Page 72 of Sweeper
“Let me introduce you to my wife.” Tanner grabs a dark-haired woman and swirls her around in his arms, giving her a playful squeeze that she whacks him on the chest for. “Williams, this is my wife, Dr. Belle Ryan, and our youngest daughter Alexandra.” Tanner pauses to look out the window where an older girl is running with a smaller one.
“Our niece Sophia is playing with our other daughter Joey. Short for Josephine.”
“It’s nice to meet you.” Belle reaches forward and shakes my hand. “Hope Tanner isn’t being too hard on you.”
I chuckle and shake my head. “No, it’s Coach Zion we all call a sadist.”
The room goes very quiet. I swallow a knot in my throat when I see that all eyes have focused on me.
“What did you just say?” Gareth asks, his voice deep and grave.
I look around nervously. “I um… said Coach Z is a sadist.” I laugh awkwardly. “I mean…he certainly acts like it.”
Out of nowhere, Tanner slams his hand to the table. “How dare you speak of Coach Zion like that.”
All humor drains from my face because I’ve never seen Tanner Harris without a smile. “Seriously?”
“He’s like family,” Camden says, stepping forward with a glower.
“Okaaay,” I reply. “I didn’t say he was a bad coach. I just said—”
“We heard what you said,” Vaughn cuts me off, eyeing me sternly like he’s about to grab me by the shirt and toss me out the door.
My eyes search the space for Daphney who’s abandoned me in my hour of need. This moment right here is why I shouldn’t have pushed for an invite. I don’t know this family. I don’t know what sets them off or who they’re loyal to. They don’t even get my sense of humor. I’m sure Daphney would tell me I’m being way too American. This is what I get for having sex with Daphney instead of finishingBridget Jones’s Diary!
Suddenly, everyone erupts into laughter, the kids, the wives, hell, even the little baby that Belle is holding looks like she’s pointing her finger at me and having a gay old time.
“We’re taking the piss, mate,” Gareth says into my ear, slapping my shoulder heartily. “The look on your face.”
Daphney pops up out of nowhere, and she has tears in her eyes she’s laughing so hard. “You’ll learn to love the British sense of humor.”
I drop my elbows on the table and rake my fingers through my hair, feeling like I just lost years off my life. “Fuck me.”
A little blonde girl walks over to me with eyes narrowed. “It’s twenty quid for your first offense.” She pushes the glass jar in my direction. “Don’t worry, it all goes to charity.”
Zander
“So, this is it?” Link asks, holding a baggie of hair up in front of his face at breakfast the next day. He’s inspecting it like it’s going to show him the DNA results by sight alone.
“Stop messing with it,” I snap and snatch the bag out of his hand, tucking it back into my coat pocket. I run two hands through my hair and grab my cup of coffee. “I can’t have another invalid result. This shit is stressing me out.”
Knight eyes me thoughtfully. “So how was the dinner?”
“It was fine,” I state, shrugging casually.
The truth is, it was great. The entire visit was fun and funny. Delicious and warm. It was a real family dinner, and honestly, it was something I’d never experienced before. My parents were older when they had me, so I didn’t have any cousins my age running around. My grandparents passed when I was young. Obviously, I had no siblings. It was always just my parents and me. It was nice but quiet.
The Harris Sunday dinner was the exact opposite. Everyone spoke over top of everyone. There was always a kid crying, missing, or pooping. The swear jar got passed around like dessert. After dessert, there was football talk over the kitchen counter, and condiment bottles were used to signal positions on a field. The ladies drank wine outside while the kids played in the snow. Hayden inspected Daphney’s car because it had been making strange noises.
And there was love. Lots and lots of love. Couples kissing, kids hugging aunts and uncles. Photos being taken constantly.
It was chaos.
Beautiful, completely original, and foreign to me…chaos.
I didn’t even have to try that hard to use Vaughn’s bathroom. One of the kids made a mess in the downstairs one, so Vaughn literally gave me directions to his bathroom upstairs. His hairbrush was sitting on the counter, like an offering from the universe.
I looked at myself in the mirror after I’d pulled some hair off and I wasn’t even sure who was looking back. I’m not a guy who enjoys big family dinners. I don’t look like the eldest Harris brother. But I also didn’t think I looked like my own parents either. Honestly, I felt like I was staring at the reflection of a fucking stranger.
