
“I appreciate the offer, Gid, but I think it’ll be best for me to be with her. Get as many cuddles as I can.” She gave me a small smile and I observed her put her mask on. She straightened her spine, wiped under her eyes and took a long breath before she made her way to Quinn. Pride bloomed in my chest.Cheryl defines supermom.
