Page 50 of The Sweetest Chirp

Telly looks like I have three heads sprouting out of my ass. “What. The. Fuck. Bro. Do you hear yourself?”

“I do, and I sound pretty damn determined,” I decide with a nod.

“Yeah, and totally ridiculous. She hid your kid.”

“It doesn’t matter. I’m moving on from that. I just need her to move on from me breaking her heart.”

He inhales through his nose, leaning against the doorjamb. “So, because you broke her heart, it’s okay she hid your kid?” I just stare at him, and he shoots me a “Come on” look. “It doesn’t, if you didn’t know.”

“Nothing about what happened is okay,” I tell him, packing my bag. “But we can’t change a damn thing, can we?”

He shrugs. “I guess not, but it’s still fucked up.”

“Sure, but do I make it hard on all of us and hurt Arwen?”

Telly presses his lips together, his eyes boring into mine. “Absolutely not.”

“Exactly,” I answer, swallowing past the lump in my throat. “I forgave her, and I’m moving on. Please don’t hold it against her.”

“I don’t even know her.”

“Sure, but you will. And you’ll know Arwen,” I tell him. “You’re my boy. I want you in my life, and those two are my life.”

He hisses out a breath, shaking his head. “Fuck, dude. You are a goner.”

I don’t even feel ashamed. All I feel is the truth of the words. The moment I set eyes on Audrina again, I knew there was only one option. Bring her home and make her admit she never stopped loving me. Then Arwen was thrown into the mix, and there is no way in hell I’m letting them go.

Where they go, I go.

I chance a glance at my buddy, who still looks a bit bewildered. “I am. I always have been when it comes to her.”

“Why did you let her go?” he asks after a moment. He came to the team a year after the fateful argument that had Audrina running, and honestly, I don’t want to rehash it.

“Because I was an idiot,” I tell him, packing some underwear and socks. I have practice the next two days before I leave on a seven-game road trip. Figures that when Audrina and Arwen finally come home, I have to be gone for almost thirteen days. I keep going over my schedule in my head, trying to figure out how I can spend the most time with them. I’d like to take Audrina out on a date, too, before I head out, but I’m not entirely sure how I can make that happen. Not that I won’t have time, but that she won’t want to go. I feel like I’m breaking through her walls. She isn’t downright glaring at me. Instead, she’s annoyed because she wants me.

Or, at least, that’s what my delusional self is saying.

“Owen told me what happened,” Telly says, and my eyes drift shut. For a team of men, everyone sure is gossipy. Or maybethat’s just Owen. He loves watching drama. Don’t put him in it—he has enough of it from his family—but man, he’s like that Michael Jackson GIF of him with the popcorn. He eats up drama. When all that happened, Audrina and I were the talk of the team for a month.

Meanwhile, I was dying inside.

Lost and broken without any way of admitting to her how badly I fucked up.

“Of course he did,” I mutter, shaking my head.

“He was Team You. But, dude, you were a dick.”

I glance over at him, my brows raised. “Wow, thanks.”

“Still doesn’t mean it’s okay, what she did.”

“We are both aware,” I sigh as I shake my head. “And we both fucked up. It’s time to move on.”

Telly comes all the way into my room, sitting on my bed as I fold some shirts. He’s a big dude, so when he sits, my bag drifts toward him, though neither of us fixes it. I just continue to pack. “When I’d get sad that my mom and dad didn’t want me, my grandma would tell me that you can’t change the past or what was said or done. That all you can do is live in the moment and make sure to mold your future into the one you want.”

Everything he says is what I’m feeling. “That’s what I want to do.”

“And I support you,” he says, sending me a smirk. “I just don’t want you to be blinded by the fact that you have a kid and you’re trying to do everything to make it right for her. Make it easier for Arwen because you had such a good family dynamic. Not all kids from broken homes are broken.”

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