Chapter 21
twenty-one
LOGAN
“Where were you last night? You didn’t respond in the group chat when I invited everyone over for dinner.”
Shit. I really don’t want to tell them. Maybe if I ignore Griffin, he’ll drop it?
I pretend I didn’t hear him as I stow my bag and settle into my seat on the plane.
We’re hitting the road for a two-game series in Dallas, and the last thing I want to do is spend the whole flight trying to explain myself to these guys. They’ll read too much into it.
Hell, there’s nothing to read into at all. I was just showing up at a kid’s game to support him because he needs some more people in his corner. That’s it. It has absolutely nothing to do with his sister. Nothing at all.
I open my Instagram account and scroll through some of the comments, looking to distract myself and hopefully give Griffin a reason to drop it. Most of the comments are the same old banal shit.
Great game. You suck. Can I have your babies?
Variations of those kinds of comments fill my screen, but I frown when I come across a few from the same account that are less garden-variety. And the username has my last name in it, which always weirds me out. You never get used to seeing people use your name as part of a cutesy username.
Do you think about me as often as I think about you? I miss the way you looked at me. I know it wasn’t your fault we were torn apart, but I’m still not over it.
What the hell?
“You going deaf, Logie?” Wright bends over and peers into my ear, as if he could tell just by looking.
“Knock it off,” I say, shoving him away before closing the app and locking my phone. There’s only so much crazy I can deal with in a day, and I get enough of it from Griffin. He chuckles as he flops back into his seat.
“Everything okay?” Sebastian asks. He’s more tactful than Griffin, but he’s just as curious.
Fuck me. I’m going to have to tell them, aren’t I?
I wait until the rest of the team files past us.
Not like I need a bigger than necessary audience for this conversation.
Maddox, Ryder, Griffin, and Sebastian all watch me with expressions ranging from amusement to concern.
Which is why I’m going to end up spilling the beans.
Because I can’t have these guys worried about me when nothing is wrong.
“Spill it,” Ryder says when the chaos on the plane winds down. I lean forward, ignoring the flight attendants as they run through the customary pre-flight safety spiel. We’ve all heard it a thousand times and could recite it in our sleep.
“I wasn’t purposefully ignoring you guys yesterday. I didn’t see the texts.”
Maddox quirks an eyebrow. “Oh yeah? And why’s that?”
“I had plans,” I say, blowing out a breath and running my hand through my hair. My stomach does an annoying little twist as I’m hit with a moment of worry. What will they think about all of this? They’ve already given me so much shit for things with Blair.
“Dude, are we going to have to tickle it out of you, or something?” Griffin asks, exasperated. The idiot actually leans over with his hands extended toward my midsection, but I bat him away.
“Grow the fuck up. I was at a football game, okay? It was loud, I was having fun, and I didn’t notice my phone vibrating. Can we drop it now?”
“What football game?” Ryder asks. “The Warriors weren’t playing last night.”
I pinch the bridge of my nose, because I should have known they wouldn’t let this go. “It wasn’t a pro game. It was a school team.”
My friends watch me expectantly, waiting for me to give them something else to go on, but I don’t.
“Why are you being so cagey?” Bash asks. “What school team were you watching, Byrne?”
Dammit. “Southwest Junior High, okay?”
Total silence greets me at that. The only noise around us is the hum of the plane as it taxis down the runway, the air recycling through the cabin, and the chatter of our teammates and staff. My friends sit there, gaping at me like I’ve grown a second head.
“Southwest Junior High. You went to a football game at a junior high school?” Maddox narrows his eyes at me. “Why?”
Letting my head flop back against my seat, I blow out a deep breath. “Do you remember those kids I was talking to at family night?”
They all murmur that they do.
“Well, one of the boys was wandering around the arena after practice last week, and we got to talking. The tall kid with the curly hair. He said he was hanging out waiting for his sister to be done with work, so I showed him around, took him into the weight room, made sure he had some fun.”
Griffin grins like a crazy person, his hazel eyes twinkling under the little spotlights overhead. “And who was this kid’s sister, Logie?”
Of course. Of course, that would be what he latches onto. He’s going to be completely insufferable after this. “Blair is his sister. But I didn’t know that until she came looking for him. I thought he was related to the dark-haired woman at family night, I swear.”
“Wait, wait, wait. You’re telling me you hung out with Blair’s little brother—the Blair you slept with in LA who pretended she didn’t know you—and then you went to her brother’s football game? You’re leaving a helluva lot out, bro.”
I’d like to leave everything out, but there’s no way that’s going to happen now.
“I just… I found some shit out about her—them—that changed some things for me. And Reed’s a good kid.
He hasn’t had any men in his life for a while, and he was so excited to hang out and do simple stuff, like benching with me, that I ended up taking them out for dinner and football came up, then the next thing I know, I’m promising him I’ll show up at his next home game. It’s not a big deal, okay?”
These assholes are lucky we’re in a metal tube ten thousand feet in the air, or they’d be catching flies in their open mouths.
“Dude, that’s like, a huge fucking deal,” Griffin says. The goofball persona he wears like armor falls away, and I’m left squirming uncomfortably in my seat under his scrutiny.
Ryder may not know as much about my past as the other three, since he hasn’t been on the team as long, but Maddox, Griffin, and Bash?
They’re well-versed in my relationship with my dad and the damage he and my mom have done.
They know exactly why I avoid relationships, and why kids have never ever been on the table for me.
That’s a hard fucking line I am absolutely not willing to cross.
So the fact that I went out of my way to hang out with a teenage boy, in part because it doesn’t sound like he’s had a male role model in his life since his dad died, is news.
Of course, I’m going to downplay it as much as possible because I haven’t even figured out what possessed me to offer to go to a game.
Not that I regret it. Because I don’t. And I’m already planning to go to as many as I can when we don’t have games that conflict with them.
Bash studies my expression for a beat before he says, “And Blair was okay with all of this? The two of you haven’t exactly gotten along. Now you’re taking her and her brother to dinner and going to his football games?”
“I know it sounds crazy. It probably is. I just… She has custody of her brother. Has since their parents died five years ago. They don’t have anyone else, and I don’t know why I hate that idea so much, but I really fucking hate it.
And it was just dinner and a football game. It’s not like I proposed to her.”
Maddox lets out a low whistle. “That you even made that joke is telling, man. And of course, you hate the idea of them being alone. Because you know what that feels like, and despite your playboy defense mechanisms, you have a good heart.”
“Jesus. Let’s not turn this into an episode of Dr. Phil, okay?” I joke.
“I can’t stand that guy,” Griffin says.
Sebastian chuckles, shaking his head. “Madds is right. You hide it well, but there is a living, beating heart buried deep in there.” He points to my chest, and for some reason, it makes mine ache.
“How old is Blair?” Maddox asks.
“Shit, I know Reed mentioned it, but I forgot. Mid-twenties?”
“Twenty-five,” Ryder pipes up. He shrugs when we all turn to look at him. “The girls were talking about it one day.”
“So, she’s been raising her brother since she was twenty? That’s intense,” Griffin mutters.
“Tell me about it. And from some things Reed told me, it sounds like she did it without much help. Most of her friends ended up ditching her after she had to leave school to do classes virtually and care for an eight-year-old.”
“No wonder Isla’s been talking to the other ladies about plans they could make that are kid friendly. They must know about her brother but didn’t say anything to me about it.”
Some of the tension bleeds from my muscles as my guys take all of this in stride. I don’t know why I thought they wouldn’t. They’re genuinely good dudes. Of course, they’re totally going to give me crap for things with Blair, but I’d expect nothing less.
“You okay?” Sebastian watches me as I deflate.
“Yes and no? I feel like a complete jackass for how I treated her when she showed up at the arena. It’s just… It was too crazy to be a coincidence. I thought…”
“You thought she was doing the same thing all of your stepmoms have done to your dad. Fabricated a way to meet up, then using it to their advantage.” Bash’s smile is thin and sympathetic. He probably knows more stories than any of them because he’s so easy to talk to.
“I did think that. And I feel terrible now.”
Maddox nods. “So, how are you going to make it up to her?”
“What?”
“Make it up to her, Byrne. You wouldn’t be this torn up about it if some part of you didn’t care and want to put things right.
You like her. Respect her. And we all know you’re attracted to her.
So how are you going to make it up to her?
” Maddox crosses his arms over his chest and leans back in his chair, waiting for me to answer.
“I’m not trying to date her,” I say defensively. “You know I don’t date. I’m not meant for a relationship, and even if I didn’t have mommy issues, no woman in her right mind is ever going to want to put up with my schedule and the craziness of my life.”
Maddox shakes his head. “I’m going to ignore all of that dumbassery for a minute because it’s painful how you see yourself, but I wasn’t saying you’re going to make it up to her because you want to date her.
To be clear, I’m pretty sure you do want to date her, but that’s not what I’m talking about right now. ”
“I don’t want to date her.” Sure, I want to hang out with her, kiss her, fuck her senseless. But I don’t want to date her. That’s ridiculous.
“Whatever, man. I’m talking about being a good person. And maybe being her friend. Because if she’s been as alone as you said, she probably needs as many friends as she can get.”
“Right,” Ryder says. “And we can help. She seems cool, and Lexi loves her, so we’ll help you make it up to her, and then we’ll make them both one of ours.”
One of ours. I like the sound of that way more than I should. And not only regarding Blair, but Reed too. If anyone could make the two of them feel welcome and make sure they know they’re not alone, it’s the guys sitting right here. I know, because they did the same for me.
There’s a lump in my throat, and it takes a few tries to clear it. “Thanks, guys. You’re right. They could both use more people in their corner. So how am I going to make it up to Blair and prove I’m not the asshole she thinks I am?”
All four of my closest friends lean forward, smiles on their faces, ready to help me make things right.
I’ve been feeling a bit like an outsider again, with most of them pairing up, and it was eating away at me more than I realized.
But now, with all of us united under a common goal, I can see that I’m not.
They’re still my family—my brothers—but life is always in flux. It always changes.
It’s changing right now.
And maybe that’s not such a bad thing, after all.