ChapterOne
BODE
It’s the perfect day. Basking in the sunshine, with a cold beer in hand, there’s worse ways to be spending a Saturday afternoon than hanging out at my pool.
Happy shouts from the kids splashing in the cool water echo around the yard. Most of my teammates and their families are here. Dax is playing with Marcus’s kids, and Jasper is standing and talking with Noah and Graham while manning the grill.
“Will you play with us, Bode?” Sam asks.
A pair of goggles sits on her forehead, hair sticking to her face.
“What do you want to play?” I lean forward, dropping my feet in the water.
“How about chicken?”
“Chicken? What’s that?”
If I’m using the pool, it’s usually to stay in shape during the offseason. It’s an easy way to get a workout in without having to go into the gym. I never actually play in it.
“We sit on your shoulders and try to push the other off.” Sam looks at me like I should know this.
“Who would you be pushing off?” I ask.
“Sadie. She’ll sit on Uncle Dax’s shoulders.”
“Is this safe?” I ask.
“What have we told you girls about playing this game?” Harper comes up from behind me, arms crossed with a fierce look on her face.
“Ahh, nuts,” Sadie says. At least, I think it’s Sadie. Honestly, it’s hard to tell these two apart sometimes. Identical twins and all.
Sam gives a sigh. “That we’re not allowed to play it because then Jamie will want to play and he’s too little.”
“Maybe after he goes down for a nap, okay?” Marcus comes up behind Harper and wraps his arms around her waist.
“Yes!” The twins pump their arms in unison as I hop up from the side of the pool. The girls start splashing Dax, who gives it right back to them. “Can we play with the big chess set after we swim?”
“Sure can,” I tell them.
“You don’t ever want this?” Marcus asks, nudging me in the side as I drop my sunglasses over my eyes.
“Fuck, no. Can you imagine me with a kid?”
Marcus laughs. “It’s why we don’t let you babysit the girls.”
I shrug a shoulder. “I’d be offended if it weren’t true.”
“You’ll want it one day,” Harper says, without looking at me.
“Will I?” I quirk a brow at the two of them. The two of them were made to be parents. They’re great at it. Me? I can’t even manage uncle duty.
“I can’t wait for the day when you’ll eat your words.”
“I don’t think that day will ever come.” I clap him on the back. “Because I can do whatever the hell I want without anyone telling me what I can’t do.”
“Whatever you say, Bode. Whatever you say.”
Marcus backs away from me as one of the kids does a cannonball into the pool. This is what I’m good at. Having my teammates over at my house and throwing a killer party? Yeah, this I can do.
