And he was caught.
His father shook his head, but a soft chuckle squeezed through the disappointment.
The general conversation around the table was unremarkable. Typical gushing about Nico’s prowess on the field, how various members of the congregation had been doing, and Natalie’s day-to-day life as a school teacher to Floridian middle-schoolers.
And then it shifted to something a little more uncomfortable.
Natalie took a sip of wine—how she got away with that in their father’s house, Nico did not know. “I’ve been studying the clocks on your arm.”
Nico glanced down at his arm which was entirely covered by the sleeve of his grey hoodie. He looked back to his sister with squinted eyes.
“I think it’s nice,” she continued.
Nico didn’t enjoy talking about such things, which is why he never explicitly told anyone the symbolism behind his tattoo. There were nine clocks inked into his skin, but only five of them had hands. Each finished clock pointed to the month and day of his family’s birthdays. All five of them, even the one who ran away.
“Four of them don’t have birthdays,” his father pointed out. “Are you trying to give us a hint?”
Clearly, the two of them had discussed Nico’s tattoo.
“What are you trying to ask?” Nico questioned.
“Someday, you’ll have a wife and kids,” his father said. “Sooner rather than later, I hope.”
“You’re going to be waiting a while.” Nico reached for a glass of water and took a long gulp as his father’s attention shifted to Natalie.
“Don’t look at me.” She pressed her hands against her chest and shook her head. “I’ve already told you. After being around children all day, I will not be having children of my own. That is not on the menu. It is not my plan. It is not God’s plan. It is absolutely not happening.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” Their father cleaned his hands with a napkin. “Of course you will.”
“No dad,” she said flatly. “I won’t.”
Nico lay in the full-size bed of his childhood bedroom, unable to sleep despite the fact he had slept for a grand total of thirty minutes in the last thirty-six hours. The yellow glow from the streetlight outside slipped through a crack in the curtains that he was too tired to get up to close.
He didn’t hate his family. Not even close. Though, he wished he did. It’d simplify a lot of things in his life.
Natalie, from a young age, was adamant she never wanted to be a mother. She changed so much in her teen years and early adulthood, but that was the one thing that remained unchanged. With the odds of Elon ever waking up close to zero percent, that left Nico alone to continue the Fallon bloodline as their father was an only child.
Simple enough because Nico actually wanted kids sometime far in the future.
But… Gay. Bi. Whatever.
Things were complicated.
What if Nico ultimately ended up with a man? Sure, they could adopt but that would never be enough for his father who took great pride in the bloodline of the Fallon lineage. What if things with Cooper Callahan turned into something far more serious, but Cooper would cry that he was too old and too cranky to raise children? Not that Nico was thinking that far ahead, not when it came to his former coach whom he hated as much as he lusted after.
Things would’ve been easier if Elon was still kicking.
Elon was a hornball—even hornier than Nico, as if that were fucking possible. Surely, his brother would have had children by now if he was able to. Hell, the odds were favorable that there were little Elon’s running around somewhere. Elon’s decisions the night he decided to drink and drive reshaped everyone’s world who knew him, but none more than Nico.
Nico, who dreamed of being an astronaut, a writer, an olympian track star, and a stripper—in that order—was forced to become a football star, to live the life Elon couldn’t. Now, it seemed he was going to be forced down the path of marriage and children to appease his father.
Sometimes, it fucking sucked being a people pleaser.
Chapter Fifteen
december 2021 - columbus
Cooper did not havetime for Nico’s bullshit, but sitting in the back of the luxury sedan, there wasn’t much else he could do. He was going to be about twenty minutes past call-time for the home game against the Hollywood Knights and ignoring the notificatiosn from Nico didn’t change that.
