I grip her elbow, afraid that she’s about to faceplant into the Jell-O bowl.
“Mom? Mom, what’s going on?”
36
Jude
Damn, Kingston. I’m so pumped.”
“Can’t wait to see you back out on the field.”
“Next year is our fucking year, man.”
The guys have all congregated around the tree that I’m leaning against. I feel good. This feels good. Light. Happy.
The sun is shining, I’m surrounded by my teammates, and there’s a hot woman wandering around here with my teethmarks imprinted on her ass from last night.
So, yeah. I’m feeling pretty fucking great.
My legs are a bit tired, but I’m pushing through. I’m getting stronger every day even though my good leg is still doing twice the work.
“That your girl, Kingston? The one you walked in with?” One of the backup linebackers points the neck of his beer bottle in Iris’s direction.
“If not, I’m happy to give her a ride home,” one of the rookies dares to say. “Those tits are calling to me.”
Cora takes an eyeful of Lucille. “Hell, I’d give her mom a ride, if the young one belongs to you, Kingston. Have you seen the ass on that woman?!”
Christ, I nearly forgot how vulgar some of these kids are. They may be wearing men’s bodies, but they’re just clueless, little boys trapped inside.
I point at each of them in turn when I speak. “To answer your questions—yes, she’s my girl. No, you can’t give her a ride home and you’d better keep your eyes off her tits. And, Cora, I won’t even dignify your comment with a response.”
Laughter rises up in the crowd.
My eyes drift around the yard as the good-natured banter fills the air. I’ve missed this—the razzing, the teasing. But I miss Iris more. From where I’m standing, I seek her out. When I find her standing in the back doorway to Maxwell’s house, I zero in on her expression. I frown.
She’s surrounded by Faith and her sisters. Her shoulders are curled in and she’s as pale as a sheet. I think she might be shaking and I spot tears running down her cheeks.
What the fuck?
I slam my beer down on the nearest table. Then, I’m tearing across the yard to get to her. My heart slams against my chest, pounding double-time, as I weave through the crowd. I don’t know what happened, but I need to fix it.
When I finally get to her, I grab her by the shoulders and shift her so her bright eyes are on me. “Iris, what’s going on? What’s wrong?”
She blinks at me, her eyes dazed and unfocused. I don’t understand the look I see on her face and that scares me.
Her pretty lips tremble when she whispers, “These are my sisters.” She glances around at the trio of equally shook blondes staring at her. "These are my sisters."
37
Iris
My body is numb. My brain is a scratched disk on repeat, skipping back to the same thought every few seconds.
Sisters…Father…Family…
It’s like I grew up on one side of a coin. An only child, all alone. And today, I found out that—this whole time—there has been a whole different world on the other side of that coin. I feel lost with this new knowledge.
I was raised by my single mom, and it was just us and Penny. I have never had a father figure in my life. I would question my mom all the time when I was younger. Who’s my daddy? Where is he? Everyone has a father, right? How come mine isn’t here with us?
My mother would always tell me she didn’t know who my father was. And as I got older, I started believing her because in some ways, it made life easier. It didn’t seem so farfetched. My mom is gorgeous and the biggest flirt I know. It seemed incredibly plausible that she’d had a string of hookups in her younger days, and then couldn’t do her homework when it came to figuring out who had gotten her pregnant. It was easier thinking my father didn’t know about me than thinking he deliberately chose to abandon me.
Growing up, I always was kind of awkward. I felt like the odd duck out with no father but I convinced myself that my mom was doing good under the circumstances, and there was never any real need for a father figure in my life.
Money was tight, I suppose, but for most people, it is. When mom wasn’t busy falling in love with her newest fling, she was working long hours, launching her salon business. But