More Than A Game (The Kings of Kroydon Hills Book 2) by Bella Matthews (the best electronic book reader .TXT) 📗

“Aiden, what I was going to say was I crave companionship. Someone to share my life with. I don’t want to be alone forever. You’ve already left the nest, and Carys only has two years left in high school. Joe gets it. He understands the importance of my kids and my job. But he also makes me feel like I’m important as a woman and a partner.”

“Wow, Mom. It sounds serious.” I can’t hide the surprise in my voice. I had no clue any of this was going on.

“Well, honey, it is serious.” She smiles in a way I haven’t seen before. It’s not the proud mom smile I’m used to, or even the look she gets when Carys, she, and I are having fun. It’s different. It’s a serious kind of smile. “We kept looking for the right time to tell everyone, and it just never came. Now we’ve run out of time. It’s now or never if we want to talk to the five of you about this together.”

“Are you happy, Mom?”

Nodding her head, her eyes fill with tears. “I’m so happy, baby. You and Carys have made me utterly happy throughout my life. Getting to share it with Joe has been the icing on the cake.”

Leaning in, I wrap my mother up in a hug and enjoy the safety she’s always given me. “I love you, Mom.” Guess I won’t be ruining her day today by telling her about the possibility of becoming a grandma.

“I love you too, honey.” She squeezes me tight. “I’m glad we’ve got that settled. Can you not mention this to your friends until after we’ve talked to all of you?”

Winking at her, I smile and shake my head. “I’m not making any promises.”

4

Murphy

An hour later, Carys, Declan, Cooper, Natalie, and I are sitting at the massive farmhouse table in Coach Sinclair’s kitchen waiting for my mother to sit down. The smell of warm chocolate chip cookies is making my stomach revolt after too much whiskey last night.

I’m still not used to seeing all three Sinclair siblings together. Declan is the oldest Sinclair. He was drafted in the first round last spring to be the starting quarterback for the Philadelphia Kings. Most guys would give their left nut to be him, but Dec wishes he was anywhere but here. Philly sports fans are a tough group, and they’re not happy that Coach drafted his own kid. He’s won his first few games, but the sportscasters haven’t let up yet.

Declan’s bigger than Coop and darker than Nat. He takes after their mom, who’s a retired model. Dec may be the only guy we could torture for being prettier than Bash . . . but we don’t. We save that shit just for Bash.

The normally unshakable Coach looks a little skittish right now, and I’m enjoying every fucking second of his discomfort. He pulls at the collar of his black Under Armour polo shirt.

A poke to my side comes from Natalie, who’s sitting next to me. “Why do you look like the cat that ate the canary?”

Apparently, that gets Coach’s attention. He clears his throat. “Thanks for coming a few minutes early, kids.” He yells for my mom, “Katie, are you coming?”

Carys elbows me from my other side. “Aiden, did he just call Mom ‘Katie’?” My little sister has no idea what kinda conversation this is going to be.

Mom fell in love with the name Carys after seeing a picture of Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas’s beautiful daughter. But my sister is prettier. Dark hair, nearly jet-black, hangs to her shoulders. Skinny long legs have her standing at about five-foot-seven. Her facial features are delicate and pretty. I spent a ton of time in high school making sure everyone knew Carys was off-limits or they’d have to deal with me.

Thank God she hangs around with her theater friends and not the damn football team.

Just as I’m about to shake my head, my mother walks into the room with a smile on her face and a tray of cookies in her hands. She looks way better than Coach right now. “Kids, we have something we need to discuss with you.”

Cooper laughs as he reaches for a cookie. “Since we’ve all already had the divorce talks, I’m guessing it’s not that.”

“Oh my God. You’re dating, aren’t you?” Natalie’s smile takes over her entire face.

Now it’s my turn to elbow her. “How the fuck did you figure that out?”

Nat levels me with a mix between a glare and elation as her contagious laughter echoes throughout the room. “How did you not, Murph? Do you ever pay attention to anything?”

I answer, “I’m paying attention now.” I take a pull from my water bottle then grumble, “Especially after what I walked in on today.”

Having just taken a sip from his beer, Coach spits it out all over the cookie tray. Looking around the table, I see everyone but my mother has wide eyes. She has a blush covering her entire face and refuses to make eye contact with anyone.

Declan murmurs, “I don’t want to know.”

“Me neither.” Carys places the cookie she was about to eat back down.

Leave it to Cooper to be a glutton for punishment. He breaks off a piece of beer-soaked cookie and throws it at me. “This sounds juicy. What did you walk in on, Murph?”

Declan kicks Coop under the table. “Shut the fuck up, little brother.”

Coach stops wiping the table long enough to swallow and stare me down, silently warning me to choose my next words wisely. Then he must decide “fuck it” because his next words stop all the chaos. Grabbing my mom’s hand, he glances at Carys, then begins to speak.

“Murphy, Carys, I love your mother. She’s the most selfless, smart, caring, and beautiful woman I’ve ever met.”

Turning his attention to Nat, Coop, and Declan, he says, “Kids, after your mother and I divorced, I never thought I’d feel this way. I never thought I could love like this or trust like this, but Katie has