Page 47

LOGAN

W hen Dean kissed me, I expected the feelings to bubble up—the anger, the panic. And it did, it was there but so was rationalized embarrassment and warmth. The feeling of his lips on mine causing my breath to hitch in my throat from the spontaneous moment.

It stung my lips in the best kind of way as I settled back against the seat.

When we pulled up to Dansby House there was a Range Rover out front that I’ve never seen before. Whoever was here had an exorbitant amount of money and parked like a douchebag in the middle of the driveway.

“Why is Mrs. Shore here?” Cael asked, leaning between the seats as Dean parked in his usual space.

“No clue,” Dean popped his belt, and we all made our way into the house to find Coach, Silas, and Mrs. Shore standing in the living room, talking quietly. She was beautiful; tall like Silas and shared the same compassionate, pensive grey eyes. Her hair was pulled back into a sleek ponytail that pulled on her already smooth features.

“Josh.” Silas turned and wiped his hands on his jeans. “Can we have a second?”

“Boys, scatter,” Coach barked, making Van and Cael disappear with the pizza, but Dean didn’t budge. “Tucker, this doesn’t involve you,” Coach said in a despondent tone.

“All due respect, Coach, I’m not leaving,” he said before I could say he could stay, grateful for the conviction in his voice, my back gravitated toward his chest like a magnet.

“It’s fine,” Silas said, cutting off whatever Coach was going to say next. “He knows anyways,” he sighed.

“Joshua, I’m Sylwia, Silas’ mother.” She held out her hand to me, and I felt Dean tense, waiting for my reaction.

“Mom,” Silas shook his head, and she dropped her hand, stepping back next to Coach.

“It’s nice to meet you.” The words came out tense, but they came out. “What’s going on?”

“Today the Shore company was raided and cleaned out for information on my father…our father…” Silas hissed. I had never seen him so uneasy. “It turns out that he was doing a lot of worse things than just sleeping with women and gambling,” he said, and his mother flinched. “Sorry,” Silas rubbed his thumb into his eye and took a deep breath.

“What does that have to do with me?” I asked.

“Everything,” Silas sighed. "You know he didn’t hide anything, Josh. Any transaction he made… they were all on those computers.”

“So what he was paying some whore in Lorette monthly,” I snapped, shoving the anger aside that tore up through all the boundaries I had built over the last few weeks. “Leave it at that, they don’t need to know why . They can just believe she was sleeping with him.”

“Her name is on the transfers, Josh,” Silas countered. “They’ve called me three times today already asking about her, asking about you. ”

“That’s bullshit. I shouldn’t be involved at all. I never even spoke to the man before opening day!” I stepped forward, and Coach tensed behind Silas. “I’m not going to hit anyone, you can call off your guard dog,” I grumbled at Silas and tried to relax a little as Dean followed my movements into the living room.

“You first,” Silas nodded, his eyes flickering up to Dean’s behind me.

Sylwia cleared her throat, and we both turned to look at her. "Josh, I know that all of this is very difficult and I’m acutely aware that you didn’t ask for any of it to be thrust upon you like this, but it’s here now. We’ve protected you from the press for as long as we can, the feds will go public with the case when the trial date is set and when that happens…”

“It’ll be a free-for-all,” I whispered.

“Yes.” Sylwia was far too kind for someone who had been hurt as much as I had. She was a victim too, it was clear in her stance. “You have to understand that they’ll twist the narrative, they’ll use you as a weapon, and if you don’t speak out about it, it will only give them reason to dig deeper,” Sylwia lowered her voice and stared me directly in the eyes.

“We have to get ahead of it, Josh,” Silas added. “And we need to do it fast, the longer we wait, the worse this will get.”

“So I don’t have a choice?” I said, looking around at the three of them. “Out myself as the bastard Shore son or have them tell the world about my sordid past?”

“That’s a funny way to say painful childhood.” Sylwia gave me a soft smile. “You have a choice, Joshua,” she said, using my full name like a weapon. “If you choose to stay quiet, you have my promise that we’ll do everything we can to protect you. You’ve suffered enough at the hands of,” she paused, her breath short before she continued, “my husband. There’s no need for you to suffer more.”

There was something about the way she said it that made me turn to face her, our shoulders lined up. She was practically taller than me but there was nothing about her that was menacing. She just held her polite smile and waited for me to figure it out on my own clock.

“How long have you known?” I asked her, I expected her to turn to Silas for reassurance, but she held my gaze.

“Silas came to me the second he found out,” she said, and I turned to him.

“You would be a momma’s boy,” I grumbled. We had fought about that more than once, and he’d told me that she didn’t know. But Silas was a fucking loud mouth.

“She deserved to know, Josh, whether or not I had your consent,” he argued.

“I don’t disagree.” I scowled. "What was your first reaction when he told you?”

Sylwia smiled at me still, her resolve unshakeable. “I was angry.”

“At my mother? About me?” I asked.

“At myself,” she said without hesitation. “I was too in love with a man who never had the intention of reciprocating that love, Josh. I was angry at myself for being a fool, angry that I never noticed the signs. Angry that he left you in that mess…” she trailed off.

“Oh, so you told her everything,” I said, my voice breaking. “I guess that makes us kindred souls,” I said to her. "Anger is all I feel.”

Dean tensed beside.

“All I felt,” I corrected myself, and he loosened the breath he was holding.

“Going to the press isn’t about revenge or justice,” Silas said. "It’s about protecting the narrative and your future.”

I turned away from his mother and ran my hands through my hair as I tossed my head back, trying to make sense of my panic. On the one hand, letting go of the information would feel great; I’d feel free. Released from the cage I’d be locked in. The Shore-shaped padlock was on the verge of being cut. On the other hand, it would disrupt everything I had built. Suddenly, my entire life would be in question. Did he do anything himself? Or is he just another Nepo-baby thriving under the Shore family name?

I swallowed tightly, the fear tipping the scales in favor of continuing on in silence.

“Josh,” Dean’s voice broke through the thoughts and I turned to look at him, still standing close with his arms crossed over his chest. His blue eyes were on fire and his jaw was tight from listening to the argument, holding his tongue and letting me get through it. He was too brave for his own good and it killed me.

“He doesn’t deserve peace,” Dean said, quiet but firm.

I cleared my throat and steadied my racing heart as I held his gaze.

No more words passed between us but I understood then that if Dean could find his courage to stand up to his parents, I could find the strength to stand up to mine. I nodded once and turned to Silas. "If we’re doing this then the team needs to know first. No surprises.”

“There’s no time for that.” Silas shook his head. "We have to sit down and put out a statement tonight.” He argued.

“You smell that?” I asked, relaxing my shoulders as Silas sighed in defeat.

“Josh,” Silas pushed, clearly losing his patience.

“It’s pizza, Silas,” I said. “I’m starving.”

“I’ll call the guys for dinner,” Dean said, reading my mind; he left the living room without giving Silas a chance to fight back against the motion.

“ We’re telling the team before they find out from anyone else,” I stared Silas down and stood my ground.

“You’re doing a very brave thing, Josh,” Sylwia said.

“It’s not brave,” I said. "It’s necessary.”

Everyone sat around the table eating, the chairs completely full except one that seemingly always remained empty. They chatted among themselves as Dean picked at his pepperoni, and I sat staring at Silas, waiting for him to start.

The room fell quiet when he stood from his chair. "I know it's unusual for us to have family dinners anymore, especially in the middle of the week, but…”

“Are you and Dad getting a divorce?” Cael asked, interrupting. The whole table groaned loudly.

“Cody, fuck off!” A crumpled paper towel soared across the table as people hollered at him. “Idiot!”

“Hey,” Arlo barked across the table, and everyone fell silent instantly. “Shut up and listen,” he warned, leaning against the door frame with pizza between his fingers.

“Some things are gonna hit the news in the next week or so about the Shores, and we wanted to get ahead of the rumors before you all get tangled up in it,” Silas said.

“We?” Van instantly questioned the plural use and looked around.

“My mother, myself and…” Silas inhaled.

“Me.” I stood at the other end of the table.

Everyone was silent with shock or amusement. Dean looked up at me from his seat, almost afraid to move. He was so still.

“Don’t.” I pointed to Cael. "I’m Silas’s half-brother, his dad is…” I swallowed tightly as Dean pushed his foot against mine beneath the table. “My dad, I know that sounds insane, but I’ve been living with it most of my life, and Silas just found out recently. It’s fresh, it’s fucking weird but it’s also now all of your problems.”

Everyone remained quiet as they listened intently. Arlo had pushed off the wall, surprisingly out of the loop. He stepped closer to the table behind Van, suddenly a lot more interested in the conversation.

“The press is going to come down hard on the Nest,” Silas explained. “Everyone is going to get questioned constantly for the next little while.”

“Why do they care?” Jensen asked, pulling his hat off and letting his messy hair free. “It doesn’t affect the game.”

“I’m the bastard son of the richest man in Harbor who just transferred in after being kicked off Lorette for a fight I didn’t start.” I cut Silas off and took the brunt of the shame that followed the explanation.

“An incident the press believes was his fault, the problem is Josh was already a target in the eyes of the press. He came here under a cloud, and this is going to bring a storm down on our heads; we have to be ready.” Everyone turned to Silas, some of them tapped their chests in understanding, some of them looked like they had more questions.

“Do you think they’ll get that intense?” Arlo asked, his heavy brows pulling together.

“I do,” Silas said, his tone exhausted. “They didn’t pull a single punch with Dean, they never do. Our family is about to go through the ringer with this investigation, they’re going to want to know every detail of how Josh ended up at Harbor, no matter how gruesome.”

“And it’s gruesome.” I swallowed.

“Don’t answer their questions—deflect to gameplay. We wanted to tell you so you weren’t blindsided this week.” Silas leaned over the table.

“I wanted to tell you because you’re my teammates,” I corrected Silas, who sighed and gave a defeated nod. Dean tapped his foot against mine as a few more of them tapped their chests. It wasn’t a sentiment I shared, but I understood it a little more now. “And you don’t deserve to take the heat for this no matter how it looks.”

Cael’s head flicked back and forth between us, eyes narrowed in suspicion. “What the fuck are you doing, Cody?” I finally asked.

“Trying to figure out how we all missed you being a Shore love child,” he said, his words mincing at the end as the laughter took over.

Before anyone could say anything, Coach Cody reached out and slapped the back of Cael’s head roughly. “Idiot,” he sighed as the rest of the table erupted in laughter.