He stared at me for a second. “This the girl I’ve heard about? Avery?”
“How’d you know that?”
“I hear things, Gibson. Guys talk and all that. You’ve been seeing a lot of her.”
“Yeah, I have. I mean, she’s pregnant with my kid.”
“How are things with her?”
“Good, actually. We really like each other.”
“Good,” he said. “That’s important. What about her family?”
“They aren’t on good terms.”
“That’s a shame.” He crossed his arms, frowning. “Raising a kid is really going to make your football career difficult.”
“I know that.”
“But it’s possible,” he said. “Believe it or not, you wouldn’t be the first guy to get drafted with a young kid.”
“Really?”
He laughed. “Of course not. Shit, son, football attracts a certain kind of man, and that kind of man tends to get girls pregnant, if you understand me.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “You’re not angry?”
“I’m not happy, but no, I’m not angry. This isn’t the end for you.”
“So what do I do?”
“You’re going to need to work harder,” he said. “But I have to admit, you coming to me like this and asking for help is a pretty huge step.”
“How?” I couldn’t believe he wasn’t yelling at me or tearing me down. Frankly, I had expected a pretty awful conversation. Instead, he was taking it really well.
“Listen to me, Gibson. I know you haven’t had very many good role models in your life, so I hope you’ll take what I have to say to heart.” He crossed his arms and took a deep breath. “Being a man isn’t just about winning games and being the best. There are plenty of men who aren’t the best at what they do.
“Being a man is about taking responsibility and working hard, no matter what. There are a lot of people out there who don’t take responsibility for their own lives and their own mistakes, and they don’t work hard. Those aren’t real men, Gibson.
“A man doesn’t run away. A man doesn’t turn his back. He does what needs to be done, regardless of how difficult it might be. Are you prepared to do that?”
“I am,” I said, nodding.
“Good. You can be a real man, Gibson, or you can be something else. You can step up and try to make this work, or you can give up and roll over. I don’t think you’re the giving up type, though.”
“No, sir, I’m not.”
“Good.” He smiled at me. “Well then, how about we start by getting you a job?”
I laughed. “Seriously?”
“Sure. It’ll be part time, something around here that we can keep quiet. We’ll also want to keep this baby away from the media for as long as possible, of course, but that won’t be forever. I’ll help you however I can, Gibson. You have my promise.”
“Thank you, sir,” I said.
I finally felt right.
“All right, get going. I have work to do. We’ll talk more about it later.”
“Thank you again.” I stood up. “I won’t let you down.”
“I know you won’t.”
I turned and left his office, floating on air.
All I wanted to do was see Avery. I wanted to tell her what had just happened. We were going to be okay. I was going to work as much as I could, and I was going to make some money. We’d have help. We wouldn’t have to do this alone.
And I wasn’t backing down. I wasn’t going to fail.
I was a real man. I took responsibility for my mistakes and I fixed them. My parents were a great example of what a shitty people could be like, and I was determined not to fall into that same trap.
In the end, I was going to be better. I was going to be better than they were, better than they thought I could be. I was going to be better than anyone could possibly guess.
Because I was Gibson Evans, and I was a real fucking man.
I grinned to myself as I left the practice facility, heading toward Avery. I grinned to myself, thinking about her the whole time.
32
Avery
Months Later
I felt so damn nervous, I thought I might puke.
I glanced at Gibson sitting next to me, and he just smiled, calm as anything. I couldn’t imagine how he could be so calm when his whole future was on the line, but he took my hand and he squeezed it.
That helped. Gibson always managed to calm me down, make me feel better. Even when things with little Jax seemed too overwhelming, Gibson always took the weight away.
I never understood what it meant to be a mother until I saw Jax for the first time. He was beautiful and tiny and strange, and I loved him so much that my whole damn body wanted to break. I couldn’t believe it when they let me bring him home with me a few days later, and every day was a mystery and a surprise as he slowly grew.