“I trust you know this from experience?” I tease. “My sister keeping you on a short leash?”
Wes just chuckles, too far gone in love with my sister to even think twice about my jab. “She can keep me on as short of a leash as she wants.”
Back in the day, when Winnie first started dating Wes Lancaster, I was suspicious. Hell, I wasn’t easy on him at all. But she’s my baby sister, and I’d seen the bullshit she’d been put through in the past. Her relationship with Lexi’s biological dad was real fucking rocky up until a few years ago.
“You know, back in the day, Jude and Ty would’ve given you some serious shit about that comment, but now that they’re in the same sappy fucking state of love as you, I think I’m the only one left to comment.”
Wes waggles his brows. “And don’t you think it’s time to fix that, Rem?”
“He will,” Lexi chimes in, and I look down at her in surprise.
“Excuse me?”
“Your personality shows traits of being a thoughtful caretaker, especially to the females in your life. Psychologically speaking, in order for you to feel fully content, you need to find a partner who not only makes you happy but whom you feel like you can take care of. It’s a prosocial behavior that is considered a positive personality aspect by psychologists most of the time. However, it can also be considered negative if it leads to burnout, stress, and self-sabotaging coping mechanisms.”
“I’m sorry…what?” I question, just as Wes snorts.
“Lex, have you been reading your mom’s old med school textbooks?”
“Yes,” she answers matter-of-factly. “Lately, I’ve been finding human behavior and psychology incredibly stimulating.” She looks up at me and pats my arm. “Uncle Rem, most psychologists would say your biggest obstacle in finding a potential partner is that you need to find someone whom you want to take care of out of love but not obligation, and someone whom you will let take care of you, too. There needs to be a balance in relationships.”
Wes looks at me with raised eyebrows and the kind of smile that’s a little too fucking amused.
“Well, now that you’ve psychoanalyzed me, how about we start heading back into the stadium so we’re in our seats before kickoff?”
Wes chuckles at that. “Things getting a little too real for you, Mr. Caretaker?”
I purse my lips and discreetly flip him the middle finger.
And Lex, well, she’s already walking around the locker room high-fiving the players and giving her final game-day advice.
“We’ll meet you down here after the game?” I ask Wes.
He laughs more. “Nice avoidance.”
“I’m not avoiding,” I retort. “But I’m also not going to take relationship advice from a kid.”
“A really smart kid, mind you,” he adds with a smug grin. “Hell, Thatch takes advice from Lex all the time.”
“Because Thatch is a fucking lunatic.”
“I won’t deny that.” Wes chuckles, and I can tell by the way he’s looking around the room for someone in particular, his mind is already forming a plan.
“Hey, Gossip Girl, your giddiness to replay this conversation to Winnie is almost showing.”
He smirks. “You and I both know Win would have my ass if I didn’t tell her all about this. Especially the look on your face while Lex was psychoanalyzing you.”
“I didn’t have a look.”
“Trust me, you had a look. And it should be noted Winnie had a lot to say last night about you helping out Maria and—”
“You think maybe you should get back to focusing on, I don’t know, the game today, or do you want to bring the child psychologist over here and have her evaluate me some more?”
“She got you good, Rem.” Wes laughs. “She got you really good.”
He offers one final pat to my shoulder before heading back toward his office.
Smug bastard.
I love my niece to pieces, but the last thing I’m going to do is start reevaluating my life based on what she’s read in a fucking psychology textbook from Winnie’s medical school days.
She might be Albert Einstein-level smart, but she’s still just a kid.
A kid who doesn’t understand half of the shit I’ve gone through in the past.
Sure, I’ve made amends with Charlotte since then. Hell, I even understand why that marriage, that relationship, didn’t turn out. But that doesn’t remedy the fact that taking another leap like that, experiencing that kind of heartbreak, well, it’s not something I want to volunteer as tribute for. My life is fine the way it is without that kind of complication.