Page 47 of Who’s Playing You (In The Nick of Time #1)

NICK SOBA

“ H oney, I’m home!” I yelled into the house as I walked through the door just after six.

Tomorrow is our first game of the season and they released us on the earlier side from practice today so that we could get home to rest up for the game. I hauled ass up the Thruway to New Hope not jonesing about my first official pro game being tomorrow, but rather jonesing to see my woman.

“In here,” Scottie called back.

As I walked into the kitchen, I saw the new couch through to the living room and the new dining room table and chairs. It was all perfect.

I hope she loved it.

I found Scottie stirring something on the stove and I walked up behind her, wrapping my arms around her while I breathed her in and kissed my favorite spot behind her ear. “How was your day?”

She leaned her head to the side, allowing me to snuggle into her neck even better. “Interesting,” she replied very nonchalantly.

“Oh?” I questioned.

“Mmm,” she replied.

“Care to share? Something interesting come up at school today, or something with one of your art pieces?”

“No. Nothing too interesting there,” she responded as she kept stirring and leaned further into me.

“Hmm. Well I don’t know, hun, you’ll have to tell me then.”

“The moving guys were here when I got back…” she trailed off.

I grinned. “Oh yeah, do you like it all? It’s what we picked out so I hope you like it. From what I can see, it looks incredible!”

“The furniture is beautiful, Nick,” she replied.

Nick?

I stuttered, “We-well, what’s interesting then? I told you it’d be coming this week after we picked it all out. I didn’t realize it’d all come today, but I had hoped.”

“You did tell me that, and the head mover guy was very nice. He said to give him a call if something wasn’t where you wanted it, Mr. Soba .”

Well shit.

“Umm, I think it looks perfect from here, don’t you think, honey?” I tried to play it off, knowing full well that the cat was out of the bag.

She turned in my arms, her pointer finger pushing into my chest. “What the fuck, Nick ?! You’re Nicholas fucking Soba! You’re my best friend’s little brother!”

“Well, the good news is my whole family already loves you so…” I decided to go with not just honesty but a little joke.

Wrong move.

“Seriously?!” she yelled back and I kind of just gave her a well yeah shrug.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened them again, she looked right into my soul. “Nicholas. Please tell me… did you know who I was? And if so… why not tell me?”

“Because of this?” I phrased it more like a question than a statement.

I let out a heavy sigh, because I was busted.

“Scottie, yes I knew who you were. Of course I knew who you were!” She was about to speak but I raised my hand to gesture for her to wait.

“I was afraid… I was afraid you wouldn’t give me a shot if you knew I was Nat’s little brother.

I was afraid you wouldn’t give me a snowball’s chance in hell of entertaining something romantic between us.

So I wanted you to get to know me - without any of the associations to Nat or my family. I wanted you to get to know me .”

With that, she visibly relaxed a little and looked at me with a mixture of sympathy, understanding and remorse. I hated it.

“You could have told me,” she whispered.

“Would you have?”

She closed her eyes and bit her lip. I hated how conflicted she was feeling. I cupped her face and gently, with my thumb, applied the tiniest pressure to her lip so her teeth released it.

“I didn’t think so,” I said so gently. “Shit, Scottie - I’m sorry okay. I didn’t directly lie to you but I withheld that on purpose. I know that. But it was my intention to tell you, tonight in fact because if you decided to come to tomorrow’s game, you’d have found out right quick,” I chuckled.

She looked up at me and gave me a little smile, “Kind of hard to hide you being out on the field, huh?”

“It would’ve been a little hard, yeah,” I smiled in return.

“So you’re like good right? Like some super sporty, great player or something?”

I let out a deep laugh because she was so clueless about sports that it was endearing. “I mean, kinda, yeah.”

“I feel like you’re downplaying it. Nat’s been bragging about you for years, saying you’re like some God’s gift to football or something.”

My eyebrows rose to the sky on that. “I’m sorry, what? Nat, as in my sister Natalie, has been bragging about me - saying nice things? I don’t believe it.”

She gave me a little smile, “Believe it hot-shot. She’s very proud of you, too.”

I think my jaw hit the ground. “As flattering and completely life-altering as that little tidbit of information is,” I stated, still processing the fact that my sister, who I thought hated me, was actually bragging about me.

“I just wanted a chance with you. An unbiased one. And had you known, you probably would have friend-zoned me right from the start.”

“Probably,” Scottie mumbled. “But… she’s my best friend, Nicholas. I feel so conflicted. She’ll probably hate me for this.”

“I’ll take the blame, and she’ll be fine.

This just makes you a for-real part of the family.

She’ll love that. It means you’re not going anywhere,” I said matter of factly.

“Plus, my mom already adores you, and now with the elevated status of being my girlfriend, well let me tell you that you’re entering Saintly territory in her eyes! ”

“You’re making this seem like something that’s not a big deal, when this is a huge deal.”

“What’s the real issue, honey? You like me, I really like you.

We’re both consenting adults. My entire family already loves you.

I see no issues with any of this. I apologized for not telling you, but I also think we wouldn’t be here right now if I’d have told you.

So maybe I was selfish for withholding that, but I was desperate for you to see me for me. ”

She leaned her head forward, letting it fall to my chest. I quickly enveloped her tiny frame in a bear hug. “You make it sound so simple,” she said and groaned. “But I’ll be viewed as some cradle robber. Oh my God! How old are you?!”

I just laughed. “It’s not funny, Nicholas. Seriously, how old are you? You know I’m pushing 30, right?”

“I’m fully aware, sweetheart. And I turned 23 in May.”

She just groaned. “Definitely a cradle robber!”

“Honey, you can rob my cradle any time you want with what you do to me.” I said and laughed.

“Your mother will not approve of that, and your sister is going to disown me. I can’t lose her, Nicholas. She’s the only family I’ve got,” she looked up at me with tears in her eyes.

“Shh, shh, honey. She won’t. She’ll be fine.

But all that stuff doesn’t matter,” to which she looked at me with confusion.

“You have me, regardless. I’ll forever be here for you.

Your family if you’ll have me. To me, the only thing that matters is this, us.

Because I want this, I want us. Desperately if I’m being honest,” I told her, laying myself out bare before her.

“And I just hope that you want it a fraction as much as I do because… I love you.”

I couldn’t help myself, so I tacked on, “Besides, you rock that cradle quite nicely.” I punctuated the joke by wiggling my eyebrows up and down suggestively. Mission accomplished because she let out a giggle and swatted my chest.