Page 91 of Dare to be Different

I mean, whose family comes to a match that literally determines who fucks who?

“Fuck that,” Kade snaps at me, wiping my brow with a towel and getting in my face. “If you embarrass me by losing, I will never let you live it down. It’s like Dare code. You have to top first. Dom did.”

“Dom always tops.” I take the towel from him and wipe the sweat from my face.

“No, he takes a pounding just like you will. But after you win this fight and bring honor to the family. Get your shit together. You look like garbage out there.”

“I got fifty on Remy!” Kolt shouts.

“I’ll take that action,” Bass says, getting everyone’s bets.

I block them all out and stare at Remy. Shirtless, sweating, hair all fucked up, eyes on fire. Yeah, I don’t care how we fuck as long as we do. I just want him. Badly. Part of me wants to make everyone leave so we can fight for position right here, right now. Whoever gets the other pinned gets to top, right on the mats of the cage. All that blood I tried to direct to my head goes south, making my dick perk up again.

“Hey, Zahn.” Hardin comes up behind me, spinning me to face him through the cage. “Get this shit done, man. I want to be able to tell my daughter that her godfather fought for top and won.”

My chest cinches and my face either smiles or gapes, I’m not sure. “Daughter?” I link my fingers through the cage, rattling it. “Godfather?”

Hardin smiles like a proud dad. “You better earn it.”

Oh, holy fuck. The Dares are getting a girl! Finally! I’m going to have a niece.

Still smiling, I meet Remy in the middle of the mats. We bump taped and padded fists, but he grabs my wrist when he notices my smile.

“You going soft on me, Zahn?”

“Nope. Can’t be a pussy anymore, Rem. I’m gonna be a godparent.” I tug him in and whisper, “I’m gonna fucking kill you.”

“Shit.” He stumbles back, actually looking a bit intimidated.

“Nervous?” I ask.

“No,” he lies.

Twelve minutes later, one of us is victorious and the other takes a world of shit about the loss. Both of us are smiling.

Sitting around the disgusting table in what should be a kitchen, I stare at Remy’s mom, trying to hide my cringe. She’s let herself go as far as she’s let the house go. She’s a large woman with no self-respect and a mental health disorder that causes her to hoard absolutely everything. Everything. There’s barely enough room for the three of us to squeeze around the table with all the clutter and garbage piled up everywhere I look.

I’m trying not to judge… but I am. I don’t understand this disorder, and I know it must fucking suck, but my heart hurts for Remy. Not his mom. He had to grow up in this. And I don’t like seeing him here anymore.

“Lung cancer,” Lidia says matter-of-factly. “We thought it was just another chest infection, but nope. Lung cancer.”

I feel like I’m going to get a damn chest infection breathing in this rancid waste.

“Where is he?” Remy asks; he’s never been able to decide if he’s mad at her or if he pities her. I still don’t think he knows.

“Stayin’ with your Aunt Patty and Uncle Charles,” Lidia admits, feeling guilty. “Until the prognosis is made and we have a plan in place, it’s better for him to be…” She looks down, obviously ashamed. “I can’t leave my…”

It must be such a horrible condition to be unable to leave her house full of trash to be with her sick husband. Fuck, that hurts. Lidia is so attached to her hoarded items that it physically makes her sick to even think about clearing them out or being away from them. Again, I understand it’s an illness, but just like she’s picking her stuff over her husband right now, she did that to Remy and Rhett growing up. As kids, they weren’t more important than her things. That’s why Remy stayed with us more often than not. Rhett had another friend he stayed with.

“What do you need from me?” Remy asks.

“Help,” Lidia says. She lights a smoke right in the kitchen, if you can even call it that. “I don’t like to ask, but we need help, Remington.”

“Money?” he clarifies.

She nods, sucking her cigarette. “I’m sorry.”

I know she’s sorry. She’s not a bad person, but… fuck, I don’t hold a lot of love for her.

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