Page 39 of Home Run

“If we need to be.” Lux crossed his arms over his chest. “Now sit the fuck down on that step, and don’t move.”

After a long, intense period of glaring, where the boys sensibly decided they were outnumbered, they sat down.

“Thank you,” Lux conceded. “Now we were about to have breakfast, would you like to join us.”

The scowl I leveled on Lux was the same one the smaller Hulk leveled on him too. The smaller Hulk I decided was the older brother, Josh. He looked a little more put together than the other one, Matty, who was currently yawning and made me wonder if he’d only just woken up.

“No, we’re not here to eat.”

“Actually…” started Matty. “I’m kind of hungry. I’ll take some breakfast. Thank you.” His eyes sliced over to me. “But that doesn’t mean I’m happy about it, and it doesn’t make us buddies. I just gotta keep my strength up before training camp begins.”

“You want a protein shake?” offered Parker, like these two hadn’t come to kill me, and two angry guys storming into the apartment was an everyday occurrence.

“Sure, thanks. Sounds good.”

“So, you guys play football or what?”

“Yeah, going into my final year at Notre Dame. Hoping to get an invite to the Combine,” replied Matty with a nod.

“Good luck with that.”

Everyone—okay,me and Josh—were watching this conversation play out with a fuck load of confusion. Only the look on his face made me think this wasn’t part of any plan they had to lure me into a false sense of security before punching me on the nose. Ace was holding onto the laptop and didn’t appear to be in any hurry to go and join in this bizarre situation playing out in front of us.

I pushed out of the couch and slowly walked over, though made sure I stayed out of reaching distance. They eyed me like a predator would eye prey.

“Hi. I’m Tanner, but I guess you already know that.” They nodded slowly but didn’t offer up anything else. “And I guess you’re here because Millie told you about us having a baby.”

“You’re better at guessing than you are at catching,” snapped Matty.

“Okay.” I nodded, so that’s how it was going to be. “I’ll let that one slide. But that’s the only one. So d’you wanna say what you came here to say?”

Matty opened his mouth to respond but closed it again after Josh rammed him in the ribs with his elbow. “We came to make sure you’re going to live up to your responsibility as a father.”

“Does Millie know you’re here?”

“Fuck no.” Matty’s eyes bulged, and they scanned around the apartment. “She’s not here, is she?”

I couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped. They might be her brothers, but from the looks of it, they were also just as scared of her as I was.Sometimes.

“No, she’s not here,” I replied, perching on one of the kitchen stools. “And in answer to your question, yes, of course I am.”

“Then would you care to tell us how you’re planning on doing that? How are you going to treat our sister any differently from all the other girls you hook up with? I play football, man, I know how it is.” He narrowed his eyes with all the wisdom of someone who played D1 football. I wasn’t going to tell him the major leagues were way,wayworse.

Behind me, Lux was pouring batter into the waffle maker; every time it hit the griddle, a loud hiss letout. The scent of sugar and cooking filled the air; it was far too sweet for the level of aggression aimed at me right now. Even if I did understand the place they were coming from. I had two sisters—granted, they’d already proven many times over they were more than capable of taking care of themselves, but it didn’t stop me from wanting to be protective. And Holiday was more well known than I was.

“First off, Millie is not some girl I hooked up with?—”

“Yeah, this guy’s been in love with her since the day he first met her.” Parker slapped a hand on my shoulder as he passed Matty the protein shake.

“What!?” Josh blurted. “You’re in love with our sister?”

“I mean…” I stopped talking. I’d never really thought about the love part of my feelings for Millie, mostly because it was hard to fall in love with someone who snarled at you 99 percent of the time, but it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility either. “I’m not sure I’d use that word?—”

“What word would you use? Are you saying our sister isn’t loveable?”

“Dude,” Parker snorted a laugh, “have you met your sister? She has his balls in a vice grip most of the time.”

Matty put down the protein shake. “Please don’t talk about our sister and his balls.”

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