Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 100873 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100873 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
Jake followed Sailor inside but didn’t attempt the hair thing. The two of them were too close in age for Jake to get away with it. Instead, he just fake-punched Danny on the shoulder.
Then there was Gabriel.
The eldest of them all and the one to whom they all turned whenever life kicked them in the balls. As big and muscled now as he’d been during his playing days, Gabe was dressed in jeans and a faded gray sweatshirt from the local rugby club where he coached a young team. Power pulsed off him.
“Come here, little bro,” he said and hauled Danny into a hug that felt as good now as it had when he’d been a scrawny kid in awe of his big brother. “You really want alone time?” he asked after releasing him from the hug. “If you do, say the word and I’ll take us all home.”
“No. It’s good to see you.” Even if being around them would make it very hard for him not to blurt out all the stuff inside his head. And that stuff had to stay inside his head. “Charlie and the baby?”
“They were cuddling when I left.” He smiled the smile of a man deeply content with his life. “Also, Charlotte says I’ve been hovering. She all but pushed me out the door, said they needed some girl time.”
Danny grinned, well aware of Gabriel’s overprotective tendencies. “French toast?”
“Now you’re talking.”
As Danny got to cooking, his brothers shot the shit and laughed, and after a while, he found himself unwinding and laughing too. It struck him at one point that the only other person with whom he could be this way—totally comfortable, no walls—was Catie.
His mind filled with the image of her as he’d last seen her. She’d made “I’ll call you” signs at him as she got into Ísa and Sailor’s SUV for the ride to her place. The signs had been more threat than promise.
Which was why he’d turned off his phone.
Yes, he was a chickenshit, but Catie could always wind him up… and she could make him talk.
“So.” Gabriel leaned back in his chair around the breakfast table after they’d all started on the French toast. “You’re having form issues on the field.”
Trust his big brother to lance the boil. “I suck is what you mean.”
Reaching over, Sailor squeezed the back of his neck. “Cut that out.” A scowl in the vivid blue of his eyes. “You’re one of the most brilliant players the country has ever seen, but you’re not a machine. Blips are inevitable and expected.”
Sailor was the only one of the four of them who’d never played—and didn’t want to play—professional rugby. That didn’t mean he didn’t know the game inside out.
“I had a hell of a big blip during my season of injuries,” Jake pointed out after swallowing a big bite of his toast.
“After which you came back hard—there’s a reason you have the vice-captainship,” Danny said and held up a hand for a high five. He was fucking proud of his brother; Jake was a brilliant leader on and off the field.
Jake met his high five, but he was shaking his head at the same time. “You’ve only had a few bad games, Da—”
“My entire season’s sucked.” Danny put down his fork and looked at Gabriel. “It has, hasn’t it?”
Gabe took a drink of his coffee before replying, the steel of his gaze thoughtful. “It hasn’t sucked,” he said. “Even at your worst, you can still outplay most others—what’s missing this season is the brilliance that turns you into a lightning bolt on the field.”
Danny swallowed. He’d known his big brother would give it to him straight, but it still hurt to hear his own fears put into words. “Yeah. I have a meeting with Coach Brook tomorrow,” he said. “Think he’ll cut me?”
Jake snorted. “As if. Like Gabe said, you’re still magic on the field.”
Where Gabe was the straight shooter when it came to his younger brothers, Jake had often been Danny’s partner in crime and would always support him, even to the extent of not seeing his flaws. As for Sailor, he was the more analytical one when it came to the game. Which he proved now.
“I watched your last four games while you were away,” he said. “What I’m seeing is that while you’re making all the right moves in the technical sense, you’re no longer pulling out those unexpected passes and runs that got you this far.”
“Something’s knocked your confidence,” Gabe said, his tone quiet but his attention intense. “You gonna tell us what?”
Danny shrugged, his hands tight around his coffee mug. “I don’t know. Honestly.” No way was he going to spill out his confusion; not to these three men who had always, always been there for him. They didn’t deserve to feel even a tiny bit of guilt for being who they were—which was simply awesome.