Page 58 of The Secret Play

“Recent,” he repeated, his voice laced with disbelief. “And Winnie? How long have you known she’s his?”

“Nico, it’s not what you think.”

“Then explain it to me,” he said, his voice rising. “Because from where I’m standing, it looks like you’ve been keeping a hell of a secret from me.”

“I didn’t know, Nico. Not at first. I didn’t even know his name that night, we kept our masks on?—”

He winced. “I heard. Go on.”

“I made the decision to keep Winnie, to raise her on my own. I didn’t think?—”

“You didn’t think what?” he interrupted, his eyes flashing.

“I didn’t think he needed to know, whoever he was,” I said, my voice trembling. “What man wants to hear they got their one-night stand pregnant, Nico?”

“Guess we’ll never know.”

“Don’t do that. You tell me what you’d do if you got that call from a hookup. Tell me how happy you’d be to hear that out of some girl whose name and face you didn’t even know.”

He glanced away. “It’d be hard?—”

I laughed sharply. “Hard?”

“But I’d deal.”

“Right. You’d deal. Perfect Nico Grimaldi, always making the right choices. Always the good guy?—”

“Stop, Gem,” he said quietly. “This doesn’t need to be a fight.”

“Fine. I didn’t think he’d want to know. And I was scared. I was scared of what he’d say, of what he’d do. Maybe he’d hate Winnie or me or worse. Maybe he’d want custody…so I kept it to myself.”

He stared at me, his jaw tight and his fists clenched at his sides. “And now? What’s your excuse for lying to me about this since you knew?”

“I needed to tell Casey first. She’s his child, and Casey is your coach, so telling you first would have been wrong.”

“I’m only your brother, so I don’t count?”

“You know what I mean.”

He exhaled loudly. “When did you tell him?”

“Last night.”

Nico’s shoulders sagged slightly, the anger in his eyes giving way to something more complicated—hurt, maybe, or disappointment. I hated this so much. Disappointing Nico made my stomach knot up. “I don’t know what to think, Gemma. I’ve always thought the world of Coach. He’s been there for me. He’s been like a father to me.”

“I know.”

“After Dad had his stroke, you remember what it was like. That weird lost feeling…”

I did. I remembered it well. We’d both been confused and lost after Dad’s stroke, and Nico had had to step up to handle not just the household, but Dad’s care, too. Initially, we tried to take care of him ourselves. It didn’t go well.

I half smiled at the memory. “Do you remember that first time you tried to make oatmeal for him?”

He chuckled. “You mean when I almost burned the house down?”

I laughed, too. Mimicking his voice, I said, “It was only a small fire.”

“I didn’t know what else to tell the firefighters.” He grinned. But that grin slowly died. “I know it’s self-serving to say it, but after the fire, I knew we couldn’t take care of him at home.”

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