10. Cobb

CHAPTER 10

COBB

I t's rare that we got a day off.

Scratch that. We got one or two a month that were actual days off with nothing to do for the team. There were other days we traveled and while we weren't playing, that doesn't really constitute a day off.

But today we'd be at my parents' house because that was where the pool was. My parents had an amazing backyard, perfect for entertaining and now that all of us were on the same team, we'd be putting it to use more.

Fuck. We were all on the same team. Something none of us had wanted to happen. It wasn't the playing together part. It was being on the Knights. That fucking stung and I was supposed to be the holdout. Then the scandal—or potential scandal—had come along and fucked me.

At least I'd get to spend time with Monroe before the road trip.

Now, I knew how it looked when she pulled up in her blue Prius. My brothers had their girlfriends with them—minus Brooks because he didn't have one. And me. I also was single, but it sure as fuck didn't look it as I watched Monroe swing a bag over her shoulder as Camden hurried toward her from the garage.

Yeah. My sister was here too. Her best friend, Harlowe, would probably show up at some point if she wasn't working at the bar.

"Hi." Monroe's smile was brighter than the sun. She was wearing a dress, but it didn't look like a normal dress. It looked more like the coverup that Camden was wearing since she had her bathing suit underneath. It hung from her, giving no glimpse of what was beneath. Monroe's strawberry-blonde hair was pulled up in a bun, with little tendrils falling in some spots. Her look was effortless.

"Hey," I told her, but I couldn't take my eyes off her. If she was wearing makeup, I couldn't tell, though her lips shone like she'd just put gloss on. The rest of her looked so fucking natural and it was working for me.

I'd kissed her last night, which was wrong and I shouldn't have done it. Still, it was replaying in my head over and over right now, making it all I could think about. It didn't matter that I desperately wanted to do it again. I was in a situation that made that impossible and given her last ex-asshole, I didn't want to be another bad decision for her.

Monroe narrowed her eyes and cocked her head to the side. Her lips parted like she was about to say something, but before she could, my sister threaded her arm through Monroe's.

"OK, well… I'm going to go introduce your friend to anyone she hasn't already met because it doesn't seem like you're going to." Then she pulled her away.

Why had she emphasized ‘friend' like that? I didn't know and I wouldn't ask, at least not right now.

Camden pulled Monroe through the house to the sliding doors then outside to where everyone else was. When I stepped out behind them, my sister jumped into introducing Monroe to Amity since she was the only one Monroe hadn't met yet. Silas and Amity were on one of the lounge chairs, her between his legs, back to his chest. Urban was sitting at the table with Everly beside him. Everly, she'd already met. Urban just waved. And our oldest brother, Brooks, was at the grill, already cooking.

"Mom said she'd be home later," Brooks told me once the greetings were done. Camden went over to the outdoor fridge and grabbed Monroe a diet pop. Something I should've thought of.

"At least Dad's out of town," I countered as I opened the bottle of water Brooks tossed at me.

It was an off day, but none of us drank much alcohol in general, let alone during the season. Maybe a beer here or there, but not often. It was better to keep our bodies in top shape rather than try to recover. Recovery was a bitch.

"So, do none of you get along with your dad?" Monroe asked. It was brave of her to broach the subject with people she didn't really know.

Camden raised her hand. "I do."

Urban snorted. "Do you?"

"For the most part," she countered. "We butt heads, sure, but he didn't have me on the conveyor belt, so we're mostly fine." That much was true.

"What do you do, Monroe?" Amity asked. "School? Work?"

"I have one year of college left and I live at home with my dads." Brooks raised his eyebrows at me and I knew exactly what he was thinking. Dads, plural. That would mean a lot of fatherly oversight, but I shook my head. Monroe and I weren't like that. "They have what's called a mother-in-law suite, so it's like my own apartment. Separate entrance." She shrugged. "I like living close to them."

"What are you majoring in?"

"Political science, but I might go to law school." She glanced at me then back at Amity. "One of my dads is a lawyer and I wouldn't follow his footsteps because he's a criminal lawyer, but I'd like to do something that would make a difference. Maybe environmental law."

Everly snapped her fingers. "Or maybe you could do criminal law but work for something like the ACLU or the law poverty center. Help people who couldn't afford to have a lawyer."

"That's true." It sounded like something Monroe was seriously considering. "I hadn't thought of that. I've been arrested a couple of times." Amity's mouth dropped open. "Just for protesting. Not leaving when I was told to." Her cheeks pinked up. "Except this last time and I'm lucky. I have my dad, but a lot of people don't."

A silence fell over the group, the rest of them probably wondering why she'd been arrested this last time. To avoid that, I told my brothers, "Her other dad is Christopher Bryan."

The sound of surprise filled the air. "Seriously?" Brooks asked. I nodded. "I have one of his dinner tables. Mom gave it to me when I moved out. I think she felt a little bad that I got drafted right to the Knights. Dad wouldn't shut up about it."

I snorted. That sounded like our dad. "Yeah. Mom has his coffee table in the living room. I think that one is actually his."

"What's that mean?"

Monroe took the time to explain with as popular as her dad's furniture had become, he had woodworkers that build most of it. Still his design, just not his hands that made it. That wasn't the case when he'd first started.

"I could tell you," she said. "If you show it to me, I can tell you for sure if he made it himself."

"Come with me." I used two fingers to motion for her to follow then once inside, I took her hand and led her to the living room. "Here it is."

A small smile formed on her lips, then she went over to it and ran her hand across the table. "This is one of his older pieces." Then she got down on the floor and shimmied her body under the table. The coverup she was wearing moved up her thighs.

I tried to look away but couldn't make myself. Her skin looked so soft, making my hands ache for her.

Good thing I was leaving on a road trip tomorrow.

"Can you come down here?" Her voice brought me back to reality.

"Yeah." There was no way I could slide all the way under the table like she had. I was far too big to get under there.

Turned out, it didn't matter. She was sideways by the time I'd gotten down there, so my head was very close to hers.

"Do you see this emblem?" She ran her hand over the marking that I'd never seen until now because I'd never been under the coffee table before.

"I see it." But I barely looked at it. My focus was on Monroe.

"He only puts this emblem on the ones he actually built." She brought her eyes down to me. "The furniture that he didn't build himself has a different emblem."

"That's good to know," I said quietly while the pull to kiss her again worked hard, but I had to work harder.

"Food's ready." My sister's voice snapped me out of whatever trance Monroe had over me.

I hopped to my feet while Monroe slid out, then I offered her a hand to help her up. We went back out to join everyone else. It wasn't lunchtime, nor was it quite dinnertime. My brothers, their girlfriends, Camden, and I had been here quite a while already, but Monroe had some things she had to do this morning and I thought it involved the job she needed to get to pay her dad back for the damages to that asshole's car.

Obviously, he was an asshole, given that Monroe was sweet as hell, so if she'd felt the need to retaliate like that, there had to have been a reason.

Brooks had made burgers on the grill while Silas, Urban, and I brought things out from the fridge. Had we made those side dishes? No. But we knew where they were. Once we all had our plates made, we found spots at the table. Not surprisingly, Urban and Silas sat next to their women while I had Monroe on one side and Camden on the other.

"Cam, is Harlowe coming?" Brooks asked. "I can make more if I need to."

Camden snorted. "She doesn't eat that much, but no. She's working."

"She's always working," Silas said and it was true.

Harlowe's family owned a bar and grill close to the ball field and it was always busy. But from what I'd been told, she'd been working there so much more than either of her parents. Camden had said she just wanted to buy it from them but didn't have the money yet.

"Speaking of…" I turned to Monroe. "The stuff you had to do this morning. Was it about that job?"

She nodded then swallowed quickly. "Yeah. Papa wanted to introduce me. It's all set. I'll start training soon. It's not a lot of hours, but I should be able to pay Dad back."

"Pay him back for what?" Camden bit off the end of a pickle more aggressively than she needed to.

Monroe put her burger down and wet her lips before taking a long drink. "My dad paid the damages as restitution on the last time I was arrested, but he wants me to work to pay him back. No taking any money out of savings for it, he said."

"But you're an adult. Can't you do it, anyway?"

My sister got my best glare. She was prying too far with Monroe. "I could," she said. "But I understand what he's doing and why, so I'm going to do it his way."

"What'd you do?"

Monroe sunk her teeth into her bottom lip and her cheeks pinked up. "Threw a brick through someone's car window." She took a breath. "And kicked the side of his car that might've left a dent, but he says the glass ripped his leather seats and there's no way."

"Mm-hmm." Camden nodded as if she totally understood. "An ex? Was he a baseball player? Because I'm telling you, baseball players are the worst."

Monroe's laughter filled the air and it was music to my ears. "No. Not a baseball player and only sort of an ex. We dated a few times a while ago, but he kept popping up, asking me out again—"

"I didn't know that."

She shrugged. "No reason for you to. But he's one of those guys who gets mad when he gets turned down. Anyway, on this particular day, he was harassing a friend of mine for being out with his boyfriend and I… snapped, I guess. My dads are gay, obviously, so it hit a sore spot. I couldn't challenge him physically. The guy's too big, so I did the next thing I thought of."

Camden reached around me with her hand up for a high-five, which Monroe gave her. "I'm with you, sister. That guy deserved even more. I bet it felt good."

Instead of agreeing, Monroe just shrugged. "But all the other times I was arrested were for protests. I swear. This was a one-time momentary lapse."

I sat back and put my arm on the back of the chair as I watched her continue talking to my family, knowing that what she'd done had been brave and not a lapse at all.

But it was also why she questioned her taste in men and didn't want a relationship at this point. Though I'd been the one to insist that we could only be friends. In her situation, she could decide a man was an exception to the rule that last fucker made her think was true and change her mind. I couldn't change my mind until my New York situation was over.

After we'd cleaned up, we all dove into the pool.

But before that, the moment Monroe took her coverup off… I thought I'd drool. She was curvy in all the right places with more smooth skin on display than I thought I could handle. She wore a blue bikini that was just the right amount of sexy.

"Careful." Brooks slapped my back harder than necessary. "If you start to drool, I'll make sure everyone knows."

I shook my head. "I don't know what you're talking about."

He chuckled. "Of course you don't. Except that you're looking at that woman like she's a steak perfectly prepared for you to eat."

My jaw tightened when he said the word eat because sinking my teeth into Monroe was absolutely on my bucket list.

"You know I'm not looking for anything."

He sighed. "Yeah. I do and I know why. You could just explain it to her."

"So she can think I'm trying to get out of taking care of my own kid?"

"It's not your kid."

"I know that. But the last guy she dated I bet she didn't think was a fucking homophobe, right? She doesn't trust her own judgment because of him. What are the chances she'd believe me?"

"Better than you think, I bet." He took a step closer. "But you're not denying that you want her."

"I don't." That didn't even sound convincing to my own ears.

"Right." He laughed again then patted my shoulder. "You're completely fucked."

Then he jogged off and hopped into the water.

We were in the pool—all of us—for quite some time. Until we felt the first raindrops.

"I didn't even know it was supposed to rain," Camden whined. Neither had I.

The entire group was back under the canopy, and the women had put their coverups on over their bikinis, right as the sky opened up to dump a massive amount of rain. This wasn't a gentle sprinkle. It was pouring.

I grabbed a bottle of water and handed one to Monroe as our entire group stood under the canopy.

"I love the rain," Everly said. "Maybe not this much, but there's something calming about it."

That was when Monroe looked over at me with a sly grin. "I like the rain, too." She might've been responding to Everly, but she was talking to me. Then she shrugged as I lifted my bottle to my mouth. Suddenly, I was very thirsty. "I'm already wet."

I snorted and the water sprayed out as Monroe ran out into the rain. She threw her arms out and spun in a circle like she had when I'd first dropped her off at her house. She lifted her chin so that the rain was falling directly onto her face.

"That looks like fun," Amity said as we watched her. Then suddenly, all of the women ran out to join her and squeals of laughter filled the air.

When Monroe waved me out, Brooks slapped me on the back. "You're fucked, Brother."

The problem was… he wasn't wrong.