Chapter 18 #2
When I turn, I know I’ve said something wrong by the stricken look on the kid’s face.
My heart drops straight into my stomach when I take in his unfocused gaze and the way he wraps his arms around his stomach like he’s trying to hold himself together.
It tickles something in my brain because the motion is so familiar, but the thought dies as quickly as it comes.
“Hey, you okay? What happened?”
Reed swallows hard, his eyes finally focusing, just not on me. His voice is barely a whisper when he says, “My parents are dead.”
Forget my stomach. My heart drops all the way to the fucking floor. “Shit, kid. I’m so fucking sorry.”
The shrug Reed gives me is practiced, but it doesn’t hide the grief I’m all too familiar with.
My mom may not have died, but she’s still gone.
Hell, sometimes I wonder if it would be better if she had died.
At least then, I could tell myself that she didn’t choose to leave me.
But now, looking at Reed’s face, I can tell it wouldn’t have been better. Not at all.
“So your sister…”
“She’s my legal guardian. Has been for five years, now, so don’t worry. It’s not like it just happened or anything.” He tries to play it tough, but it’s obvious that Reed is a sensitive kid. He feels things deeply, even if he tries not to.
“Doesn’t matter if it didn’t just happen.
It’s still painful, right? You don’t have to pretend with me, kid.
Still, I’m sorry for stepping in it.” Blowing out a breath, I try to calm my racing heart.
Now I need to find out who Reed’s sister is.
I’ll ask Joe later. I know how expensive it is to play sports as a teenager, and I wonder if she’s struggling to pay for his football gear.
No doubt it’s nothing compared to how expensive hockey gear is, but still, maybe she’d let me help cover Reed’s supplies.
“I get it if you’re not up for a tour now. ”
Reed scuffs his foot across the tiled floor. “I’d still like to see everything. If you still want to show me, that is.”
“Of course, I do. Come on. Don’t mind the sweat smell. I’m sure you’re used to it, but hockey funk is pretty brutal.”
He manages a grin at that, and I do my best to add some ridiculous commentary to everything as I show him around. When we make our way into the weight room, he seems to have gotten over the sadness I unwittingly pushed him into, and his eyes grow huge and round.
“Holy shit, dude.”
Chuckling, I watch as he takes in the state-of-the-art equipment, the huge TVs mounted to the wall, and massage tables in the corner.
It’s all old hat for me, but I imagine it’s pretty impressive to a kid in public school.
My private schools always had state-of-the-art athletic facilities, but I’m very aware that’s not the case in most public schools. “Pretty sweet, right?”
“Fuck, yeah.” His ears grow pink and he glances over at me. “Please don’t tell my sister I said that.”
“No worries, kid. I’m not going to tattle on you for swearing.”
He gives me a genuine smile at that, and I feel even more accomplished because of that than I did about scoring during practice. Somehow, I get the feeling the only other person who gets to see joy like this on the kid’s face is his sister.
“She’s usually pretty cool about it, I guess, but she doesn’t really like when I swear.”
“Well, I won’t say a word. Now come on, let’s see what you can bench.”
We spend the next hour in the weight room, and I almost forget about how hungry I am. Almost.
“Dude, your stomach sounds like it’s shouting,” Reed says, laughing as it growls for at least the fifth time.
“Yeah, I normally eat right after practice, so I’m pretty hungry.
I was thinking about ordering something to be delivered, but it’s almost dinnertime.
” I cock my head to the side, an idea coming to me.
It makes my palms sweat a little because it would be so far outside my normal comfort zone, but I’ve enjoyed my time with the kid, and if I had a chance to talk to his sister, maybe I could feel her out before I propose what I’ve been considering for the last hour and a half.
I’d like to mentor Reed. From everything he’s said since the bombshell about his parents being gone, it’s clear he hasn’t really had any men in his life.
And I’m not delusional enough to think I could ever fill the hole his dad’s death left in Reed’s life, but I could be like a big brother or an uncle?
I wish I’d had someone like that in my life.
My dad was… Well, he wasn’t exactly the warm and fuzzy father type.
“Do you think your sister would be up for me taking you two out for some dinner? Would that be weird?”
Now that I’ve said it, I worry it’s weird. Am I massively overstepping? I don’t know his sister. For all I know, she’s going to think I’m some kind of creep that’s trying to take advantage of her little brother.
Shit.
Reed shrugs. “Maybe? She probably won’t let you pay, though, so don’t be offended by that.”
“Oh no? Why not? If it’s my idea, I should pay.”
The kid chuckles as he wipes down the last machine he used. “I love my sister. She’s the best person I know, and she works her ass off for us, but she doesn’t know how to accept help. Like, at all.”
“There’s nothing wrong with needing help. Everyone does at some point or another,” I tell him.
“I know, but I think most of her friends kind of ditched her when she had to leave school and take care of me. So she’s used to people saying they’ll be there for her, but then they don’t follow through.” A frown crosses Reed’s face, and my respect for his sister grows.
I can’t imagine any of that was easy for her. Losing her parents and needing to leave college and her friends to take care of her little brother was probably hard enough. But then to have her friends drop off the face of the planet right when she must have needed them most? Shit.
Now I really want to do all I can to help these two.
“Think we could convince her between the two of us?” I ask as we leave the weight room.
“You can try.” Reed shrugs. “But you’ll probably need to just hand your card over before she gets a chance if you’re dead set on paying.”
“I can do that. What kind of food do you both like?”
“We’re not picky,” Reed replies. “We like trying new things, and you’ve lived here longer than us, so you probably know more places than we d—”
“Reed?”
A feminine voice fills the hall. I can’t see his sister yet—she’s probably around the corner—but there’s something familiar about it that has my muscles tensing in anticipation.
“Shit. I told her I’d meet her at her office at four-thirty.” Reed pulls his phone out of his pocket and winces. “She’s probably been looking for me for the last fifteen minutes.”
“Reed!” the voice calls again, a little closer this time.
“Coming,” he shouts, jogging toward the main hallway.
I follow close behind but don’t jog with him. My whole body buzzes when he turns the corner and I hear him greet his sister.
“Sorry, Blair-Bear. I lost track of time.”
The world spins around me and the buzzing in my body becomes so intense that I can hear it.
Blair.
Reed’s sister is Blair.
Shit.
“…And then Logan showed me the weight room, and I totally didn’t realize how late it had gotten. But it was awesome. He’s super cool, and he wants to take us out to dinner.”
Reed’s excited words echo through the hall as I turn the corner and see them together.
I don’t know how I didn’t make the connection the first time I saw the kid.
He looks nothing like the dark-haired woman at family night.
He and Blair are practically dead wringers for each other.
Sure, Reed’s hair is a lighter shade of brown, and his curls are a little looser, but their features are so similar. I should have seen it right away.
Blair’s pretty, umber eyes meet mine. Her eyebrows rise as Reed tells her about what seemed like a good idea before, but now I wish I had kept my damned mouth shut. Because dinner with Reed and Blair? It will either be the best thing that’s happened to me all week, or it’ll kick off World War III.
“Oh, he does, does he?”
Clearing my throat to dislodge the huge lump stuck there, I smile at the woman who’s been taking up way too much of my headspace lately.
And that was before I knew she was the kind of woman who would take care of her brother all by herself, who’s so used to doing it alone that she doesn’t know how to accept help, who clearly does such a good job at making her brother feel safe and loved that he’d sing her praises.
I’m so fucked.
“Hey, Blair.” I ignore my racing heart and rub the back of my neck.
“Uh, yeah. I’d love to take you two out for some dinner if you don’t have plans.
You’d be doing me a favor because I don’t really have any groceries at home, and I hate going out to eat alone.
Plus, Reed trained pretty hard, so he’s probably going to eat you out of house and home, which is my fault.
The least I can do is feed him. And you. ”
I’m rambling, which is much more like the awkward boy I was at Reed’s age, before girls decided they liked me, than the way I normally behave with women now. But damn, if this woman doesn’t destroy my equilibrium at every turn.
“I don’t know,” she says, letting her words trail off. She sucks her bottom lip between her teeth and worries at it.
“Oh, come on, Blair-Bear. I know you’re tired of cooking, and like Logan said, we’d be doing him a favor.” Reed levels his sister with such exaggerated puppy-dog eyes that I have to clamp my lips together so I don’t laugh.
I join in, mimicking his expression. “You really would.”
Blair sighs, lifting her gaze to the ceiling as if asking for divine help. “You’re both ridiculous.” Her lashes flutter as she closes her eyes for a moment, then she deflates a little. “Fine. We can go to dinner. We wouldn’t want Logan to be all by his lonesome.”
Her tone holds some of that annoyed snark I’m coming to love, and satisfaction spreads like warmth throughout my whole body.
“Great. I’ll drive. We can come back for your car after.”
Reed claps his hands. Blair pinches the bridge of her nose.
“I’m going to regret this,” she mumbles to herself.
There’s a very good chance I’ll end up regretting this, too, but I suspect for a very different reason than Blair.