“Just spit it out already, old man. We’re not bleeding five years old,” David grumps, shoving a hand down his pants to scratch his balls.
Seriously, I have something really important to say, and I have to watch my almost grown brother scratching his nuts. Hopeless.
“If you’ve got crotch rot and I have to take you to the doctor I’ll skin you alive,” I warn, pointing a finger at him and scowling.
“Relax, man, just a little itch from that piece I had last week. She thought shaving my balls would make things ‘kinky’. Fucking itchy as all get out, but the experience was definitely worth the raw bag. Now get on, will you?”
I sigh again and lean my elbows on my knees, meeting their gazes.
“Imp, Becky, Grey’s sister, is the woman I was with at the wedding. She gave me a call, and…I think she’s pregnant,” I admit. “If she is I can’t just leave her alone to deal with this.”
“Well ‘course not ,old man. You have to marry her if she is, and that’s totally not negotiable. A real man takes care of his family,” Ry growls, and I nod because there’s really nothing else to do.
I’m so proud, and rightly so, that I’ve managed to raise a halfway decent man. They’re cocky buggers through and through, but my boys are respectful of women, something I have always prided myself on—till I fucked up so badly with imp.
“Yeah, but I can’t do that an ocean away, and the thing is that I know she won’t come here.”
That makes them both sit up and pay attention, and I wince, sweating buckets.
“I know that it’s unfair and that I can’t expect—”
“Hot American girls. Loose American girls. And pizza. And driving on the wrong side of the road. Sign me up!” David yells, rubbing his hands together with glee. “But I refuse to call footie soccer, yeah? So you better warn those buggers not to say that foul word in front of me.”
“You’re okay with this?”
“Yeah. ‘Course. And I think Garret will be too, since he hates all those prissy pusses at college. Think we could get one of those places with a lot of open space? I want a bloody dog, and this shithole isn’t right for an animal.”
Huh. This happens to be a two million pound bloody penthouse, thanks.
“Ry?”
His eyes cloud over for a second, and I whump my palm into my head. Fuck. Rugby. I almost forgot he’s committed to the sport and that if we move, which I bloody well need to, he won’t have that anymore.
“Shit. Yeah. Sorry, mate, this can’t work.”
“What? Why? You telling me you’re going to stay here while your baby mama lives all the way over there, and you’ll be okay with it? Not bloody likely, you arse! Baxter men always do the right thing.”
“But rug—”
“Nah, mate. It’s all good, man. Haven’t cared about that for a long time, just didn’t want to disappoint ya. Now then, got any pics of our girl, or you gonna be a greedy bastard and keep us guessing?”
I hand them my phone with the pictures I’d taken in secret throughout the week of the wedding and sit back, shell shocked by their response. I’m literally asking them to uproot their entire lives and follow me across the ocean to go and get a girl who possibly isn’t pregnant, since she’s not answering my calls and probably doesn’t want a thing to do with me.
But I’m excited, truly excited for the first time since I convinced myself that I can’t have more than the family I’d fought to keep. I can’t even think of that time, not and keep the bubbly euphoria that’s sweeping through me right now, so I don’t, I let it go and instead sit back and start planning my move.
I’m a self-made man and can run my companies from anywhere, so skipping over the pond’s no problem. All I need to do now is make it so that by the time I have everything ready my little imp will have no choice but to come home to me and stay there, where she belongs.
It won’t be easy, not after my spectacular fuck up, but I’ll manage as long as there’s hope.
“Who’s giving Garret the good news, then? Because I really have to go kick that bird’s ass and win my bet. One more last hoorah before I sample the fair over the pond, then.”
He rubs his hand together and stomps off with a grin on his face, and I almost feel sorry for the poor girl stupid enough to bet her body on a game of Halo.
“Wanker,” Ry mutters, shaking his head with a cheeky grin. “You seriously got a woman pregnant, after your constant lectures and the truckload of condoms you shovel at us? Ever heard of bagging before tagging, mate?” He tsks and shakes his head, but he’s grinning so big I can’t take offense. “You love this bird, Dev?”