The Problem with Sports - M.E. Clayton Page 0,36

Steven wasn’t feeling charitable at the obvious distress in my voice.

“He has been overstepping since the very beginning, and I won’t stand for it any longer, Andie,” Steven continued. “Grant is our son. Married or divorced, he is ours. And even if you were to marry Nathan tomorrow, Grant is still our son. I am not an absent father and you are not a neglectful mother. Nathan fucking Hayes does not need to step into our dynamic and turn it upside down. And he doesn’t get to start deciding what is best for Grant.”

“I know, Steven,” I repeated because I did know. Nathan overstepped in a way he never should have.

“When are you going home from the bar?”

“Uh…now,” I replied, still…shocked. “Uh…I just…let me tell Justin goodbye and…and I’ll head home.”

“Text me when you get there and Grant and I will head over,” he said. “We can talk to him together and…see what we’re dealing with.”

“O…okay.”

“Okay.”

“Steven?”

“What, Andie?”

“I’m sorry,” I said softly. “I…I never would…I didn’t mean for this to…to happen. I-”

“Andrea, you didn’t do anything wrong, except trust someone a little too quickly, maybe,” he graciously replied. “I’m not mad at you. There’s only one person I blame for this clusterfuck, and it’s not you.”

“I’ll see you when I get home,” I said simply. I didn’t want to get into that conversation until I knew what I was dealing with. There was a good chance that Nathan would win a physical altercation between him and Steven since he was taller and more muscular, but Steven wasn’t soft either. Steven would give as good as he got if it ever came down to that.

After telling Justin I had to go home, I had driven home in a bit of a fog. I probably hadn’t been in the condition to drive, but I had made it home safely and hadn’t mowed anyone else down in the process.

I had texted Steven, and he and Grant had come over immediately. Together, we had asked him about his conversation with Nathan, and while Grant hadn’t thought anything of it, with every word out of his mouth, I had become angrier and angrier.

The second Grant had asked him if we were dating, Nathan should have walked him back to my place and let me deal with it. He never should have discussed anything about the nature of our relationship with Grant. Especially, after having made it clear that I had wanted to take things slow. If I didn’t want our parents know just yet, it should have been easy to deduce that I hadn’t been ready to let Grant know just yet either.

When Grant was done telling us about his conversation with Nathan, I had racked my brain with the best way to explain how Nathan and I were just friends, because, though that was a lie, moving forward, we were going to be just friends.

I hated lying to Grant, but better than let him believe he messed things up between me and Nathan. There was no way I was going to let Grant think he broke us up.

The only person who had broken us up was Nathan.

I was furious, but I couldn’t deny how disappointed I was either. I had let my guard down and trusted the wrong man again.

How could I have been so stupid?

Chapter 20

Nathan~

You have got to be kidding me.

Andrea hadn’t been answering my texts all afternoon. And while I knew she had a tendency to get absorbed in her work, she usually sent a text when she took a break. She hasn’t replied to a single text since this morning. And I missed her terribly.

Last night had been a fucking disaster when Sayer had called me to tell me the water line in Mom and Dad’s backyard had busted. Now while my dad and Gideon were perfectly capable of handling the issue, since they were the construction engineers in the family, Sayer and I didn’t get down like that. Dad was sixty-five, and while still in good shape, he had three strong, young sons for the hard shit.

Sayer and I had arrived just as Gideon had finished digging up the grass over the break, and even though it was already heading towards darkness, Dad had brought out a flood light from the shed, and we had worked by that light alone. Gideon had run to the hardware store before it had closed and had gotten everything we might need, and then some.

After working close to ten, we had fixed it, and