Chapter 26
I ’ve changed out of my wet clothes, and I’ve got my big guy sitting on my lap.
He’s picking at some puffed rice, carrot and cheese ring things that he seems to love but that taste like stale pieces of air to me.
Who cares. My son called me dada. Actually, he signed and said it, which makes him a fucking genius.
Something he likely gets from his mother.
And while I’ve been working with him on saying it, I wasn’t expecting how it would make me feel when he finally did it. It’s becoming harder and harder to pretend that this isn’t everything I want. That they don’t own my heart and soul.
Today was impossible for me, but Wynter was there, touching my hand and reassuring me, and visually checking in with me at random points in the game. Then Mason said dada, and I wasn’t sure my heart could handle how quickly it swelled in my chest.
“Do you think if I bought her a ring, she’d say yes?” Callan—not me—asks, though I won’t lie and say I haven’t been having similar thoughts.
“I think she’ll say no,” Grey says with a grimace. “Layla has told you from the start that she is not looking for that, and she’s only… what? Twenty-three? She’s entering her second year of medical school. I think you need to wait.”
Callan does not like hearing that. “What the hell does age matter? Aurelia is the same age as Layla, and she’s wearing Zax’s ring.”
“Different,” Zax states in that gruff way of his. “Aurelia has been on her own since she was sixteen. She was an adult before Layla was out of braces.”
Callan pouts a bit and then tosses back his drink. “Fine. You are all right. I’ll wait. But would it be such a bad thing if she needed me half as much as I need her?”
We all fall silent, each of us secretly feeling the exact same way about our women. Well, all except Lenox, since he’s now the only single holdout of all of us.
He makes a noise. “Pussy-whipped.”
We all turn in his direction. “That’s no joke, brother,” I tell him. “It’s a defining moment when you meet the woman destined to own your balls and your heart. One day, it will happen to you. Though for the life of me, I have no clue who could tolerate your surly, silent ass.”
He grins pompously at me. But it’ll happen. One day, it will. I hope.
Some big plays go down on the television, and it calls us back to the screens.
My boys are all around me, sipping on beers and bourbon while I drink snobby electrolyte-infused water.
The end of the 4:00 p.m. games is playing on RedZone on the television above me, but that’s not what concerns me right now.
It’s the man on my right who holds my undivided attention.
“I wanted to ask Wynter’s mom to marry me after a week of dating. But after all she went through, I knew I had to wait for the right time. Especially considering she had Wynter. When I met Wynter, it took her months and months to consider me as a man who wouldn’t run out on her.”
I freeze at Gary’s words. We all do.
“She would be kind and smile, but I had to work so damn hard to prove to her that I wouldn’t abandon her or her mother.
I married her mother when Wynter was ten, but it took the Olympics for everything between us to change.
She turned fifteen a week before those games and by that point, I’d done everything I could think of to prove myself, including marrying her mother. ”
I swallow audibly, and I catch the way my guys are watching me.
“What happened there?”
“We were teammates—on Team USA, that is—and though I had been introducing her as my daughter for five years, something about doing it there, something about being there for her, is what finally won her over. Joe was at the games too.”
My breath snags in my chest.
Wynter and the women are on the other side of the pool area, so we’re trying to make this look like light, friendly bro banter, and to them, it probably does. Even when it’s anything but.
“Does Wynter know he was there?” I ask, even though I’m pretty sure I already know the answer.
“No,” Gary replies, swirling a chip around in the pile of salsa on his plate.
“I never told her. And not because Joe asked me not to—which he did—but because I felt it would only break her heart more, and those Olympic games meant the world to her. She truly came back to life in those two weeks, and there was no way I was going to let him take anything else from her. Or from me, truth be told. I wanted to be her dad, and he didn’t deserve her the way I did. ”
I smile softly to myself. Gary is a good man. A good father. Joe is clearly not.
“But he was there?” Grey questions, still unable to wrap his head around it.
“He was,” Gary confirms, popping the chip in his mouth and chewing while I make some noise about the game.
He swallows, takes a sip of his beer, and then continues.
“I was sitting in the stands with a teammate of mine. Wynter and her mom were backstage, or whatever it’s called, waiting for her turn to skate.
I looked to my left, and up in the very top row, hidden in the shadows, was Joe.
I got up and sat beside him, and for the longest time, I didn’t say anything.
I just sat there and waited him out. I wanted to threaten him.
I wanted to tell him what a piece of shit I thought he was.
But I held my tongue, knowing he was up to something. ”
“What did he do?” Callan asks as he polishes off his beer.
“He told me he wanted to see her skate in person, but that he didn’t want her to know he was there.”
“But why?” Zax questions. “I don’t understand it. Why bother flying all that way if you’re not going to make your presence known?”
“He didn’t do it for her. He did it for himself. She was his offspring, and he was a competitor. A champion. He was also at her medical school graduation, where she gave a speech to the class since she graduated on top. Same deal.”
I wipe a hand across my forehead and absently point at the television, just in case we have any curious eyes on us.
“What you’re saying is he basically stalks her for his own ego, which I can totally buy.
I mean, he knew she moved up to Boston. He knew what practice she was working for. Do we not think he knows about Mason?”
“No reason to think that right now,” he says. “To the best of my knowledge, he’s followed her career but hasn’t tracked her as a person until she moved up here.”
“Does her mom know?” Lenox asks, which, as always with him, is another good question.
Gary shakes his head. “It would have upset her too, and I didn’t want to ruin those special days for them. Plus, Wynter and Sonya are very close. She never would have been able to keep that from Wynter.”
“But you’re telling Asher this for a reason,” Zax surmises, glancing over his shoulder at the women and then back to us.
“All those times he showed up, he made sure it stayed a secret,” Gary maintains. “He didn’t want to be in her life. He just liked how her accomplishments made him feel. So why after all these years has he suddenly changed his mind and made himself part of her situation?”
I scrub a hand over my face and shrug. “I don’t know. I don’t think Wynter does either, and he’s been evasive when she’s asked.”
“You work with him,” Gary asserts. “Your career is almost based on him. Joe is methodical. He doesn’t do anything without a reason.
I don’t know what his reason for bringing Wynter back into his life is, but I know he has one.
Now you’re as wrapped up in it as she is.
” He shifts in his chair, pinning me with this dark gaze.
“It might be nothing. It might just be he’s finally learned the error of his ways after all these years and regrets the choices he made with her.
Or it could be about something else. Just keep an eye out. That’s all I’m suggesting.”
My friends and I exchange looks. We’re not strangers to this sort of thing. We grew up as famous rock stars, our every move tracked by the paparazzi and fans. Now—with the exception of Lenox, who lives off the grid, and Callan, who is a doctor—we’re all still famous. Grey and I most of all.
But this is different.
This feels different.
I don’t get the sense that Gary would say anything if he wasn’t suspecting that Joe was up to something, and he’s right. Why now?
* * *
Me: Where are you?
Me: Wynter? Where are you? Why can I not find you when I know you’re in the apartment?
With a growl of frustration, I wander from room to room.
I had been hoping to coax my pretty lady back up to the roof for a naked swim, but I can’t find her, and she’s not returning my texts.
Mason is asleep. Big man passed out early tonight—I think it was all the swimming and being passed around like a joint at a concert from person to person all afternoon.
But that means it’s adult time, and it’s barely eight, and where the fuck is Wynter?
The door to her old room is closed and I tap gently on the wood and then plant my ear against it. I don’t hear anything, but I give it a try anyway, turning the knob and entering. The light is on, and I hear noise coming from the bathroom.
“Ice queen?”
She doesn’t answer, but I notice the sound of water sloshing. There’s a white robe on the bed, and I touch the soft cotton, debating if I should go in the bathroom. She’s obviously taking a bath, but why not do it in my bathtub unless she wants privacy?
Something on the floor catches my eye, and I bend down, finding a chain for a necklace I’ve seen her wear, but it’s missing the jade stone that’s usually dangling from it.
I search the floor and even under the bed but come up empty.
When I stand back up, I notice the nightstand drawer is open a tiny crack, and I wonder if maybe it fell in there.
I slide the drawer further open, and a shit-eating grin splits my lips. No jade stone, but there is a very pretty pink vibrator in here.