Page 92 of Comeback
“Our dad is here.” I tip my head in that direction.
He finds him and then passes it along.
“I knew he was coming,” Knox says when Hendrick points him out. “He’s been at every single one of Flynn’s games the past two years.”
“He went to his college games?”
“Yeah.” Knox nods. “He was living there for a while and I guess when Flynn left, so did he.”
“Woah.” Brogan’s eyes go wide as he waits for my reaction. Judging by the look on Hendrick’s face, he already knew.
Knox must pick up on the tension because he looks right at me. “I wasn’t sure if Flynn had told you.”
“No. He never mentioned it.”
“He probably thought you’d give him some speech on not trusting Dad.”
“And you didn’t give him that speech?”
“I made peace with the fact Flynn wants a relationship with him.”
I bite back on my molars. He might have, but I haven’t. It’s not that I think our dad is all evil or something. He’s just a deadbeat. Has been my whole life. All our lives. And yeah, I guess I’m a little pissy that Dad seems to have gotten his act together for Flynn when he couldn’t do that for the rest of us.
After the game, we file down to the lower level to wait for Flynn. He told us to meet him here, but it’s been more than twenty minutes since he said he was on his way.
“Maybe he had to get on the bus,” Hendrick says, checking his watch again.
“He’ll be here,” Knox assures us.
A few seconds later, a group of women squeal in the distance and Flynn appears, parting them down the middle and giving them a quick nod of his head and a sly grin. He saunters toward us, cocky and all swagger.
“Fuck me sideways.” Brogan chuckles.
Flynn looks nothing like the shy kid I saw earlier this summer.
“Hey.” He drops his duffel to the ground.
We all just stare at him.
“Are you going to hug me or what?” Flynn asks. He holds his arms out to his sides and Knox steps forward.
Brogan is next.
“Baby Holland.” He ruffles his hair. “That’s better.”
“Flynn the Flame.” Hendrick hugs him tight and tries to pick him up off the ground, but Flynn’s now the tallest of us so it doesn’t really work like it did when he was younger.
When it’s my turn, I can barely believe my eyes. He looks like my baby brother, but he’s all grown up. He’s like some weird mash-up of Brogan’s playfulness with Knox’s arrogance and Hendrick’s height. He’s grown up. I still feel a protectiveness over him but maybe he doesn’t need it anymore.
“That was unbelievable,” I say as I embrace him. “You cost me seventy-five dollars.”
“Betting against me?” He squeezes the back of my neck with one hand and wraps the other one around me.
“Never.”
“Ahh. I’m so glad you guys were here.” His excitement is splashed all over his features. From his big, goofy smile to the way he keeps talking, when in the past he would have fallen silent instead. “I thought I could hear you at one point in the bottom of the third when I threw that change-up.”
“You were hearing Knox about to kick some Chicago fan’s ass for razzing you,” Brogan says.
