I’m ninety-nine percent sure there’s something wrong with me. Sitting here right now, I shouldn’t be hesitating to try to look for Finn the way I always do, if only to give him a very friendly, supportive wave. That’s the last thing I’m going to do, though. Not with Brielle staring at me smugly like she can read my mind or with the funky-ass emotional roller coaster I’ve taken a seat on.
Without my work to distract me and the privacy to pretend Brielle’s been blabbing off helplessly the way she always does when it comes to me and Finn, I’m left a damn mess. It’s all this dating and pressure to find someone in such a short time. I tell myself that her teasing has only affected me like this because my emotions are such a mess.
Yeah, that’s it.
“Go, Dad! Go!” Sara screams, both of her arms shooting into the air.
I lean away from her and grin, letting her pull my mind from that dangerous black hole. “A little louder and he might hear you.”
She takes my words to heart and repeats the words louder this time, until I hear them piercing through my eardrums. Still, I encourage her to keep going, knowing that these memories are going to be some of her favourites ten years from now.
After Jett makes his first swing and sends a ball off into foul territory, he turns toward our section. Whether or not he can truly see her, he flashes an enormous grin that I know she takes as her own. The little girl claps her hands at her chest and leans into me, nearly buzzing.
“He saw!”
I rub her upper back and nod, staring out at the field. It’s impossible to worry about anything when there’s such happiness around me. That’s why I love coming to these games so much.Even when it’s not Finn out there, I’m still smiling out at the players who mean the world not only to him but to me, too.
This is my family right here. Found and kept for as long as they’ll have me.
14
“What happens now?You wait to see if he fucks up?” I ask around a hot mouthful of pizza.
The burn on my tongue makes the words sound lisped. I swallow the scalding cheese and reach for my Dr Pepper, gulping it down. The bubbles make the heat feel worse before soothing it, granting me the ability to feel my mouth again.
Aubrey watches me with a smirk and blows softly onto her slice before sobering. “Unfortunately. It makes me sound like a terrible person, but that’s what I’m hoping for. Men like Kevin don’t change. I’ve seen it a thousand times. This is nothing but a self-righteous attempt to feel better about himself after abandoning his son. If it was genuinely about wanting a relationship with Nathan, he’d have gone about this differently. Before he filed for custody, Lydia wasn’t even under the impression he was back in town. I want nothing more than to be wrong and for him to have actually put in the work to sober up for his son, but I don’t think that’s what this is. Dragging his son into this mess so soon after losing his mother is cruel, even for an absentee drunk.”
“You’ll nail him to the wall, Bree. I almost wish I could have been there in court to watch.”
“I wouldn’t have been able to concentrate with your giggling,” she jokes, finally taking a bite of her pizza.
“I don’tgiggle. I laugh deeply.”
“If that makes you feel better, then sure, honey.”
I knock her shoulder and scowl. “You’re hurting my ego.”
“It could use a bit of poking. Surely, I’ll be able to make it pop one of these days.”
Aubrey rolls her eyes at me before taking another bite. The thin crust sags beneath the weight of the extra cheese we had put on, and my stomach growls for the millionth time since we got to her place. Despite already having chowed down on four slices, I’m reaching for another before she can finish her second. With my legs spread, my knee bumps into hers when I reach across her lap to the box.
“Not happening. As long as I can keep eating like this and still keep my Superman physique, you’ll be left wanting.”
“Yeah, thanks for the reminder that this is going right to my ass while you wake up to a ninth ab tomorrow.”
I cock a brow at her, already moving my next slice toward my lips. Pausing, I pray the grease doesn’t drip all over her white couch and say, “It won’t go to your ass. And even if it did, it wouldn’t change anything.”
“What does that mean?” she asks, slightly prickled.
Frustration blooms in my chest at my inability to clarify better. In all honesty, I don’t want to overstep my bounds as her best friend. The friendship between us has kept quite a few compliments left unsaid over the years, and honestly, it’s a disservice to her to think for even a half second that I’m not aware of how beautiful she is.
I may be her best friend, but I’m also a hot-blooded male who’s been here through nearly every stage of her life. When I was popping random boners in class, she was starting to wear training bras. I was watching porn for the first time while shewas kissing Brad Crowley behind the smoker pit during the first week of grade ten. Then, she was wearing her first bikini at my parents’ lake house the summer we turned seventeen, and I was disappearing into the guest house to jerk off so I didn’t scar her with my strong reaction.
Sure, it’s easier to keep myself under control knowing that what we have needs to be platonic, but shit. I’m a man, and she might possibly be the most gorgeous woman I’ve ever seen.
As the years have gone on, it’s gotten more challenging to hide the intense physical reactions I have to her, but I must be doing an alright enough job if she’s this naïve to them. It’s not like I can stop. Not when she’s been handcrafted by Aphrodite herself.
Aubrey’s gone her entire life with a curvy figure, but over the last decade, she’s become something out of a wet dream. She has wide hips, thighs thick enough to stretch the fabric of any tight skirt she slips on, and the ass she’s so scared of seeing get plump is rounder than any of the ones I’m forced to see in the clubhouse. Her standing only a few inches shorter than me is a turn-on in itself, but in addition to everything else? It’s no wonder men stare at her everywhere she goes, watching her like they’re considering jumping in front of a bus just for a chance to speak with her.
