Page 24 of Mad Rivals
Shit.
I went too far.
And now he’s going to be sitting by, waiting for answers.
“Okay. But I need to know what went down between you,” I say.
“We’ve known each other since we were in college. He was a couple years under me, and we were the same major. When he got out into the field, he learned real quick that this business is harsh. That’s all you need to know.”
This business is harsh. Yeah, no shit. Well…that told me exactly nothing.
I’m left to come to my own conclusions, and my immediate thought is that my father did something to teach him that lesson.
I nod, and I stand to turn to walk away.
“Remember the family legacy, Madden.” His voice is a cold reminder.
I nod once.
I’m so goddamn sick of hearing about the family legacy, but he’s looking at me to be the one to shoulder the burden simply because I had the inconvenience of being born before the rest of my siblings.
It’s a lot of pressure squarely on my shoulders. I’m still not even sure I want all this, but here I am anyway. The obedient boy seeking his father’s approval.
I’d like to get to the bottom of what happened between him and Van Buren, but it feels like all will be revealed in due time. Right now, I have a commercial development project to manage.
And a raging boner that hasn’t gotten any relief since long before I sat at a coffee table across from the daughter of my father’s enemy.
* * *
A few days later, I’m walking up to ring the doorbell at my parents’ rather stately mansion in Lincoln Park. My sister Ivy, the baby of the Bradley clan, answers the door, and she rushes into my arms for a hug.
“How’s my biggest bro?” she asks as she pulls back and ushers me inside.
“Real excited to be here,” I say dryly.
“Then you and me should just sneak out and grab dinner together. The oldest and the youngest—it could be a thing, you know.”
I chuckle as I realize how very much I’ve developed my own life and haven’t always been a very good big brother. “Let’s plan on dinner soon.”
“I want to come see you when you’re in San Diego, so maybe next time you’re out there I can fly out to meet you.”
I think for a second how dangerous it would be to introduce my twenty-year-old sister to the likes of Clay Mack, but she didn’t ask for the intros, so I won’t be making them. “You got it,” I say instead.
Liam, the youngest Bradley boy and currently a backup quarterback for Pittsburgh, is already at the table, and so is Ford, the sibling right in the middle of the pack and current tight end for Tampa Bay.
“Hey, the old man is here!” Liam says from his spot at the table, and Ford laughs.
I clench my jaw as I wait for more barbs about my age, but Ford doesn’t offer any. They both stand and give me a hug.
“Your jersey on clearance yet?” Ford asks, and I roll my eyes at him.
I don’t bother with an answer to that. I was traded, so the answer is probably yes. “Anyone else coming tonight?”
“Everleigh said she’ll be here,” Ford says. The two of them have always been close.
“I think Dex is in Vegas, and Archer’s playing tonight,” Liam adds as I sit in the chair that was assigned to me at a young age.
That covers it. Really, five of seven is pretty good considering we’re all grown adults with lives of our own.
