Page 48 of The Golden Goalie

“Listen, you both are going to let Aiden and I help you. No arguments,” Bri says, crossing her arms. “I had no idea how bad things were; I’m sorry.”

My pride flares. “It’s not your responsibility.”

“I’ll talk to Aiden and see what he says, and we’ll go from there.” I can tell by the set of her shoulders that she’s not going to budge on this. And with my mom sitting right there, I can’t really talk a lot more about it. “All right. That was enough depressing talk for today. Amber,” she says turning to me. “When do you find out if you’re having a boy or a girl?”

“I actually have an ultrasound scheduled for next Thursday before my shift at the library.” I look between the two of them. “Did, uh, either of you want to come?”

“Yes,” they both say before I even get the words out of my mouth.

“All righty then. I’ll text you both the details.”

Bri turns to me, excitement flashing in her eyes. Wariness coats my voice. “What?”

“Can we have a gender reveal at my house? Please? Just you, me and Aiden, Mom, Stephanie and Sebastian, and Rico. And maybe Gunner.” Knowing I need to let her do this, I shrug. Her eyes widen in surprise. “Really? This is going to be so fun! I’llrope Stephanie into helping me. Oooh, we should do a game night after the reveal.”

“I’m not so sure,” I begin.

“I am,” she says interrupting me. “It will be a great night; you’ll see. Okay, now lean in.”

“Why?”

“So I can take a picture of us. Come on.” I lean towards her and she takes our picture. She puts her phone down a few moments later. “I’m really glad things are back to okay between us.”

My heart tugs. “Me too. I’m really sorry—”

“Nope,” my mom says, cutting me off. “You already apologized. It’s forgiven and forgotten.”

“Well, maybe not forgotten,” Bri says, drawing out the word. I pinch her, and she squeals. “Okay, it’s forgotten. Totally forgotten.”

Shaking my head, I stand up and stretch. “I’m starving. I’m going to see what we have to eat.”

“I made some soup; I thought that might sound good to you. I know you haven’t been able to eat a lot,” Bri says.

My heart squeezes. “Thanks, Bri. Soup sounds really good.”

I’m grabbing some crackers when my phone dings.

Rico-you look good

“Did you send that pic to Rico?” I ask, looking up.

Bri shakes her head. “No. I sent it to Aiden.”

“They’re worse than girls,” I mutter. I look back down at my phone.

Me-yeah, i look like every guy’s dream (heavy sarcasm implied)

He texts me back almost immediately

Rico-hmmm

I stare at my phone, unsure what he means by that.

Me-aren't you supposed to be getting ready for a game or something?

Rico-yeah something like that

He sends a winking emoji.

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