7. McKinley
“Why do you keep looking at your phone?”
My eyes shoot up to the tiny, curly-haired little girl staring up at me. “Just checking to see if anyone texted me.”
Giuliana leans over my arm, glancing down at my blank screen. “Is it a girl?”
I chuckle as I slip my phone back into my pocket and lift my niece onto my lap. “You’re a very smart little girl, you know that?”
She rolls her big brown eyes. “I’m not a little girl anymore, Uncle Mac. I’m four now, ‘member?”
I smack myself in the forehead with the palm of my hand. “I’m such an idiot. How could I forget?”
She giggles. “You’re not an idiot.”
I wrap my arms around her and she nuzzles against me. “I love you, kid. You know that right?”
“Yup. And I love you. You’re the bestest uncle in the whole world.”
“Make sure to tell Uncle Trenton and Uncle Jason that next time you see them.”
She giggles again. “That’s not nice.”
“Hey, just so you know, I don’t have to be waiting for a girl to text me. I could be waiting for a man. Men can like men, and women can like women.”
She lifts her head and looks into my eyes. “Like Aunt Celeste and Aunt Kourtney?”
I nod. “Just like them.”
“How will I know if I like girls or boys?”
I adjust us to sit up on the couch. “Well, I don’t think you should look at it from a perspective of girls or boys . I think you should look inside someone’s heart, and see what you feel for them. It doesn’t matter what they look like on the outside.”
She purses her little lips while she thinks about that for a moment. “What if I love dogs?”
I toss my head back and laugh. “Humans can’t marry dogs. You have to be in the same species.”
Her eyebrows furrow. “But I love Ellie.”
Ellie’s head perks up from her dog bed across the room.
“You can love Ellie, but you can’t be in love with Ellie. Those are two different things.”
Giuliana nods. “So, are you waiting for a text from a girl or a boy?”
Both.
Either.
The whole weekend went by without a response from Presley. I texted her the night of the game, after Chance and I saw her on the KissCam. At my game. I rarely pay any mind to what’s going on in the crowd, but it was impossible not to glance up at the jumbotron while everyone was screaming about that douchebag’s hands all over my girl.
My girl. Fuck. I can’t even get a text back from her, yet I’m calling her my girl.
But what are the odds that the three of us were in the same place at the same time? It’s like the universe threw us together again, after all this time.
Even Kellerman looked shocked as shit, and he never emotes. For some reason, I thought he might text me too. Reach out to talk about how crazy it was that we saw Presley.
I thought I’d get something . Anything. From either of them.
Yet here I am with nothing.
“ Hellooo .” Giuliana pokes my chest with her index finger. “Boy or girl?”
I heave a sigh. “Girl.
“What’s her name? Who is she?”
I chuckle as she questions me rapid-fire like she always does. “Her name is Presley. I went to college with her. She was my girlfriend for a couple of years, and then one morning I woke up, and she was just gone.”
Giuliana’s eyes widen. “Where did she go?”
“I didn’t know. She was just gone. But the other night at my game, I saw her.”
Giuliana gasps. “You saw her?”
I nod. “She was there, and I tried to talk to her, but we didn’t have a lot of time. I asked for her number, and I texted her, but I haven’t heard back from her. I know I’m getting ahead of myself, and reading too much into it. She could be married for all I know—fuck, did she have a wedding ring on? I didn’t even think of that possibility.”
Giuliana clicks her tongue against the roof of her mouth. “You said the f-word.”
“Shit, did I?” I scrub my hand over my face. “Shit, now I just said shit. Don’t tell your dad. I’ll give you twenty bucks.”
Her eyes narrow. “Make it fifty.”
Can’t even be mad at the kid. I’m training her to be a hustler.
“Deal.”
“Do you love her?” she asks.
“I used to love her very much.”
And if my beating heart is any indication, I still do.
“Used to...?” Giuliana scrunches her nose. “You can stop loving someone?”
“No, you can’t.” Alex strides into the living room, and scoops his daughter into his arms. “Love is forever once you let someone into your heart.”
She glances down at me. “Then why did you say you used to love Presley?”
I rub the back of my neck. “I guess because I loved the person she was back then, and I don’t know who she is now.”
Giuliana rests her head against Alex’s shoulder. “I think she’ll text you back.”
My eyebrows lift. “You do?”
She nods. “You’re the bestest uncle in the world. And if you miss her, she probably misses you too. I miss you when you’re not around.”
My heart squeezes inside my chest, and I push off the couch so I can snatch my niece from my best friend. She wraps her arms and legs around me like a koala, and I hold her tight.
“You’re the bestest niece in the whole world, and I love you so, so much.”
“Love you too, Uncle Mac.”
“Time to brush your teeth, baby girl.” Alex takes Giuliana from me again, and sets her on the floor. “I’ll be in to tuck you in after I say goodbye to Uncle Mac.”
Giuliana scampers into the hallway with Ellie hot on her heels.
Alex gives me a wary look. “Are things that bad, you need advice from a four-year-old?”
I chuckle. “She gives good advice.”
He smiles as he glances toward the hallway “She does.”
“How’s she doing with Aarya living here?”
He rolls his eyes. “She loves it. The two of them started ganging up on me.”
“You’ve got a lot of female energy in this house, my man.” I slap his shoulder. “You’re officially outnumbered.”
He blows out a heavy sigh through his lips. “It feels wrong deceiving her like this. Getting her hopes up, letting her get attached to Aarya when she’s not going to stay here in the end.”
“Don’t worry about the end right now. Focus on what’s right in front of you.”
He grunts. “What’s right in front of me is a drop-dead gorgeous woman who I can’t have.”
“By your own choice.” I widen my eyes. “She has made it crystal-clear that she’d be down for a tumble in your sheets. I don’t know how you’re turning that shit down. I’d be all over that Middle Eastern princess if I were in your shoes.”
Alex glares at me. “You know why I’m turning her down, and it’s not for lack of desire. Trust me. She’s not making it easy.”
I laugh. “I know, I know. You’re doing the right thing. I don’t want to see you get a broken heart over a fake marriage arrangement any more than you do.”
He pinches the bridge of his nose. “I take it Presley still hasn’t responded?”
I shake my head. “Nope.”
“Give it time, man.”
Time. I’ve spent the last four years wondering where she went and what happened to her. Maybe she didn’t think of me at all. Maybe I’m deluding myself by waiting for a message from her. Maybe she moved on.
Maybe everything the three of us had only meant something to me.
“God, these females have us fucked up, don’t they?”
Alex lets out a humorless laugh. “You’re not kidding.”