Page 59 of The Secret Play

Initially, it had been a sore spot between us, but I was young and naïve, and I’d thought all we had to do was figure out how to cook. But the fire highlighted how wrong I’d been. It wasn’t just oatmeal. It was physical therapy, speech therapy, bathing my father…I couldn’t be at his beck and call twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. I wasn’t a nurse. I didn’t know what I was doing. Neither did Nico. Thankfully, he’d been a hell of a college athlete and caught the eye of the talent scouts and ended up on the Atlanta Fire.

It was the only reason we had the money for the assisted living facility.

“I know we couldn’t take care of him.”

“You’re not still mad at me for it?”

I shook my head. “I was an angry kid. I’m sorry for what I said back then.”

He nodded. “It’s all good. I’m not…we don’t need to rehash that. Ancient history. Right now, I’m still not sure about Coach.” Nico’s anger tightened his face. “He’s been sneaking around with my baby sister. He’s the father of my niece?—”

“He didn’t know,” I said quickly. “None of this is his fault, Nico. I didn’t give him the chance to step up. I didn’t give him the choice.”

“That stuff isn’t his fault, but breaking the team’s rules is. There are rules about this kind of thing for the team, and that includes Coach. You can’t fraternize with players or their families, it’s just not done.”

My knotted stomach flipped. “Will he lose his job?”

“I don’t know.” He let out a long breath, running a hand through his hair. “I just…I don’t know how to feel. I’m angry. I’m disappointed. But more than anything, I’m surprised.”

I bit my lip, fighting back the tears that threatened to spill over. “He’s a good man, Nico. I know you don’t believe that right now, but he is. He cares about me, and he cares about Winnie. He’s just…overwhelmed.”

Nico studied me for a long moment. “What are you going to do now?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted, my voice barely above a whisper. “I really don’t know.” I couldn’t hold the tears back this time.

My big brother crossed the room and held me while I cried. After I calmed down, he mumbled into my hair, “This is messy.”

“Yeah.”

“He took advantage?—”

“Absolutely the fuck not. Don’t do that. There was no imbalance of power between us, no deceit other than me keeping Winnie’s paternity a secret. He did nothing wrong to me, Nico.”

He drew a deep breath. “Gem, you’re my baby sister. It’s hard for me to wrap my head around all of this.”

“Take all the time you need, but don’t act like he’s some asshole who hurt me. He’s not.”

He slowly nodded, his lips tightening in frustration. “Right. You good?”

“One day, I will be.”

When Nico left, the house felt unbearably quiet. I sat on the couch, staring at the ring Casey had left behind. I didn’t know what the future held. But for the first time, I was beginning to understand just how much I had to lose.

Chapter 23

Casey

The moment I noticed the empty spot on my thumb, my stomach sank.

I froze in the middle of tying my skate, staring down at my hand like it didn’t belong to me. My father’s wedding ring. The one I always wore. The one I never took off, except?—

My breath hitched as the memory came flooding back. Gemma’s kitchen. The sink. Washing the dishes before I left in a rush.

I had left it there.

Cursing under my breath, I yanked my skate off, the practice session now forgotten. My players milled around, focused on their own routines, but I felt their glances. The rumor hadn’t gone away. It wouldn’t for a while. Juicy gossip clung like smoke on your skin. After my run-in with Nico the day before, this—this ridiculous, personal slip-up—was just another log on the fire.

I was not the man I wanted to be. Not yet.

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