Page 52 of Let You Love Me

She has a daughter. A four-year-old daughter. It changes things, whether I want it to or not, because it’s not just Lane and me. There’s another person to consider.

Suddenly, everything makes sense.

This is why she said her life was complicated. Why she insisted she has no time to date. The reason she’s so guarded. The person who hurt her? I can almost guarantee it’s Sophie’s father, whoever he is—whereverhe is.

The thought hits me like a Mack truck.

Somewhere out there Sophie has a father, and I know exactly zero about the situation.

Is Lane still in love with him? Is he involved in Sophie’s life? What about Lane’s? Does he share custody? Are there hard feelings, or did it end amicably? Hell, maybe it hasn’t ended at all.

I scrub my hands over my face as my thoughts churn until they’re one congealed mass of unknowns.

I reach into my pocket for my phone and pull it out. I want to text her, but I have no idea what the hell to say.

An apology feels awfully inadequate, considering the situation and my reaction to the news she’s a mother.

On a scale from one to ten, I wonder how pissed she is.

Probably a ten, I decide. After all, she warned me I didn’t want her, and my deer-in-headlights reaction to the news that she’s a mother gave her zero reason to believe otherwise.

I slip my phone back into my pocket, deciding to wait until I have a clear head, then turn toward my car.

I need to think, to let the dust settle and figure out my next move. The situation is more delicate than I originally thought and reacting without forethought won’t serve me well.

By the time I get back to the dorms, I’m no better off than I was standing in the parking lot of Slice. When I enter and find no sign of Tommy, I’m more than a little relieved. He knows I met someone in the park over the weekend, but I haven’t updated him on the situation yet, so he has no idea that girl is Coach’s daughter. I’m not about to tell him tonight when the situation just got a hell of a lot more complicated.

I make a beeline for my bedroom, needing the privacy in case he comes home.

Closing the door behind me, I walk over to my bed and settle down before I slide out my phone. I navigate to the FaceTime app where I start a group call to the boys, praying they’re around.

Atlas answers first, followed by Graham and Jace, and I breathe a sigh of relief before I focus on Jace who, from the looks of it, is lying in bed with no shirt.

“What’s up, man?” he drawls a second before I see a hand with bright pink fingernails slide over his chest, and I groan.

“Brynn is with you, isn’t she?”

He offers me a sheepish grin as Brynn scoots further into the frame, her bare shoulders peeking out from beneath the sheets. “Hey, bro!”

I grunt and pinch the bridge of my nose as I fight for composure I don’t have.

Knowing my little sister is with my best friend like that and seeing the evidence for myself are two very different things. “Seriously, man?”

“What?” Jace shrugs. “Itriedto hide her.”

Graham bursts out laughing, while Mackenzie pokes her head onto Atlas’s phone, settling in beside him.

Doallmy friends have to be so in love? Usually, I’m happy for them but right now, it’s fucking infuriating.

“You could’ve gotten dressed or, I don’t know, just not answered your phone. Now I have an image playing in my head that makes me want to blow chunks, and there’s no erasing that.”

Brynn rolls her eyes. “That’s a bit dramatic.”

Maybe. But I’m feeling a little raw right now.

With a sigh, I roll my head on my neck and take a deep breath. “Actually, it’s good you’re here. I could use your opinion.”

“Oh my gosh! My big brotherneedsmy advice?” Brynn jolts upright, taking the sheet with her and flashing all of us a healthy glimpse of Jace’s pecker.

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