CHAPTER 30 Dex Bradley
Wife and Kid
Coach Nash gave me clearance to leave for twenty-four hours to attend the funeral, but I won’t be gone that long. Actually, he told me my place on the team is secure and I could take an extra day or two if I need it.
“I need to show up for my team.” Those were my words to him, and he looked…proud of me.
It’s rare to have anyone look at me with pride. Sure, I make killer sacks and great plays, and fans cheer me on. But my parents have never looked at me with pride. I was always the troublemaker, the one causing them early onset gray hairs—according to my mother, anyway.
My mother, who I’ll probably have to see in the next twenty-four hours. It’s only a small part of why I told Ainsley to meet me there.
Ford is coming in, too, and more than likely my parents will attend the funeral.
Any chance to put in an appearance, I suppose—especially with an elite crowd of football players and coaches, both pro and college, in attendance.
My father will see it as an opportunity for business, and my mother will see it as an opportunity to socialize.
I just see it for what it is: a funeral celebrating the life of one of the greatest men I know.
I need to call Madden to ask if I can stay at his place, but something seems to stop me short.
It takes me a while to piece together what it is, and it’s once the day is quiet as I lie down to fall asleep that it hits me.
My father’s words about my older brother.
“Madden actually kept his mouth shut?”
He knew about the underground casinos, and he didn’t tell me. I don’t know if he told anybody, but he took it upon himself to keep the secret from me.
It gives me little motivation to share my secrets with him. If he can’t trust me, maybe the feeling is mutual.
With everything going on, from discovering my child to running into Ainsley to falling for her and my kid, it’s been a whirlwind of a month. I haven’t had time to think through the fact that my brother never said a word to me about a deep, dark family secret.
It’s only now I’m putting that together.
Maybe we were never as close as I always thought we were. He’s got a girl now, and his focus is there. I guess I’m starting to get that.
I don’t bother calling him. Instead, I book a hotel near the airport, and I find myself boarding a plane from California to Chicago on Thursday evening. It’s been nearly two weeks of hard work, and the chance to just sit and do nothing for a few hours isn’t the worst thing I can think of.
When I land, I find Ainsley waiting at my gate for me with my son. The baby is in his carrier snapped into his stroller, and Ainsley is standing as she watches eagerly for passengers to deplane. I’m one of the first, and she stands by the stroller as she waits for me to stride over to her.
I take her into my arms, and I lower my lips to hers for a brief, airport-friendly kiss.
I lean my forehead to hers. “God, I missed you.” I don’t think I realized exactly how much or how strongly until I got to pull her back into my arms again.
“I missed you, too.”
We take off for the hotel, and it turns out that Ford is staying at the same hotel—something we didn’t actually talk about, but it tracks since it’s close to the airport and not far from where the funeral will be held in the morning.
He’s checking in just ahead of us, and it’s then that I realize I haven’t told him about the baby…or my wife.
I slap him on the shoulder the way brothers do, and he turns with a grimace.
He grabs me into a bro-style hug, and we slap each other on the back as he says, “Bro, watch the shoulder, man. I took a hellish hit yesterday at camp.” He pulls his sleeve up to reveal a dark black and blue mark, and I laugh.
“Shouldn’t have shown me that,” I tease, and I lightly tap him there again. When we were kids, we were fucking ruthless. If one of us had a bruise, it became the mission of the other one to continue punching it as many times as we could.
Maybe we haven’t really grown out of that.
He chuckles, and I glance back at Ainsley.
“You remember Ainsley Riggs, right?” I ask Ford. He’s a little closer to her age at just seven years her senior, so he might’ve been around the house with Ivy a little more than I was.
“Hey, good to see you,” he says. He moves to give her a hug, and I bury the pang of jealousy I feel. It’s just two acquaintances reconnecting.
That’s what we were, too, though.
I brush it off.
“Oh, is this your baby?” Ford asks Ainsley.
She looks at me.
“He’s mine, actually,” I say, and Ford whips around to face me.
“What?”
“Yeah,” I say. “Didn’t the family gossip make its way through the mill yet? I have a kid.”
“You’re a dad?” Ford asks.
“That I am.”
“Daddy Dex,” Ainsley says brightly.
We both turn to look at her—me with heat in my eyes and Ford with absolute confusion in his.
Ford clears his throat. “How do you fit into this?” he asks her.
“She’s my wife,” I answer.
“Your wife?” Ford says. Actually, it’s more of a sputter, really. Followed by a cough.
“Jack’s stepmom and primary caretaker, too,” I add.
“What about the kid’s mother?” he asks.
“Long story.” One I don’t particularly want to get into in front of the hotel receptionist.
“Dude, I think we need to get a drink,” he says.
I laugh. “Yeah. Probably long overdue.”
The receptionist gets his attention, and I quietly turn to Ainsley. “I really want to spend time with you two, but would it be okay with you if I grabbed a drink with my brother while you went up to the room?”
“Of course. You don’t even have to ask,” she says. “In fact, just go now. I’ll get us checked in and text you the room number.”
“You wouldn’t mind?” I ask. She shakes her head, and I lean in and press my lips to hers. “You’re the best.”
Ford catches me kissing her, and he looks incredibly confused.
I can’t help my laugh as I slap him on the shoulder—on purpose, of course. “Let’s hit the bar, yeah?”
“You fucker,” he mutters as he grabs his shoulder in pain.
We head toward the bar and find a table near the back that offers a little bit of privacy. Once we both have a glass of whiskey, he finally looks at me and winces a little.
“So when did you get married?”
“A little under a month ago,” I say.
He squints at me a little. “Why?”
“It’s complicated. You want the whole story?”
He sips his whiskey. “Why the fuck not?”
I chuckle. “Well, this woman I slept with a while back showed up with a kid on July first. I ran into Ains the same day, quite literally, and she agreed to nanny for me. One thing led to another. I was warned I needed to look a bit more wholesome, and she was escaping this reality show nightmare, and we both stood to gain a lot with a marriage contract.”
“Ah. So it’s fake. Convenient.” He nods as if that makes sense.
“Yeah, it started that way, and then before I left for camp, we had this night, and—”
He holds up a hand to interrupt me. “You had a night? You sound like a chick now.”
I roll my eyes. “I fucked her good and hard. Is that better?”
“How hard we talking?”
“Fuck off. The point is that it started with a contract, but I’m not sure the end of the contract spells the end of our marriage.
At least not the way I was so sure that’s what it meant only a few weeks ago.
Things feel like they’re changing. I like having her at my place.
And the kid…” I trail off as I try to put into words what it feels like to suddenly be an actual father. I blow out a breath. “He’s incredible.”
“How old is he?”
“Eight months tomorrow.”
He whistles quietly, and I briefly think about asking if he knows about the casinos, but then I realize my dad didn’t want Madden telling anyone in the family about them, and he probably doesn’t want me talking about them, either.
I can’t help but wonder what other secrets we’re all keeping from each other.
Hell, I did my best to keep my kid and my wife a secret from them until one of my siblings crashed the premises, and I had to admit the truth.
We’re admittedly not a very close-knit group, but having a kid of my own and a woman I’m falling for—on top of being here for a funeral that reminds me how short life can be—is making me want to change all that.
I just wonder if it’s far too late to make that change.