“I might be more like you,” he said, laughing and looking at Archer.
“Don’t encourage him,” she said. “How is your sister doing? Archer, Jayce has a twin sister.”
“You do?” Archer asked. “I wish I had a brother or sister. Someone to hang out with other than Mom.”
“I think your mom is pretty cool,” he said, winking at her. “And Jocelyn is doing well. Gabe just had a baby less than two weeks ago.”
“Gabedid?” she asked, wiggling her eyebrows.
“No. His wife, Elise, did. I’ve got myself a nephew. Hunter James.”
“That’s great. What about Jocelyn, is she married or have kids? I never asked about you.”
Her eyes dropped to his left hand again. She’d done it earlier when he’d looked for a ring on hers.
“Jocelyn isn’t married, but she’s in a relationship. I’m single. Never been married either. Kind of hard to have relationships when more than half your life is on the road for longer than half a year.”
Very few would put up with it for long.
Many said they could handle it, but it never worked out.
If they weren’t lonely with him gone, then they were jealous of him being out with other players, thinking he was cheating when he never did.
He never would either.
Which made what happened with Levi even harder for him to accept to get lumped into someone else’s drama.
He should have seen it coming. He could have even ridden it out.
But instead it was time to walk away and swallow the pain that maybe he wasn’t strong enough to balance it all.
“Mom and Dad divorced when I was three,” Archer said.
“How old are you?” he asked. It was hard for him to tell, the kid was so tall.
“I’m eight. How old are you?”
“Archer, you don’t ask that. And Jayce and I went to school together. We are the same age.”
“Thirty-four,” Archer said. “I know that.”
“And you tell everyone,” she said, rolling her eyes.
“Not anymore. You told me I couldn’t.”
“What am I missing?” he asked, his eyes moving from one of them to the other. The identical smirks had him grinning.
“When Archer was younger, we’d be out and he’d just chat with anyone. Like he still does. But it was his favorite thing to say my name and how old I am.”
“Why?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” she said. “Why, Archer?”
He shrugged. “Dad thought it was funny. He liked it when I told everyone my father was a doctor.”
“No,” she said. “We don’t do that. Even if he likes it, I don’t care. It’s rude. It’s like you're bragging and there is no reason for it.”
“Your ex is a doctor?” he asked.
