Kicked: A Bad Boy Sports Romance (72 page)

“Who's it from?” I asked, my throat creaky and my words warbling.

“Your dad. Again.”

I sat up and hugged a pillow to my chest, painfully aware of Patrick's desperate attempts to not intrude on our girl time. He was in the kitchen trying to make himself something to eat before he left to go to a job interview.

“If it's Flor, I might take it,” I whispered. “Nobody else.”

Addi sighed and watched me with sympathetic eyes. At least I had her to count on. She'd known about my Flor obsession since forever and hadn't shunned me for it. That's what
real
family was all about. Real family stood by you no matter what, didn't judge, let you be yourself and loved you for it.

“But I guess he's not calling.” I paused and wiped away a sniffle. “Or coming.”

“You guessed wrong, dope.” The door swung open and Flor marched in, his face a bloody mess and his clothes rumpled from the fight. I wanted to stand up and throw myself at him, but I didn't. I made myself sit and wait for him to come to me, to wrap me in his arms and pull me against him. His fingers brushed through my hair and drew a shaky breath from my chest. “Sorry I took so long. You took my car, remember? And the fight didn't stop after you left. Your dad rushed me.” I curled my fingers in Flor's shirt. “And then my mom took off and we got into yet another fight trying to stop her. I have no idea where she is right now and she won't answer her phone.”

“I ruined our family,” I whispered. “I'm sorry.”

“No,” Flor growled sharply, squeezing me even tighter. “You didn't. What happened back there … there were a lot of feelings that needed to come out. Your dad's never liked me, and my mom's always kind of resented him for it.”

“But they're the perfect couple,” I whispered and Flor snorted.

“Even perfect couples fight every now and again. Some things needed to be said and they were. It wasn't pretty, but it happened.” He paused and I felt his breath catch. “Besides, it doesn't matter. They're adults and we're adults. They can do what they want to do and so can we. Abi, I spent all these years avoiding an 'us' for this very reason, but now that I've let myself have you … I could never let you go. I'd choose you first for infinity.”

My throat closed up and Addi excused herself, grabbing Patrick by the arm and steering him from the room.

Flor ran his hand down my side and rested it on my hip, just over my tattoo, and then we sat in pained silence for awhile.

“I'll talk to my mom again,” Flor said finally, breaking the quiet and drawing his cell from his pocket. He dialed her up and got no answer, shooting off a quick text before he scooted me off of his lap. “Just as soon as I can get ahold of her.”

I watched a frown cross his lips and sat up, feeling groggy and waterlogged, like my emotions were too heavy to bear. But bear them I would. This thing with Flor and me, it would work. I would make sure of that.

“First,” I told him, reaching out a thumb to brush his bloody lip. One of his lip rings was missing again.
Not good.
He flinched, but he didn't pull away. “We need to get you cleaned up.”

Flor showered and switched into a change of clothes that he'd left in my top right dresser drawer for our sleepovers before planting a searing kiss on my mouth and leaving to find his mom. Meanwhile, I paced and let Addi force a beer on me, gazing down at my phone and wondering if I should just delete all of the voicemail that my dad had left me. It couldn't be good, really. None of it could. In the back of my mind, I held onto the hope that my dad would just give up and turn a blind eye, pretend none of this was happening and go on like he always had, but I knew the situation had grown beyond that, morphed into a monster that I wasn't capable of controlling.

“River's a grown ass woman, Abi. If she doesn't want anyone to find her, it's not like it's hard. Maybe she got a hotel room for the night? Stopped over at a friend's house? Hell, she could be sitting in her office right now trying to figure things out.” Addi paused and twirled the empty brown bottle in her hands, eyes focused on the label and not on me. “As for your dad, maybe you should hear what he has to say? Running from things won't make them any better.”

“I know,” I moaned, slumping over the counter and gazing at Addi from the corner of my eye. “Logically, I get that, but at the same time, I'm terrified of what he's going to say, how he's going to look at me.”

“Then maybe it really is best that you go and see him, talk with him about this when Flor and River aren't around. Honestly,” Addi said, her voice getting that
I told you so
tone in it, “that might've been a better way to go about it to begin with. If you two hadn't been rutting in the hallway – ”

I cut her off.

“We were not
rutting,
” I said indignantly, standing up straight. “We were … necking or something.” I flushed. “And anyway, River hasn't stopped over here once since we moved in. How was I supposed to know that she was just going to randomly show up today? At the most inopportune moment, too.” I sighed and rested my fingertips on the counter. My homework problem hadn't disappeared with the revelation and there were a ton of errands I still needed to take care of.

I looked Addi straight in the eyes.

“Oh hell no,” she said, sounding like Theo for a second, all sass and snark. “I am
not
going with you to talk to your dad.”

“Addi, please. He actually likes you. If you're there and you show him there's nothing to worry about, that I've got someone on my end who supports me, then it might help.”

“I think you've gone completely bat shit,” she said, but she was already standing up and adjusting her outfit just so.

“Thank you,” I blurted before she'd even agreed, coming around the counter to give her a hug. “When you and Patrick have your first kid, I promise to babysit.” Addi rolled her eyes and hugged me back.

“Trust me, for this, you'll be babysitting all my kids every weekend, birthday, and holiday. And I can assure you, I'm going to collect.”

My dad's car was still in the driveway when Addi and I got to the house. Somehow, I'd managed to make the short drive into an adventure, steering us off on other enterprises. I'd stopped by the store and picked up a few nonperishables, filled up at the gas station, and deposited an eight month old check that I'd gotten from Flor's grandma for my birthday. Eighteen dollars richer and forced to feel Addi's scrutinizing gaze as I weaved around town desperately trying to avoid the unavoidable.

“I can't do this,” I told her as we pulled up and sat there in silence for several moments. “I can't face him.”

“Abi,” Addison said, turning and taking my hands in hers. “If you really love Flor which, to be honest with you, you must because nobody in their right mind would put themselves through so much shit for a fling, then you can do this. Once it's over, no matter what happens, at least it'll be done. You can stop worrying and wondering and get on with your life. Now,” she reached over and unhooked my seatbelt, “stand up and move your ass up those steps.”

I sighed and did as she said, relieved when she got out of the car and came with me. I'd been half-expecting her to bail.

“Dad?” I asked, stepping quietly inside with Addi on my heels. He wasn't in the living or dining rooms, so I checked the kitchen and saw him out back, elbows on his knees, sitting on one of my stepmother's DIY Adirondack chairs. “Dad?” I slid open the back door and he turned to look at me, a frown creasing his lips as I slipped outside. Instead of coming after me, Addison shut the door behind me and locked it.
That bitch.
I turned back to my dad and swallowed hard.

“What the hell are you thinking, Abigail?” he asked me, turning his gaze back to my stepmother's garden. It was so perfectly tended, not a weed in sight. All organic, of course. River didn't believe in pesticides, so she pulled each and every weed out by hand, even the spiky ones. “Florian, even in the best of circumstances, is not a man that you should be betting your future on.” He scoffed and shook his head as I leaned against the glass and tried to still the frantic beating of my heart. “Even then, he's your brother, Abi.”

“Step,” I corrected, as I'd done a million times before. My dad glanced sharply over at me.

“You grew up together,” he said, voice hard and unyielding. “I brought him up as my own son. Just like River treated you as her daughter.”

“I grew up with Addi, too,” I said. “I've known her longer than I've known Flor even. And Max. I knew him just as long. Dad, Flor was never a brother to me. He's … the childhood friend I always dreamed of being with.” I flushed bright and looked away. This was not the kind of conversation I wanted to be having with my father. “Besides, you never treated him like a son. Dad, you've always hated Flor.”

“I don't hate him,” he blustered, but I wasn't done talking.

“And River's always been nice to me, but like a distant aunt or something. She was never really my mother either. That whole
my kid, my problem
thing you guys worked out might've been the perfect solution to keep your relationship strong, but Flor and I aren't siblings, Dad. And I'm in love with him.” I took a shaking breath. “And please don't make me choose one or the other of you. It would break me.” I felt a little like Ariel in
The Little Mermaid,
but brushed that aside. This wasn't a shallow, fleeting feeling that would fade with time. Obviously I'd tried that. Didn't work. My love for Flor was like one of my stepmother's weeds. No matter how many times you tried to get rid of it, it came back. And besides, what is a weed really anyway? Just a native plant that grows well where it's supposed to, just something whose value hasn't been discovered yet.

I took a step forward.

“If you think you're going to get my permission to … to … sleep with your brother then you have another thing coming, Abigail.” My dad cringed like he'd been struck, shaking his head and standing up. Luckily, when he moved to the sliding door, it was unlocked.
Addi, you sneaky bastard.
I followed after him as he moved into the kitchen and poured himself a glass of wine.

“I'm not asking for your permission,” I told him, putting my fingers in my pockets like Flor always did. “I'm telling you the truth. I'm telling you what's going to happen and hoping you love me enough to accept me for it. Flor and I are going to be together.”

“And how did you think it would work when you got married? Had a child?” My father sipped his drink and checked his cell, but he didn't look at me.

“There's no law against marrying your stepbrother.” I slid my eyes away and focused on the floor. Call me a weirdo, but it was true: I'd checked. And why should there be? Flor and I were
not
related, and I didn't consider him my sibling. I didn't care if anybody else did. They hadn't lived my life and it wasn't their happiness that was on the line: it was mine.

“It's sick, Abigail. I don't care if there's a law on the books or not. You have a moral obligation to act a certain way.” My dad turned to me and our eyes locked, his just as blue as my own. I wondered suddenly about my mother and what might've happened if she were still around, if Flor and I had met on the street instead. “What about your sister, Abi? Don't you want to have a future with her? If this continues, I don't know if you will.”

My eyes filled with tears, but I pushed them back, forcing my hands to stay in my pockets, so I didn't clench my fists.

“It's just love, Dad. We're not hurting anyone.”

“Abigail, stop. This discussion is over. You heard what I had to say. Florian is a cancer and I'm cutting him out of our lives.”

“What about River?” I asked, refusing to let this go. I had a feeling that if I dropped the ball now, I might never be able to pick it up again. “Do you really think she's going to abandon her son?”

“River can make her own choices,” he said, but his voice broke a little on the last word.

“Dad, where is she?” I asked, but he shook his head.

“Abigail, maybe you should consider moving back in with me.”

I glared at him and blinked back tears.

“No.”

He whirled on me then, a fit of anger and rage and such overwhelming sadness that I thought I was going to die from the onrush of emotions.