Page 60 of My Brother's Teammates

Dad groaned. “Don’t get all angry, Mary. You know what that does to me.”

I made a face. “Gross.”

“Ignoring your father, I’m just glad you came to us. We aren’t always smart enough to understand all of your ambitions, but we love you so much, Jenny. Jason does, too. Even if he is an idiot at times.” She cupped my cheek and smiled gently. “I know this isn’t a good time, but I just have to say that I’m shocked that my sweet little girl got herself a set of brother husbands, at least for a while. When you’re feeling better, we’re going to have a big talk about how that worked.”

Dad swore. “No. This isn’t happening. I’m going to make a call. No talking about sex. No talking about husbands. Jenny’s too smart for that. She’s going back to school, getting set up in a new apartment, and graduating. Then she’s going to do whatever it takes to get to the FBI profiler job. There’s no room for brother husbands who hurt her.”

I sat up and stared up at him with my lip wobbling. “You remember?”

“It’s not every day your little girl tells you she wants to be in the FBI.” He smiled with all of his teeth on display. “I tell all my friends. Their kids want to be doctors or lawyers. My daughter? She’s going to catch bad guys. A literal superhero.”

I covered my face with my hands and ugly cried while Mom and Dad both hugged me tight. They didn’t understand why I was falling apart and that was clear when Dad ruffled my hair and palmed the top of my head.

His eyes were worried as he looked me over. “I’m so sorry. Do you not want to be in the FBI anymore?”

“You guys laughed.” I wiped my nose on a different part of his shirt and took in a shuddering breath. “When I told you, all of you laughed and made fun of me.”

Watching Dad’s face fall was hard. “Oh, Jenny. I’m so sorry. I was just shocked and scared. Until then, I’d just always assumed my little girl would grow up to be a princess. I didn’t handle it well, did I?”

Mom squeezed my hand. “I’m sorry, too, honey. I don’t know why I did that. We all just assumed that’s what you’d do from that day forward. When you kept talking about sports psychology degrees, I just thought you were being coy. We’re idiots, aren’t we?”

I shook my head. “No. You’re not. I just… I thought you didn’t believe in me.”

Dad sank onto the coffee table and rested his elbows on his knees. “Seems like I need to scream at myself, too.”

“You really brag about me?”

They both nodded aggressively, and Dad reached over to grab my knee. “Jenny-girl, we brag about you nonstop. Your brother even confronted us once about it because he felt like we thought he was a failure next to you. I didn’t tell you that, by the way.”

“Really?”

“I’m sorry you didn’t know how proud of you we are, honey.” Mom pulled me into a hug. “We have a lot to make up to you. I think we should start by having your dad go buy a load of ice cream for us.”

Dad jumped up and nodded. “Not a problem. I’ll buy out every store in town. I’ll get your favorite pizza for lunch, too.”

He left fast enough to let me know that he was feeling upset and uncomfortable. He barely even kissed Mom goodbye before he ran out.

“That man. He’s probably crying in the car right now. He’s such a softie. I’ll never hear the end of it after you head back to school. I promise you he’ll mope around for days about you not being a virgin anymore. You really are his little princess in his mind.” Mom patted my cheek. “You’re all grown up now, though, aren’t you? Going through your first big heartbreak.”

I hesitated. “Mom?”

“I’m fine! It’s fine! I’m not going to cry.” She started crying immediately. “I just can’t believe it.”

I slumped back on the couch and nodded. “Me either. Gran really got in my head, I guess. It’s insane that I was falling for three men at the same time, right?”

“No, honey, it isn’t. It would be insane to pretend that you weren’t. Lying to yourself is never a good idea.” She sank back next to me. “Before your father gets back, I just have to say something that’s so inappropriate and wrong. I am so proud of myself for making a daughter so beautiful and sweet that she pulled three of the most beautiful men in college football.”

“Mom!” I groaned and rested my head on her shoulder. “They are beautiful, aren’t they? Too bad they’re cheaters.”

***Ryder***

She’snotoncampus.There’s no sign of her car anywhere.I’m with Hud. We’re going to head back to the house and try to figure out what to do next.

I closed the text from Axel and tossed my phone onto the passenger seat. I’d searched all around town with no luck. I didn’t trust myself to approach Landon so I’d driven around the housing on campus and searched for Jenny’s car with no luck. I couldn’t find her anywhere and it was killing me.

Did you check with Gran?I grabbed my phone and shot off the text to Axel. If she was with Gran, she was safe. Maybe Gran would be able to convince her that the picture wasn’t what it seemed.

I wanted to beat the hell out of Jason. I was regretting not doing it the night before when I had the chance. I understood him hating us and being furious, but hurting Jenny was too much. He’d gone too far. She was somewhere probably hurting and thinking that we’d cheated on her.

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