Play Along(22)

Was hoping for a nice work, or thanks for marrying my friend so we get to be related.

Aiming too high on that, I suppose.

“How could you do this to Kennedy? She just got out of a relationship. She needed time. Alone.”

“What’s up with everyone blaming me? Maybe Kennedy was the one begging me to marry her.”

There’s a beat of silence before Kai and Miller burst into laughter.

“Fuck you guys.”

“Language,” my brother corrects through his laughter.

My eyes dart to the kitchen where my two-year-old nephew, Max, sits on the counter and smiles at me, holding a half-licked whisk that his mom was using.

“Sorry, Maxie. Don’t say that word. That’s not a nice word.”

“Zaya!” He waves his whisk wildly, a bit of chocolate cake mix flying around the kitchen.

Evan Zanders, a defenseman for the Raptors, Chicago’s NHL team, sits on the couch next to my brother, holding his daughter in his lap. Now that he’s a dad too, he and his wife have been spending more time at my brother’s place, letting Max and Taylor entertain each other.

“Kennedy?” he asks. “The girl you’ve talked about at every family dinner you’ve ever come to?”

“The one and only,” Kai says for me.

“Good for you, man.”

“Don’t encourage him, Zee.”

“Why not? Stevie met her last summer and she thought she was great.”

“She is great,” Miller and I say at the same time.

She shoots me a look. “That doesn’t mean they should pretend as if their relationship is real.”

Zanders shrugs. “Worked out for Ryan and Indy.”

“All right, Bug.” Miller picks Max up off the counter. “I think it’s time you and your dad go knock some sense into your uncle.”

“Miller, don’t be mad at me,” I plead. “I’m only going along with this so she can keep her job. Aren’t I such a great guy for doing that?”

She laughs. “BS. You’re obsessed with the girl. This is as much for you as it is for her.”

A flash of our wedding song pops into my head. I still remember how fucking funny I realized Kennedy was as I watched her walk down the aisle with full confidence to Mariah Carey’s “Obsessed.”

“Stop smiling to yourself.” Miller swats me in the arm with her son on her hip. “You’re walking around on cloud nine, meanwhile my friend is probably alone and freaking out. I should go over to her apartment.”

“She’s not alone, and she’s not at home. She’s meeting with her lawyer to get a prenup drafted. Or a post-nup. Whatever the hell it’s called after you tie the knot.”

“Shouldn’t you be there?” my brother asks from the couch in the living room. “It’s to protect your assets.”

“Apparently, it’s to protect hers.”

Kai’s bright eyes squint in confusion.

“She’s related to Dean Cartwright,” I remind Kai of Kennedy’s stepbrother. “Their family always had money when we were growing up.”

Just another reason why I couldn’t stand the prick. While we were scraping by, trying to figure out a way to graduate high school without anyone realizing that Kai and I were on our own, I remember Dean showing up to the field every time we played against him, driving a new car, and decked out in the latest and most expensive baseball equipment.

Add that to the fact he’s a complete and utter nuisance and slept with every single girlfriend I ever had, it’s no wonder I’ve considered Kennedy’s stepbrother my longtime rival.

“Can we go chat outside?” I ask my brother.

All three of their attentions snap to my rarely serious tone, but Max just smiles over at me.

“Do you want to come outside too, Bug?” I take him from my soon-to-be sister-in-law.

“Yeah. Owside.”

The little man just turned two this weekend, and his vocabulary is slowly but surely getting there.

“Have you talked to my dad yet? He’s going to want to hear about this from you first.”

Miller’s question gives me pause.

Emmett Montgomery, Miller’s dad, is not only the field manager, which is essentially our head coach, but he’s also the closest thing I have to a father figure outside of Kai. He gives me shit and I give it right back. That’s how we communicate. You might not realize it if you were an outsider looking in, but Monty and I have a lot of love for each other.

“I’ll call him tomorrow,” I promise her.

With Max on my hip, I follow my older brother outside before putting my nephew down on the grass to play. We join him, sitting with our legs sprawled, when Kai hands over a beer I didn’t see him grab from the fridge.

“I have a feeling we’re both going to need this.” He clinks his bottle with mine.

“Do you think I fucked up?”

“In what context? Getting married or staying married?”

“Offering to keep this going for Kennedy’s job?”

Kai takes a swig. “I think things have a way of working out for you. They always have. It’s the happy-go-lucky thing and that goddamn smirk that gets you anything you want.”

My sometimes-grumpy brother hides his half smile behind the bottle, taking another sip.