Page 62 of My Brother's Teammates

“Your dad and I are going to help you, Jen. You can’t live here and still make it to your classes. You can’t go back to living with your brother.” She saw my face crumple and tugged the ends of my hair. “I mean, you could. You could find a new group of boyfriends and bring them home to make your first guys jealous.”

I groaned. “No, thanks. I think I’m done with men, dating, and sex for a while.”

“Stop talking about sex, you two!” Dad strolled through to their bathroom and came back out after washing his hands. He looked at me and narrowed his eyes. “I feel like grounding you.”

Mom laughed. “Mike, she’s a grown woman now.”

“She came home to cry into my chest today. She still needs me.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “And I need you to be okay. If your brother isn’t going to keep a better eye on you, maybe your mother and I should move closer.”

Mom and I both sat up at the same time to stare at him like he’d started speaking in tongues. I stammered out a few sounds before I could spit a real sentence out. “Are you crazy?”

“Did you hit your head, Mike?” Mom went over to him and put her hand to his forehead. “You don’t feel warm, but what you just said is insane. We’re not moving.”

“And Jason isn’t in charge of keeping an eye out for me, Dad. He’s got his own life.” I shut my laptop and scooted to the edge of the bed. “Plus, I was the one who kept everything a secret. Jason can only do so much.”

Dad threw his hands up. “He could not hang up on me. That’s a great place to start!”

I watched him leave and turned to Mom. “You can’t let him move anywhere near me.”

She grunted. “Like hell. I didn’t get you two monsters out of my house to move closer to you and have you in my way again. Your father and I have a very active sex life and I’m not losing that.”

I gagged. “Ew, Mom! I’m sitting on your bed!”

She shrugged. “Just be glad you’re not sitting on the couch anymore.”

“Oh, god! Mom!” I stood up and looked around. “WherecanI sit?”

She giggled. “The front yard?”

“I’m leaving. I’ll just sleep in my car. You’re too much.” I hesitated as I heard shouting. “What’s that?”

“I’m standing right here with you. How should I know?” She walked over to her window and moved the curtains back. “Oh, shit!”

I rushed over to see what she was yelling about and pulled the curtain back to see chaos. Jason was standing in the yard, facing off with Dad. Dad was very clearly pointing and shouting at the guys. My stomach tightened and dropped all at once when I saw the three of them standing there.

Clearly idiots, Hudson, Ryder, and Axel were standing like they weren’t worried about my dad’s raging bull act. Jason understood the danger, though. Dad loved tackling people. It was a holdover from his college days and after all I’d told him earlier that day, I knew he’d love nothing more than to tackle the guys.

Mom had already run out of the room and while part of me wanted to stay hidden and never face them again, I knew I couldn’t just leave everyone to clean up after me. I ran downstairs and out the front door in time to see Jason wrapping his arms around Dad to keep him away from the guys.

Mom was glaring at Dad from a few feet away, her hands on her hips. “Mike Ramsey, you’re embarrassing me in front of the neighbors again!”

I could see Dad getting free from Jason’s hold and did the only thing that made sense to me. I planted myself between Dad and the guys and glared up at Dad as he got loose and came my way. “Calm down, Da-”

“Do you have a death wish, Kitten?” Axel’s arms around my waist made me want to cry. He lifted me out of the way and pushed me in the direction of Mom. “Don’t come back over here, either.”

I forgot all about Dad’s tackling issue and spun around on Axel. “You don’t tell me what to do!”

He cocked his head at me. “When it comes to you being in the way of a bunch of men fighting, I do.”

“No, you don’t.” I moved closer to him without even realizing it. “You’re too busy to tell me what to do. If you want to tell someone what to do, Axel Fitzgerald, you should start and stop with the woman on your lap last night.”

He glared at Jason. “You have anything to say, Jace?”

I poked him in the chest. “Don’t look at him. Look at me. I can’t believe you. Why are you here?”

He gripped my hand and tugged me into his chest. “Why do you think I’m here, Kitten? I got home and you weren’t there so I came to get you. We all did.”

I struggled against his hold but his arms were steel bars across my back. “I’m not interested in being your home game girl. I’m not a convenient fuck, Axel! You don’t get to have me and some other women, too. I don’t do that. I don’t share.”

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