“Tatum said she’s been staying with you,” he says quietly.
“She was. But she’s back in Vegas.” My brows crinkle together as my grip tightens on my phone.
“I know. I just wanted to say thank you for being there for her.”
“We’ve always been close. You know that.”
“How close?” he asks.
“What are you asking?” I ask carefully.
“I know you’re in love with her.” His voice is an accusation, one I won’t even pretend to deny.
“And?” I ask, not quite sure where this is going. It’s a clear admission, and maybe it’s my way of tempting him to tell me what the fuck I should do about it.
He’s quiet a long beat, and in the time of his pause, I wonder why he bothered to call me at all. And then his words come. “I told her yesterday that I just want her to be happy.”
“I don’t know what you’re trying to say.”
“I’m saying I wanted to be that guy for her, but she assured me it’s over. If that guy is you, I don’t want to be the one who stands in the way for either of you.”
“Oh,” I grunt, not sure what else to say. Whatisthere to say in response to your brother telling you that he knows you’re in love with his ex and it’s okay to give it a shot?
It’s not exactly the call I was expecting.
“Anyway, I’m hanging up now.” He sighs.
“Wait,” I say, and the other line isn’t dead yet.
“What?” he asks.
“What happened with you and Dad?”
“Ask Tatum. I told her. I shouldn’t discuss it over the phone. Didn’t our old man teach you anything?”
I can’t help a chuckle at that—a chuckle at a tiny bit of understanding when it comes to Archer. He shut himself off because of our family, but maybe also becausehe had to. Madden, Dex, and Everleigh learned the hard way when they each almost lost what they cared about most because of their loyalty to our family. I’m not sure yet where I fall on that scale, but Archer managed to figure it out before any of us.
Longer than any of us ever even began to question things, I think.
“When did you know?” I ask quietly.
“Know what?” he asks.
“That we would be better off without him.”
“The day I chose baseball over football. I need to go.”
He cuts the call, and I think back to high school. I was two years older than him, and he played both football and baseball his freshman and sophomore years. He was good enough to make varsity for both sports, but junior year was when he needed to get serious about one sport or the other.
I’d already chosen football. I knew that was my path. I was a multi-sport athlete in my younger years, too, but colleges started looking at me more seriously my junior year, so that was the make-or-break time when student-athletes had to choose the path that would pave the way for college and beyond. Workouts got more intense, more strategic, more specific to help with training for particular positions.
I wanted to be a tight end, so I had to focus on my lower body for blocking, whereas a baseball player would beprioritizing upper body strength and shoulder mobility. It was these types of specific workouts that divided our paths.
And when Archer chose baseball, it looked an awful lot like our father froze him out. He wanted five football players, I guess. Maybe he gambled on it, something that wouldn’t surprise me at this point. It was harder to get to his baseball games since the team played multiple games a week versus our football games that were once weekly.
So maybe they didn’t freeze him out as much as they just couldn’t put in the commitment to attend every one of his games.
And it wasn’t just that. Baseball didn’t have the same sort of social construct that football had, either. All the rich parents paying for their sons to be a part of the team were a community in and of themselves. The bleachers became a place where Mom could brush elbows with the other high-society women and where Dad could make his backroom business deals.
