Page 31

Chapter 30

Brooks

A knock on the door is the one true way to get Rocky up and away from wherever he’s decided to take his latest nap.

I open the door to find Zack, carrying a gift bag.

“I know we’re fairly new to the whole brother thing, but you do know that it’s not my birthday, right?” I question.

“I’m the king of birthdays,” he quips, shrugging his shoulders. “Of course I know that. This is for Rocky!” Zack sinks down, putting his hand out to a tap-dancing English Bulldog.

By the time I shut and lock the door, Zack is already lying on the floor in my living room, letting the dog lick his face. I swear, Zack can match any sort of dog energy. He pulls out a few dog toys before holding up a small Cosmos jersey.

“Wait. What is that?” I laugh as Zack gets on his knees, still holding it up.

His eyes go wide as he rolls them, right into a laugh. “Obviously this is my jersey, but dog sized!” Rocky smells the fabric and wiggles in excitement. Zack puts it on him and it’s fucking awesome.

“Will you take our picture?” Zack asks as he holds Rocky beside him, repping #34 and Cosmos blue.

Grabbing his phone, I take a few pictures and know these will blow up on social media. I can’t help but grab my own phone to text Lia.

Me

listen rocky has his own cosmos jersey

zack brought it over

Lia

pics or it didn’t happen

I’ll get you one

“Uh oh. Who are you texting?” Zack practically sings, slinking into the couch.

Looking up from my phone, I try to play it off like it’s no big deal. “No one.”

His chin tilts down as he stares at me. “Fuck you. I refuse to accept that answer.” He crosses his arms and leans back. “Spill.”

The thing about Zack is he makes you feel like you should tell him everything. I wrestle with sharing about Lia, but the protocol for keeping secrets roars. “I shouldn’t,” I protest, sitting on the loveseat across the room.

“Maybe you should… it looks like you’re sweating bullets,” Zack observes as he leans forward. I wipe the sweat from my forehead—shit, he’s not wrong.

Before I can launch into any of it, he interrupts me. “I’m a vault. I can keep a secret,” he promises, pretending to zip his lips.

I hesitate for a moment, then decide to give him something. “I met this woman a few nights before my first game this year—”

“There’s no way you got her pregnant,” Zack interrupts, leaning forward on his elbows.

I scoff. “What?! No. It’s not like that. It’s—”

“She’s stalking you? Is that why you locked the door?” He turns to look at the entryway.

“Normal people lock their doors. Especially athletes who don’t want random visitors. But no, she’s not stalking me.” I shake my head and run my hands through my hair, nervousness creeping in.

Zack nods his head. “Is she married? Does the guy know? Is he threatening you?” Concern deepens the lines on his forehead, and if I didn’t know him, I’d think he was on something.

I shake my head and let it fall forward. “What is actually wrong with you? No. None of that. If you’d let me tell you, we could quit this weird back and forth.”

To my surprise, he doesn’t say anything else and sits back, his foot tapping on the floor.

“I met her a few days before the game. It wasn’t planned. Sort of just happened. We hit it off. And then a few days later, she got a job offer with the Jags.”

“That’s who you were texting?”

I sigh out a breath. “Yes. I was texting Lia.”

“And you look like that because…you and Lia… are secretly dating? You can’t get enough of her? But it’s probably frowned upon?” Zack unravels the web in front of me. He jumps up, clapping his hands. “We’ve got a forbidden romance on our hands!” He leans over, offering a high five.

I hesitantly hit my hand to his. “Why are you acting like this is fun? Also, who the fuck says forbidden romance?”

He gives me a long look down his nose. “Don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about. You and I both know you read romance books.”

I pause, locking my eyes on his while trying to keep my face blank. “Who told you that? ”

“You did. Just now. Other than that, I heard Riley and Emilie gushing about some book with bats and fairies and one of them let it slip. They didn’t know I was listening.”

Damn . I didn’t think either of them would willingly tell Zack. It’s a guilty pleasure that could be much worse. Who knew that books could be something to help pull you from of a depressive episode? Not me, until my therapist recommended trying something new to keep my mind busy. If Zack went upstairs, he’d find that entire series on my bookshelf and quite a few more like it.

“Listen, no shade. You can do whatever you want, but don’t act like you have no idea what a forbidden romance is.” He grins as he sits, reaching down and petting Rocky.

“Fine. Yes, we’re keeping it a secret. Some could call it forbidden.”

“Well, do you have any skeletons in closets? Perhaps a sex tape you thought was private? Or sexting photos?” Zack’s eyebrows raise as he runs through the questions.

“You and I are very different people. No sex tapes, and I don’t think I’m cool enough to sext.”

He lifts his hands in surrender. “There’s no way you have zero skeletons. Think hard.”

“My ex has been texting me.” I shift on the couch, my words quick and messy. “I haven’t texted her back or anything. But I haven’t told Lia.”

“Are you talking about Rebecca? She didn’t even come see you when you were recovering. Why is she texting you now?”

I shrug my shoulders, letting my hands fall to my sides. “I don’t know. She wants to get together but I’m not going to do that.”

Zack’s blonde hair flops in front of his eyes as he dramatically listens. “Sure, sure. Well, why are you keeping it from Lia?”

The million-dollar question and one I don’t have an answer for. Well, I have an answer, but it’s shit. I don’t know .

“It sounds stupid, but I don’t know. Part of me thought she’d leave me alone once I didn’t respond. It’s just… this thing with me and Lia, it’s new and I don’t want to seem like I have all this baggage and shit.”

“Right. You already have a surprise family. I get it,” he jokes, and it makes me feel better. “If I’m remembering correctly, isn’t this the ex who quite literally didn’t give a single fuck and cheated on you, for like… a while?”

“Yeah, that’s the one.” I think back to the night Riley and Zack took me to a bar, where I had too many beers and told them the entire Rebecca saga. They both blocked her from social media that night, a small showing of solidarity, but at the time it felt like the most loyal of things.

“Hate to break it to you, but I don’t think she’s the kind to take a hint. You should tell her.”

“Right. I know. But still… I don’t have the balls to bring it up. Why am I like this?” I scrub my face with my hands.

Zack claps his hands, making me jump and causing Rocky to bark and run to the door. “Hey! None of that. There’s nothing wrong with you,” he protests. “I get it. You finally have something good, and you don’t want to ruin it. Believe me, I’ve been there.” He laughs to himself and looks at the floor for a few seconds. “Someone should learn from my mistakes. Don’t let any of this come out and surprise her… that is not what you want. Can confirm.”

He’s right. I absolutely don’t want to make Lia feel like I have anything to hide. Immediately, I’m putting myself in her shoes and wondering how it’d feel if the roles were reversed. My stomach rolls. This would fucking sting. No doubt.

“You’re right. I know you’re right. I don’t know why I’ve been avoiding this. Now it seems like a bigger deal than it should.”

“Well, we can’t go back, only forward. Talk to her about it. Look at that—I gave advice to my little brother.” The grin stretching across Zack’s lip is contagious. Ultimately, he’s the most unbothered person I’ve ever met, and I wish I could steal some of it—bottle it up for when I spiral.

I smile and nod before putting this topic to rest and moving on. “Wait, do you seriously not lock your doors?”