17. Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen

Jake

Carly gave Sage a shove toward me. "Your girl-child demands braids."

Sage chewed on her bottom lip, blinking her pleading eyes at me. "Please, Dad? Mom does them too loose. They always fall out midgame. I know it's last minute, but—"

I stomped on the metal bleacher in front of me. "Yeah, it is last minute, so get yourself over here."

It was a good thing I'd shown up early to her field hockey game, but this wasn't my first go-round. I'd had a feeling I'd be tapped in for hair duty, and I hadn't been wrong. Sage sat between my feet while I got busy braiding her hair into two Dutch braids—one of her simpler requests.

We sat in silence while parents and siblings settled into the bleachers around us. Carly was off somewhere wrangling her youngest son, Dex, but her husband, Mike, and middle daughter, Cleo, had taken a seat with us.

Mike shook his head. "Don't know how you do it."

"All in the hands. I've got my rhythm down." I wrapped an elastic around the second braid and palmed the top of Sage's head. "Feel good, Sagie?"

She shook her head all around so violently I was afraid she was going to give herself whiplash. Then she hopped to her feet and flashed me two thumbs up.

"They're perfect. I don't think they're gonna come out for a week. Thanks, Dad."

"Welcome, baby. Go knock 'em dead."

"Oh, I will." With a wide grin, she thrust out an elbow, demonstrating exactly how she was going to knock 'em dead, then scampered down the bleachers to rejoin her team. Surrounded by friends, she said a few things then pointed to me. Ten tweens turned in unison to look at me. I waved, and they whipped their heads back around, giggling.

"Your fan club." Mike chuckled.

"So weird, man," I uttered.

"Carly thinks it's hilarious. I told her to wait until Dex is a teenager and his friends get weird about his hot mom."

I glanced at him. "That shut her up?"

"Oh yeah. For a little while anyway." He nodded toward the field. "The team's looking good this year."

"Sage eats them all up."

He took his hat off and swiped his forehead. "I was trying to be diplomatic and not brag about my stepdaughter being the best on the field."

"Leave it to me. I'll brag about her all day."

Back when I'd been faced with becoming a teen dad, I never could have envisioned my Brady Bunch future, but here I was, living it. Mike and Carly had been together for a decade and married for six or seven of those years. Mike had come into the situation cool and secure, building a friendship with me while being nice to my kid and her mom.

At their house, with two younger siblings and two attentive parents, Sage had a full-on nuclear family. There were times when she came to my house for the week, I felt she'd gotten the short end of the stick, but she never complained. Besides, Carly and I lived less than a mile from each other. Sage could go play with her siblings and return to my house for peace and quiet when she wanted to.

It worked for us.

A few minutes before the game started, Carly climbed the bleachers with Dex on her hip and Jeremy and Anne in tow. Somewhere along the way, Anne and Carly had become friends, which was funny to me. Anne was very British and regal, and Carly was a loud and proud ATV-riding farm girl. But much like our family unit, their friendship worked.

I stood to kiss Anne's cheek and clapped Jeremy on the shoulder. "You made it."

"Just in time," Jer agreed. "Do you have any clue how many fields there are in this park?"

"We almost gave up and cheered for a random team," Anne added.

"Glad you found us. Sage'll be happy you came."

My brother settled his wife beside Carly then moved down the aisle to take the open seat beside me.

"I wouldn't miss my niece tearing up the field, would I?" Jeremy nodded toward Sage running onto the field, looking fierce as the devil for a girl who didn't have a mean bone in her body.

"You're a good uncle like that."

Once the game got going, he knew better than to try for my attention. All of it was on my baby girl. She was tough, but I couldn't help still being on the edge of my seat, dreading her getting injured. With the way she played, never backing down, getting in the other players' faces, it was bound to happen. I kept telling myself that, hoping I didn't lose my shit when it did.

She played for most of the first half before her coach subbed her out. Only then did I take a full breath and sit back.

Jeremy chuckled. "I've never seen you nervous like when Sage is playing."

"Girls are running after her with sticks."

"True, true." He rubbed his hands on his jeans. "So, what's going on between you and Clara Rossi?"

I went still before slowly turning my head in his direction. "What makes you ask that?"

"Your unhinged behavior at dinner last night. Demanding to see pictures of her art and acting jealous when she invited Trevor to her home. What the hell was all that?" He wasn't angry or shouting. My brother sounded genuinely confounded.

Welcome to the club.

I was the unrufflable one. Steady. Levelheaded. But something about Clara Rossi riled me in a way that was hard to control.

I didn't lie to my brother, and starting now wasn't an option, but he also didn't need to know everything. That was between Clara and me.

"I'm interested in her, and she knows it." Jeremy jerked back. "After dinner last night, I laid it on the line and asked her out."

"On a date?" he clarified.

"Yes, on a date."

He squeezed the bridge of his nose. "Did she accept?"

"Not yet."

"Why not?"

"She's thinking about it."

He exhaled, long and heavy. "Do you have to prove to her you're worthy of a date? Is she making you jump through hoops like her brother is doing to us?"

"That isn't what she's about, and I'd appreciate you not speaking about her that way." I folded my arms over my chest. "Are you unhappy with the Rossi negotiations?"

"There are no negotiations to be unhappy about. I'm starting to feel jerked around by Luca Rossi."

"I don't think it needs to be said we need them more than they need us."

His jaw rippled. "It doesn't, but we're also not looking for a handout. They'll profit too."

"We can do a few dinners, Jer. Let Anne go riding with Luca's wife. Dance the dance. Luca told us from day one he was going to take his time. That's what he's doing."

"Are you dancing the dance by going after the sister?" He asked this carefully, but he might as well have punched me in the face.

My hands balled into fists I kept tucked under my arms. I was not violent by nature, but right now, if my brother breathed wrong, I was liable to draw blood. This, however, was not the time or place for that, and under my sizzling anger, I knew I'd regret taking such action.

"My kid would be heartbroken seeing me toss you down the bleachers. That's the only reason you're still sitting beside me. Fuck off with that kind of question, Jeremy."

He nodded once then turned to the field. He'd heard me and hopefully understood how he'd insulted both me and Clara and would never misstep like that again.

"I'm sorry," he said. "That was unnecessary. Last night had taken me by surprise. You could have let me in on your personal relationship with her."

It was my turn to nod. He wasn't wrong. "It's complicated, but if I had thought there was something you needed to know, I would have told you."

He cast me a sidelong glance. "You like her?"

"I don't know." I shrugged. "There's a lot to like about her."

He turned more fully toward me. "I didn't think I'd hear you say something like that about another woman."

"I'm not marrying her, Jer. Get those stars outta your eyes."

That broke his serious demeanor, earning me a chuckle. "I'm just glad to see you moving on, even if it's with a surprising woman."

"Why surprising?" I was finding my hackles were quick to rise when the topic of Clara came up.

"Well, she's older and, from what I understand, has a child. I would think both would give you pause."

"Like I said, I'm not marrying her. I want to take her out to dinner where some guy in an ill-fitting suit isn't drooling on her."

He slapped his knee. "Poor Trevor. He thought he had a chance."

I chuffed, letting my arms fall. Jeremy wasn't my enemy, and I had to remember that when we disagreed. Threatening to toss him off the bleachers wasn't exactly brotherly behavior.

"I don't know if I have a chance."

"Knowing you, you won't back down." He tipped his chin toward the field. "That's where she gets it from."

Sage ran back on the field to finish out the first half, bringing the discussion to a close. It was a good thing too. I had another week before Clara owed me an answer, and talking about her might have made me lose my patience, which was unlikely to end well.

Something told me Clara Rossi wouldn't respond positively to being hunted down.