The Problem with Sports - M.E. Clayton Page 0,37

by the time Mom had fed us a very late dinner, it had been midnight by the time I had gotten back home. I had fired off a text to Andie with the small hope that she might still be up, but when she hadn’t responded, I had showered and had fallen out.

This morning I had woken up to a text from Gideon, saying he and Sayer were heading over to Mom and Dad’s to double check our handiwork. I, too, had gone over this morning in case our work by flood light had sucked.

After checking on everything, Mom had insisted on a big breakfast for us all, and since Dad would kick our asses if we were to upset his wife, we all stayed and had eaten breakfast. Even Sayer had stayed, knowing it was going to make him late to the firehouse. But since everyone at the firehouse has met Louise Hayes, even his chief would make this one allowance.

Again, Mom was batshit crazy and everyone knew it but Gideon.

So, not having seen Andie since the other day, and her not returning my texts or answering my calls, I came downstairs to her condo to see if she was okay. What I hadn’t expected to see was an older version of Grant answering her fucking door.

And I certainly hadn’t expected the steel in his voice when he asked, “Can I help you?”

Now, I wasn’t a complete idiot. This was obviously Steven, Grant’s dad and Andie’s ex. It was uncanny how much Grant looked like him, but then, me, Sayer, and Gideon all looked like Dad. None of us had inherited anything from Mom.

I reined in my immediate reaction to puff my chest out, and said, “Is Andie home?”

Steven surprised me when he shut the door behind him, forcing me to have to take a step back out into the hallway. I was taller than he was by about three inches, or so, and I also filled out a little more than was his stature, but none of that really mattered. This man was the father of Andie’s child and the only man she’s ever pledged to spend her entire life with. Right now, he was more important than whatever it was that we were beginning to build between us.

“I’m Steven Hansen,” he started. “I’m Grant’s father and Andrea’s ex-husband.”

I arched a brow coolly. “I gathered as much.”

“Are you sure?”

“Meaning?”

“Well, it seems to me as you if you like to pretend that I don’t exist,” he replied smoothly. But then his tone took on a hard edge when he added, “But I do.”

“Not sure what you mean by that, but I’m very well aware that you exist,” I told him. “Grant and Andie talk about you all the time.”

“Then, maybe, you can answer something for me,” he smirked, and I was starting to really not like the man. He looked like he had an ace up his sleeve he was dying to play.

“Oh, yeah? What’s that?”

“Why would you take it upon yourself, when Grant has two very involved parents, to tell an eight-year-old boy how you like his mother when she specifically asked you to take things slow?”

My heart skipped before beginning to beat painfully in my chest.

How could I have forgotten about that?

I donned my best poker face. “With all due respect, that’s a conversation that needs to be had between me and Andie.”

“It’s a conversation that should have been had with Andie before you had taken it upon yourself to have it with Grant,” he shot back.

“Whatever you think happened, it didn’t happen that way,” I replied, hating that I had to explain myself to this man.

This time, he was the one who arched a brow. “Really? Because the way we heard it was that Grant asked you if you were dating his mother, and instead of sending back home to have that conversation with Andie, or calling Andie to tell him Grant was asking those important questions, you just went on to talk to him about something that Andie informed you she was sensitive about.” The fucker shook his head. “Are you telling me that’s not how it happened?”

“Where’s Andie?” I asked. I wasn’t saying the man didn’t have the right to be annoyed with me, but this was something between me, Andie, and Grant.

“She’s inside with Grant, trying to answer any questions he might have about what’s going on between the two of you,” he replied, and I immediately felt like everything was crashing down