Chapter 32
Chapter Thirty-Two
Foster
Callie and I walk into Peeper’s, both of us filled with anxious energy. Ruby glances up and shakes her head with a disapproving mom expression.
“Good news travels fast,” I mumble, squeezing Callie’s hand.
When we left the field, I wrapped a hand around hers and haven’t let go. No one is going to mess with her when I’m at her side.
Ruby stops us as we approach the door to the backroom and blocks our way.
“Hey, Rubes.” Callie gives her a smile that doesn’t reach her eyes.
Ruby gives her a full body scan, then fixes her gaze on Callie’s stomach. It’s wild how the second people know, her belly becomes the only thing they see.
She flicks her gaze up to meet mine. “I hear congratulations are in order, but you better fix this.” She thumbs toward the backroom.
“We already have a problem with you and Decker. I’m not gonna have any more animosity between your group of boys.
I swear, you’re like a bunch of teenage girls.
” She gives Callie’s shoulder a quick squeeze then disappears behind the bar.
“I guess that’s the best we can expect from Ruby.” Callie smiles at me.
“A scolding instead of a hug. Seems about right.”
Callie twists the doorknob. I close my eyes for half a second and take one last breath then follow her in.
Hayes is planted at one end of the table, arms crossed. Leighton’s beside him, leaned back with her legs crossed, wine in hand, smirking at us as though she already knows how this is gonna go.
“So did you guys know about this too? Was I the only one in the dark?” Hayes asks Decker and Easton.
“Fuck no. I didn’t know.” Easton sips his beer, shaking his head adamantly.
“And you?” Hayes swings his gaze to Decker. “I understand brotherly loyalty, but I expected more from you.”
“You think I’d keep this from you? I warned him not to make a mess of things.”
“They didn’t know.” Callie draws in a breath and tilts her chin up as though she’s erecting a shield against the barbs about to be thrown her way.
Hayes’s gaze lifts, his eyes snagging on our linked fingers. “Ah, the happy couple has arrived.”
I hate the bite in his tone.
Leighton smiles and sips her wine, placing it on the table and standing.
“Leighton, united front.” Hayes’s eyes follow his fiancée.
The last thing I want is to cause problems between them.
She waves him off and rolls her eyes, safely out of his line of sight. “Official congratulations. I’m excited to be an aunt.” She hugs Callie, then shifts her attention to me. “Foster? You were a mystery man for a while, and I’m happy it’s you.”
My head rears back. “You are?”
“I’m not.” Hayes raises his hand. “In case anyone was wondering.”
“Oh, shh…” Leighton waves at him again and sets her gaze on me. “Of course. You two are going to make a gorgeous baby, and I can’t wait to spoil him or her.”
“Thanks.” I shift awkwardly in place.
Callie smiles at Leighton, then glances at me, and her smile blooms as though she can’t fight it. It shouldn’t hit me like it does. But something warm twists under my ribs.
Hayes glares at Leighton, but she doesn’t seem bothered, going back to her chair and sipping her wine.
“I’m not in agreement.” Easton stands and grabs hold of Callie, swinging her around. “Our baby would’ve been cuter, but congratulations, I guess. I’m ready to be a stand-in uncle.” He winks.
Something like a growl rises up my throat, and Easton laughs, slapping me in the chest. “Congrats, asshole—or should we say Daddy Asshole?” He places his hand between us.
There was so much competition between us around Callie last year, but he doesn’t seem to care now.
I shake his hand.
It does feel nice to have the news out. To not be hiding anymore.
“I’m the actual uncle.” Decker follows Easton, hugging Callie respectfully. “Don’t worry, there are good genes on our side. Foster just didn’t get a lot of them.”
I huff, knowing the beef between us needs to be squashed. I don’t want my kid asking one day why I don’t talk to Uncle Decker.
“Congrats, Uncle Decker. At least my kid will have one great uncle.” Callie eyes Hayes, and he looks away.
Easton raises his hand. “I’m an uncle too.”
“You are.” Callie laughs and lets her head rest on my shoulder. Relief softens her whole body, as though the secret being out has allowed her to breathe again.
Hayes clocks Callie’s body language, and a disgusted expression crosses his face. Winning him over won’t be easy. It’s clear Callie and I share a familiarity and intimacy, and he’ll take it to mean we’ve kept a deeper secret.
An awkward silence descends over the room, until I decide to break it.
“Hey, man, can we talk?” I ask, willing to take the chance that Hayes is gonna come at me. Hell, I’ll take him jumping over the table and smashing my head into the pinball machine rather than this silence.
Leighton nudges him.
“Come on, Carlisle, don’t be like that,” Easton encourages.
Decker doesn’t come to my defense, but I broke the rules, and he’s Mr. Rule Follower now. Guess he forgets the days when he wasn’t.
Hayes downs his beer. “Sit.”
Chairs shift, and everyone gets up to leave us alone.
“Why don’t we go outside?” I don’t want to do this anywhere near Callie. Depending on what happens… what’s said… I don’t want her even more upset.
Again Hayes acts as if I’ve suggested the worst thing, but Leighton nudges him again, and he sighs, reluctantly standing like Lake does when Leighton asks her to watch Monroe. As though talking to me is the last thing he wants to do.
“You’ve got five minutes.” He starts to make his way across the room.
Callie steps in front of him, placing her hand on his chest. He glances down at it and then meets her eyes.
“I just want it to be clear this was both of us, okay? We both did this,” she says.
He says nothing, and Callie steps aside, allowing him to leave the room.
I look at her. “If I don’t come back…”
“I’ll call 9-1-1 and then start searching.” Callie smiles wide as though she has all the confidence in the world that I can fix this. Then she hugs me. “Just in case. So I can tell the baby what Daddy smelled like.”
“Funny.” I wrap my arms around her, and when I look over her shoulder, Decker’s eyebrows are raised. I flip him off.
“I thought so.” She puts her hands on my cheeks. “Just one last look to memorize this face in case any permanent damage is done.”
I shake my head, and she laughs.
“Glad you find this funny. I’m about to get my ass handed to me.”
She pats my cheek. “You asked for it, remember?”
And I’d do it again and again.
“Don’t forget, duck and weave.” Easton pretends he’s in the boxing ring.
“You’ve always had a weak right hook, go with the uppercut,” Decker says.
“Fuck both of you.”
“He’s not going to get physical. He’s happy way deep down. He just doesn’t realize it yet.” Leighton takes another sip of her wine.
I stare at Leighton a beat, and she smiles sweetly, but I’m not sure she’s right.
She shrugs. “Just trying to give you some encouragement.”
With a resigned sigh, I walk to the door, but Ruby almost runs into me, coming into the room with a tray of drinks. I wait at the door, and she places the tray on the table then looks at Callie.
“Take your pick… Sprite? Water? Tonic water? I have a non-alcoholic beer behind the bar.” She takes the drinks off the tray, placing each in front of where Callie stands.
“Oh, that’s sweet, Ruby,” Leighton says.
“It really is.” Callie looks at her best friend and smiles.
Are those tears in Callie’s eyes?
“It’s practical. Don’t think too much of it.” Ruby picks up her tray and walks away, stopping at the door and staring at me. “Don’t you have someone’s ass to kiss?”
“Going.”
I leave the room, then weave through the tables in the main part of the bar.
The regulars at the bar are already grumbling about my pitching and saying maybe I need to “see someone.” Last week I was a diamond in the rough.
Some nights I’m sparkling, and other nights I’m face down in the mud. Real inspirational crowd.
Hayes is outside the bar, and since a lot of fans are lingering around, I head to the security gate next to Peeper’s that leads to our condo entrances. “Mind?”
He follows, and we walk through the gate. The Dugout sign is still there, with more notes posted on it to grab our attention. We go halfway up the cement stairs and take a seat. Neither of us says anything for a moment.
Then, with my heart in my throat, I break the silence. “I’m sorry. I knew what I was doing. I knew she was your sister, and I did it anyway.”
Hayes says nothing.
“I can promise you that I’m gonna do what’s right.”
He glances over. “You’re going to marry her?”
Bile rises up my throat, but it’s not as bitter as it usually is when someone talks about marriage. And it should be—because I can’t be the partner Callie deserves.
The corners of Hayes’s lips turn down. “Thought so.”
“Would you even want that? Me marrying her just because she’s pregnant? That’s what you’d want for her in a marriage?”
He leans his back against the brick wall, stretching his legs out in front of him, facing me. “I’m not sure what I want for her, but…”
“It’s not me.” I save him from having to say what we’re both thinking.
He tilts his head. “What?”
I sigh.
“Foster?” He arches an eyebrow.
“You haven’t been very shy in telling everyone that Decker is the only Davis brother you’d ever want for her.”
He stares at me as though he has to think back, then bursts out laughing. “And why do you think that is?”
“I know why.”
“But she doesn’t want Decker—or at least she didn’t. I’m not going to sit here and give you some pep talk and boost your ego by telling you you’re good enough for my sister. She makes that decision. But fuck, Foster, I find out in a press conference?”
“I know.” I lean on the opposite wall so we’re facing one another. “I just didn’t want—”
“You were worried about our relationship on the field? Your career?”
“Fuck no!” I shout, and my chest squeezes painfully. “You’re the best friend I have. The closest thing I have to family, and I didn’t want to lose that. Shit, man, I took your trust and did the unthinkable. I couldn’t keep my dick out of your sister’s pants.”
“I’m gonna need one thing if we continue this conversation. I need to not think about your dick and my sister’s pants, okay?”
I nod. “I’m sorry. I was ashamed and pissed at myself, but Hayes, we’re going to do this co-parenting thing, and we’re going to rock it.”
He nods, and if he wasn’t her brother, I might admit all the other shit—how much my attraction to her is building, how awesome of a person I think she is, and that the more time we spend together, the more I want from her.
But this isn’t the time to declare that I’m confused about my relationship with her and where it’s going.
I don’t even know if Callie would be interested in anything more than co-parenting.
Shit, am I really considering a relationship?
“I’m sure you will, but I really wish you would’ve told me. I look like a fool. As far as me wishing it was Decker, get that shit out of your head. You’re just as good as him, and I’d feel the same way I do now if it were your brother.”
“You’re telling me that if we would’ve come to you right away, you would’ve been jumping for joy?”
He shrugs. “You’ll never know now. But I’m engaged to Callie’s best friend. Do I really have a leg to stand on if I went into protective big brother mode?”
“In my head, yes.”
He sits up straighter. “It was the secrecy that pissed me off, not that it was you. You need to bet on yourself, man, stop thinking you’re a shit person. I know you’ll do right by my niece or nephew. And Callie, for that matter.”
We sit in silence because I’m not so sure.
“I’m not wasting a night out on this bullshit.
Let’s go celebrate me being an uncle.” He stands then holds his hand out for me and helps me up, dragging me into a hug once I’m standing.
“But, Foster, you fuck her over, and there will be a problem.” He pulls back and laughs, hitting my chest. “Let’s go. ”
I’m relieved that’s over with. Relieved I have such a great best friend who seems to have enough confidence in me to think I won’t fuck this up.
I have to navigate this situation carefully so this doesn’t go south. Which means putting Callie in a box marked Untouchable and keeping her there no matter how much I want her.