Page 29 of Our Bender

“I wanna be goalie,” his son said confidently, and just by that statement, I noticed… Did my brother seriously think he was holding Beau? I pulled the kid’s little scarf back and his eyes widened in fear. He cut his eyes to his dad and then put a little finger to his mouth in a shush motion. Now that made me crack up.

Casey eyed me suspiciously. “What?”

“You sure you have Beau, man?”

“Beau” shook his head furiously at me with a grave look on his little face. Casey’s eyebrows furrowed. “I can tell my sons apart, asshole.” His face faltered for a second, then he whispered. “Let’s not tell mommy I slipped with a curse, okay?”

“You and me both,” I murmured.

“What’s that?”

I moved my beanie to itch my head. “Nothin’. So, if this is Beau, where’s my little namesake?”

“Ty is with his mother getting us wristbands,” Casey said.

“Cool.” I was about to turn and find them, but turned back. “I was gonna ask, how’d it end up going with Duke and Claire the other night?”

“Eh, unless he wises up, they might have a bit of a rough patch ahead.” He grimaced.

I rocked back on my heels. “That sucks.”

Casey blew out a breath. “Yeah, actually, wanna bring him to one of my U16 practices this week? I’ll pull him aside and force him to wise up.”

My eyebrows shot up. “You’d do that?”

“Uh yeah,” he said it like it should’ve been obvious, “he’s disrupting our delicate ecosystem.”

“Huh?”

He looked at me dryly. “Do you realize that when one woman is upset, they’re all upset? When one guy is in the doghouse, you’re up next.” He rubbed his hand over his scruffy jaw. “When Claire’s sad, Addie’s sad and stressed for her, and I don’t want Addie stressed right now.”

“Okay,” I drawled suspiciously.

“Ya know what? Both of you. My practice. Next Tuesday.”

It didn’t quite sound like a suggestion anymore, more like an order. “Yeesh, got it. I’ll go check on Ty and Adds.”

He nodded. “Thanks.”

When I spotted Addie holding hands with ‘Ty’ who was actually Beau, I snuck up on them and tickle-attacked the little guy, making him cackle.

A hand flew to Addie’s chest. “God, you scared me, Tyler!”

I cringed. “Sorry ‘bout that, was just excited to see Tyler junior here.” I wagged my eyebrows at the little guy, trying to relay to him that he couldn’t fool me. The real Beau lifted a finger to his lips to shush me exactly like his brother did.

“Wait,” Addie said. She pulled her son’s scarf down to see his full face. “Beau! You guys tricked us?!”

Beau started cracking up. I grabbed him up and held him over my shoulder, rough-housing him a bit.

Addie shook her head. “By the way, how are you feeling? That hit was kinda yikes.” She covered her mouth to hide a giggle.

“Yeah, yeah,” I said, rolling my eyes. “I’m fine. Everyone overreacted. Stupid fortune cookie’s fault.” I muttered.

“Huh?” She looked at me like I’d lost my mind.

“Nothin’.”

I didn’t have to explain any further because that damn fortune cookie had run its course. To be honest though, I was still a bit wary over the “strange changes” part of the fortune. What the hell could that mean?

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