Page 131 of Their Greatest Strength

“I do. Because until he’s eighteen, he’s mine to care for. And maybe I’m starting to feel a little homesick.”

She’s not my mother right now. The only thing she is right now is a danger to my brother. That’s what I tell myself when I lunge for her.

“If you’re going to threaten me, do it outright,” I demand, taking a fistful of her jacket and using the hold to haul her toward me. “Try taking him from me. I dare you.”

“What’s going on here?” Jamie asks, appearing at my side. With a steady hand, he peels my fingers from my mother’s coat and shifts me ever so slightly behind him, his eyes finding mine. “What did she do to you?”

My mother guffaws, straightening her jacket. “What did I do toher? Did you not see the way she was touching me?”

“I did, and my question stands,” he snaps.

I take a deep breath and press my hand to his back. “Let’s just go, Jamie.”

He doesn’t immediately agree. Concern pulls his features taut as he hesitates, searching my eyes for answers, knowing he won’t find any on my face.

“Please. I want to see Nate,” I whisper.

Interlocking our fingers, he nods stiffly and moves me to his other side, the one furthest away from my mother.

“You don’t want to stay and chat? It’s rude not to introduce your mother to your husband, Blakely,” she calls as we start to leave.

Jamie tightens his hold. I’m too scared to look up and see if he’s embarrassed or upset. Instead, I keep my mouth shut and hope that he knows me well enough to keep from asking me to open up about this right now.

It’ll happen as soon as we get home. But for now, I just want to play pretend.

38

JAMIE

I shutand lock the front door before joining Nate and Blakely in the kitchen. The kid is bouncing off the walls, his shakedown during the first half of the game long forgotten in the excitement of a win. He played amazingly and deserves to feel proud.

It’s a shame that I’m struggling to share his excitement. One look at where Blakely’s leaning back against the countertop with her arms crossed and expression closed off and I know she shares the same feelings.

There’s a conversation brewing. It has been since I caught her one second away from catching a charge by the concession stand. In the months that I’ve known her, I haven’t seen her that angry before. Not even when I poke and poke at her just to get her attention.

Their mother is exactly who and what I pictured. Someone with more concern for themselves than they’ve ever shown to another person and who would sacrifice you for their own benefit every single time.

What else do you expect from someone who abandons both of their kids?

“Did you see my last catch? I totally thought I wasn’t goingto get it!” Nate shouts, spinning around and shooting his arms into the air.

Blakely forces a smile. “I knew you were going to catch it. You never miss.”

“Well, I did tonight. But it was a dirty play, so I won’t count it.”

“You shouldn’t. That kid is a little shit. He keeps that up and he’ll find himself playing soccer instead,” I say, reminded of exactly what happened.

Teenager or not, I should have kicked that shithead in the ass. You don’t make plays like that. Not anywhere. I don’t care if you’re a pro in the NFL or some six-year-old just learning. Football comes with enough risks without adding dirty players out to cause harm into the mix.

If anything had happened to Nate, I don’t know what I’d have done.

Oliver would have had to do a lot more than just take my arm and pull me off the field, that’s for sure.

“Ew,” Nate says, shuddering.

Blakely sighs. “Soccer isn’t that bad. You wanted to play it before you started with football. It’s safer, at least.”

“Please don’t start with the safety stuff now, Lake. I’m fine. It didn’t even hurt. You saw how quickly I shook it off.”

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