Player (A Secret Baby Sports Romance)(61)

I look up at her sharply, feeling this edged, cold feeling lancing through me. “There it is,” I spit out, narrowing my eyes at her.

She raises a brow. “What?”

I smile thinly, taking a step away from her and folding my arms over my chest. “Just some spending money huh?”

She wrinkles her nose at me. “Yes, Austin, I need to go-”

“Yeah, no, I’ve heard it all before, princess.” I tighten my jaw, raking my nails across my stubble. “What, new clothes? Just need hubby’s credit card?”

Her face darkens as she curls her lip. “You’re being an asshole, you know.”

“I’m being real, Natalie,” I say evenly. “I’m just calling it like it is.”

She rolls her eyes at me. “What, you think this is me shaking you down or something?”

I say nothing and she barks out a laugh. “You’re fucking unbelievable, you know that?”

She gives me one last withering look before she slams her mug back on the countertop sharp enough for Buckley to jerk his head up from the other side of the kitchen. She turns on her heel and storms way, pausing at the doorway to whirl back at me. “I’m going wedding shopping with your mother, you fucking dick.”

I freeze, blinking and suddenly feeling like the world’s single biggest asshole.

Ah, shit.

Nat throws her hands in the air “Oh, yeah, I was going to go on a damn shoe spree with freaking Virginity and Lana and all the rest of the jaded wives club!”

“Fuck, Nat-”

“Save it,” she spits back, giving me a very much deserved middle finger before she storms away.

I glare at Buckley. “Thanks for the backup, pal.”

He whimpers and puts his paw over his nose.





30





Austin




I whistle wolfishly. “Okay, she’s hot.”

Kyle grins as he bows with a flourish in front of his brand new, fifty-foot yacht. “Sexy, right?”

I shake my head, running my eyes over the sleek curves of the boat. “Not a bad way to spend your first paycheck.”

“Government contract work is good, man, what can I say.”

“Yeah, apparently.” I chuckle as I reach down to scratch a particularly attention-needy Buckley behind the ears.

“Hey, it’s not NFL cash,” he says with a grin. “And anyways, I’m cashing out.”

“What?”

He nods. “Yeah, got a job offer man.”

“Is that Austin?”

I know that voice.

I grin as the sound of Stella’s voice hits me just before she pops her head out from the cabin.

“Steelllaaa!!” I crow it in my best, terrible Brando impression, like I’ve done basically every time since I first met Kyle’s older sister when he took me home that first winter break in college. Buckley barks and wags his tail.

Stella’s another member of the very small pool of women who get a pass with him.

And for all my wicked ways, Stella’s always been off-limits. And not in this illicit, tempting way - like, say, Natalie - but because she quickly became the sister I never had.

She grins down from the side of the boat at me. “Well well well, big shot Austin Taylor still has time to yell my name, hmm?”

She turns back behind her. “Carter! You want to say hi to Uncle Austin?”

I pump my fist in the air and grin.

Awesome.

I might not actually be related to Kyle and Stella, but the kid she’s got with her deadbeat ex is my absolute favorite small human of all time.

“Austin!”

“Hey, buddy!”

“No running, Carter!” But my five-year-old sort-of nephew ignores his mom as he comes tearing down the gangway, shrieking as I toss him up in the air and catch him with Buckley barking and jumping around at my feet.

“Dude, you didn’t say they’d be here!” I say, the first real, genuine smile I’ve felt in days spreading across my face as I hold a giggling Carter upside-down and tickle him.

Kyle winks. “Surprise.”

“We came down to see the new toy.” Stella raises an eyebrow and shakes her head as she does a Vanna White style arm wave at the boat she stands on.

“Can Uncle Austin come on the boat, Uncle Kyle?”

Kyle grins at me. “Well, buddy, only if he behaves himself. You see, the last time Uncle Austin was on a boat, he brought some girlfriends of his-”

“Kyle-”

We both look up quickly to see Stella shaking her head and wagging a motherly finger at us. “Get up here and give me a hug, Austin.”

He chuckles. “C’mon up man.” He leans in as Carter goes scampering back up the ramp with Buckley in tow. “Try not to crash this one, huh?”

I shrug sheepishly. “Hey, at least one of us actually owns this one if I do, right?”