Jock: A Secret Baby Sports Romance

by Irons, Aubrey

  He rolls his eyes.

  “Dec, you’ve got a wife who loves you for God knows what reasons, you’ve got money, what the fuck are you even-”

  “Ain’t nothing in this world free unless you take it, right kid?”

  I shake my head. “You’ve been saying that for years, and you know what?”

  I smile thinly at him.

  “It’s bullshit.”

  I turn to the others. “Guns on the ground outside the van. Now. You can grab them when I’m a hundred feet down the road.”

  They hesitate for a second before I press the gun against Declan’s neck, and then they do as I say.

  I turn back to my uncle. “Last warning, Dec. You don’t have to do this, you know.”

  He sneers at me. “You know what? Fine. Walk away you ungrateful little bastard. This ain’t over though, between you and me.”

  I keep the gun leveled at him as I slowly back away from the van.

  “Yes it is.”

  I’m done.

  I turn and start to jog, almost expecting to feel a bullet in my back. But there’s only the sound of distant swearing, of the van door swinging shut with a thud, and of the tires kicking up gravel as the crew roars off to the job.

  Without me.

  I watch the van until it’s out of sight around a corner. Then I turn, and I start to run.

  I run like I’ve been late to get somewhere for eight fucking years, and now it’s my last chance to get there. I wipe the gun down with the edge of my shirt, and as I run down the shore road, I chuck it over the bluffs into the ocean.

  Because that’s not me.

  My feet pound the road as I run back into Shelter Harbor like a man on fire. I’m done making the same mistakes, and walking the same path, and watching myself lose the same girl all over again. Not this time. This time, I’m stopping myself before the fall, and I’ll be damned if I let myself lose her again.

  And this time, I’m ready to tell the whole fucking world that I love her, come hell or high water.

  39

  Silas

  The pickup roars into the Hammond driveway, cranking to a shuddering halt as I turn off the engine.

  And suddenly, here I am; right back at the house I haven’t been to in years. The place I grew up - my other family until I let them all down.

  My steps slow as I approach the big white farmhouse, and I take a deep breath as my feet follow the familiar path up through Irene’s manicured lavender bushes and honeysuckle plants.

  I used to live here, really.

  This used to be my home, and I know that now that it’s been gone from my life all these years, more than I ever did before.

  The front door slams open suddenly.

  Rowan.

  He narrows his eyes at me as he steps out onto the front porch. His face looks furious as a he jabs a finger at me.

  “You.”

  I swallow, stepping towards him. “Row,” I hold my hands up.

  “You got a lot of fucking balls coming here, you fucking prick.”

  Tell me about it.

  I shake my head. “Hang on, buddy.”

  “Don’t!” He growls, scowling at me as he steps to the top step of the porch, glowering down at me.

  “Don’t fucking buddy me, man.” His nostrils flare as he shakes his head at me. “All these years, I fuckin stuck up for you and kept in touch as best I could, and I even forgave you for walking away like that.”

  “Rowan-”

  “You fucking married her?”

  Aww, shit.

  “Jesus fucking Christ, Silas! You didn’t just walk away from my sister, you fucking abandoned her!”

  He jabs a finger at me again as he takes another step down towards me.

  “What kind of fucking man does-”

  “Rowan!” My voice booms from my lips, stopping him short as I step right up to him.

  “You know what?” I’m shouting now, right there on the front porch, but I’m not even nearly done.

  “I was every bit the fucking coward you want to think I was,” I growl. “I was young, and stupid, and scared.”

  I take a deep breath, meeting his eye and hoping to God the friend I once knew remembers it too.

  “And I’ve paid for that. I’ve changed, Row, you know I’ve changed.”

  He says nothing.

  But he also doesn’t punch me in the face, which I’m going to count as a win.

  “Rowan,” I take a breath. “You’re my best friend, man.”

  “Best friends don’t walk away and flee the country, you prick.”

  I smirk. “I deserve that. You get why I left, right?”

  He looks away, running his hand through his hair. He nods.

  “But I came back.”

  “Yeah,” he mutters, turning and grinning a small grin at me. “I guess you did.”

  “And I’m not leaving, Rowan,” I reach out and put a hand on his shoulder. “Not this time. I’m not leaving you, or this family.”

  He nods and my jaw tenses.

  “And I’m not leaving Ivy, not now and not ever.”

  He glares at me, our eyes meeting as we stand there in brimming silence for a full ten seconds. But then suddenly, he’s nodding. He gives me a grim smile and clapping me on the back as he hugs me tight like the brothers we once were.

  “Good enough for me. Let’s go.”

  I frown. “Go where?”

  He growls, almost to himself as he fishes a set of keys out of his back pocket.

  “To the pier.”

  He pushes past me and moves towards his motorcycle parked in the driveway against the garage.

  “Rowan, where the fuck are you-”

  “Look!” He whirls and jabs a finger in my face.

  “You want to make good with my sister? You want to do the right thing to the girl you fuckin’ married?”

  I frown, and I start to open my mouth when he cuts me off by chucking a helmet into my hands.

  “She’s taking off, Silas. She’s leaving Shelter Harbor. They’re dropping her off at the ferry now.”

  Oh fuck.

  Rowan jumps on the bike and revs the engine. “Get on.”

  I eye the bike dubiously and he rolls his eyes.

  “Get on the bike, pussy.”

  I yank the helmet on and swing on behind him.

  “Hey,” he turns, grinning at me as we start to pull out of the driveway. “How poetically fucked up would it be if I crashed us this time and broke your leg?”

  A lump forms in my throat.

  Rowan laughs loudly. “I’m just fucking with you, man. Let’s go stop your wife.”

  40

  Ivy

  Yet again, I’m taking the ferry over the probably more sensible train back to Boston to catch a flight back to New York. But somehow, it feels like a fitting book-end to this debacle of a trip.

  I look out at the breakers at the mouth of the harbor, running the tally inside my head. Let’s see, minus one shitty boyfriend, minus one arguably shittier assistant, I’m being sued for breach of contract by my management company, and I may or may not be needed for questioning in conjunction with a possible armed robbery.

  Nice, Ivy. Nice.

  I’ve also lost the only man who ever truly had my heart.

  Again.

  Stella strokes my back as we all stand there on the pier, my parents off to one side as we all wait for the ferry that’ll take me away from here.

  “You’ve got Beth’s number, right?”

  It’s the fifth time Sierra’s asked if I have her lawyer-friend’s number. I nod.

  “It might not be her kind of case, but she’ll know people.”

  She means my upcoming fight with my own management company over the whole gala debacle.

  I smile at her. “I got it, thanks.”

  “Bye-bye?”

  Carter tugs on my shirt, and I reach down to snatch him up.

  “Yeah, buddy, I’m going bye-bye.”

  He pouts. />
  Yeah, I’m definitely going bye-bye. I think I’ve done quite enough mayhem to my own life in the span one trip to Shelter Harbor. It’s time to head back to New York and see if I can try and put things back together.

  And at least there, there’s no family around to get the blowback from any of my self-destructive decisions.

  “With the fish man?” Carter says earnestly.

  I raise a brow at Stella.

  “Translate for me?”

  My older sister gives me a wry look as she takes Carter into her own arms. “Eh, it’s nothing.”

  She looks away and I furrow my brow.

  “What?”

  Stella glances at Mom and Dad, who’re still standing apart from us, looking out at the Harbor.

  “Silas taught him to catch a fish. He hasn’t stopped talking about it.”

  I swallow. “When did he meet Silas?”

  “Yesterday, when you were in Boston. I thought he should meet his nephew.” She gives me a guilty look. “Sorry, Ivy, I was just trying to help.”

  “I know,” I smile. “Thanks.”

  “You sure you want to leave?”

  I nod. “I think I’ve had enough Shelter Harbor for a while.”

  Sierra makes a face. “How long of a while?”

  “Ask me at Christmas.”

  “Fish man!”

  Sierra laughs, and Stella rolls her eyes.

  “Yeah honey, the fish man.”

  She gives me a look. “Sorry. He’ll be onto something else next time you see him.”

  “Fish man!”

  She glances at her son. “Carter, honey-”

  “Fish man!”

  Carter’s grabbing her arms, pointing over her shoulder.

  “Carter, what is-”

  But I’m following his little finger as I turn and look down the pier.

  And there he is.

  He’s running towards us, his face fierce and his eyes grim, looking right at me.

  “Silas?” Sierra says incredulously.

  Our parents turn, and Dad suddenly scowls as he moves between me and the man running towards me.

  “Hold up there, son.”

  Silas stops short, sucking in a breath of air before meeting my dad’s eye.

  “No, sir.”

  Jacob Hammond’s face darkens as he draws his full frame up.

  “Excuse me?”

  Silas holds his ground.

  “I said no, sir. Respectfully.”

  “Son, you need to-”

  “You’re the only family I’ve ever known,” Silas says, his voice almost breaking like the heart in my chest.

  “And this is the only place where I belong. Right here, with the only people who’ve ever felt like home.”

  Rowan comes jogging up behind him, puffing as he winks at me.

  My dad eyes Silas. “You gave that up when you walked away from it, Silas,” he says gruffly. His face darkens. “When you walked away from my daughter.”

  Silas shakes his head. “I’m not that guy anymore, sir,” he says fiercely. “I was a dumb kid, and I screwed up.”

  He steps right up to my dad.

  “I’m done screwing up, Jacob,” he says firmly. “I’m done being that kid.”

  “Silas,” Dad shakes his head, “son you have no idea how much I want to believe you.”

  “Then believe me.”

  I push past Sierra and Stella.

  “What do you want, Silas.”

  He turns to me, his eyes locking right on mine.

  “I want you to know its not too late, not for me, not for us.”

  He steps towards me.

  “I’m not lost, Ivy,” he says quietly. “Not if I’ve got you.”

  I look at him. “Silas, we all know where you just were.”

  He shakes his head. “I wasn’t.”

  “Silas, I watched you there with Declan, and there was an FBI agent at my parents’ house.”

  “I walked.”

  He moves towards me, his eyes still locked on mine.

  “Declan-” he looks away, his face grim.

  “He said he’d hurt you, all of you. I didn’t have a choice.”

  “Oh, Silas,” my mother’s voice breaks as she grips my father’s arm.

  I stare at Silas. “You walked?”

  He nods.

  My dad clears his throat. “Looks like you did have a choice then,” he says quietly.

  He sizes Silas up before just the faintest hint of a smile comes to his face. “And I think you made the right one.”

  “Thank you.”

  He takes a breath. “Sir?”

  Dad raises a brow as Silas turns to look him right in the eye.

  “I’d like to ask for your blessing.”

  Dad laughs - a belly-shaking, chest rumbling, actual laugh.

  I smile.

  “Little late, wouldn’t you say?”

  Silas grins. “Never to late to make up for it.”

  Dad eyes him.

  “I’m not going anywhere.” He turns back to me. “This is the only family I want, and you’re the only one I want.”

  And quite suddenly he’s on his knee, right there on the pier.

  The world starts to spin a little as I watch in almost slow-motion as his hand slips into his pocket and comes back out.

  With my necklace.

  “Ivy Hammond?”

  Oh what is happening.

  “Marry me.”

  He looks up at me, his eyes full, his lips slightly parted.

  “Again, or, I don’t know, stay married to me.”

  I’m speechless for one second, feeling the eyes of my whole family on me.

  Another second ticks by as I try and even comprehend what’s happening, and try and slow the thudding of my heart enough to even say the word I’m trying to say.

  Sierra sighs loudly behind me. “Oh say yes. We all know you’re going to no matter what anyone says anyways.”

  My dad chuckles, and Silas grins.

  “Marry me, Ivy,” he says, reaching out and holding my hand. “Stay with me.”

  And then the word does manage come out. The only word I’ve ever been able to say to the man kneeling in front of me who was once the boy doing the same thing.

  “Yes.”

  It comes tumbling out before I’m falling into him, feeling his arms go around me, feeling him spin me around as my mom and my sisters go nuts and Rowan and my dad grin and nod.

  Yes.

  41

  Silas

  I’m back at the house I used to know, on the back porch overlooking the backyard about to have a real, straight out-of-a-Rockwell-painting Hammond family dinner.

  And I couldn’t be more excited.

  Irene’s cooking, Rowan’s making smart-ass comments about me and his sister, Stella’s playing big sister and telling me to make myself useful and shuck corn.

  Ivy is sitting on my lap, her hand in mine.

  And it’s all exactly how I remember it.

  Well, the beer in my hand was given to me by Jacob instead of me stealing it out of his fridge when he wasn’t looking, but besides that?

  Exactly the same.

  “So now what?”

  I grin at Ivy, pulling her against me as I sit back against the railing of the back porch.

  “I’m open to ideas.”

  “Well,” she says, matter-of-factly. “I’m being sued by my management company.”

  “I have no job and live on a houseboat.”

  She laughs, turning in my arms to kiss me.

  Goddamn this is perfect.

  “We’ve got each other.”

  She rolls her eyes. “I’m going to ignore how cringingly cliché that was.”

  “Long as you keep kissing me, gorgeous,” I grin at her. “You ignore anything else you want.”

  She smiles as she presses her lips to mine. And there’s just a hint of tongue before there’s a coughing sound from behind her. She breaks away sharply, both of us going
red as we look up at Jacob Hammond.

  He raises a single brow at me sternly.

  “Silas.”

  I clear my throat, trying to hide my grin. “Sir?”

  “Special Agent Riley is here.” He crosses his arms over his broad chest, looking at me with a stony gaze.

  “He’d like a word.”

  Ivy slips off my lap, and I’m standing from my seat when the screen door to the back porch swings open.

  “Now, you’re sure you wouldn’t like to stay for a drink or something, Agent Riley?”

  Yep, there’s Irene, offering the damn FBI agent some Hammond hospitality.

  Agent Riley smiles at her, shaking his head. “No, ma’am, but thank you.”

  He turns his eyes to me, and I can feel my heart draw up a little inside my chest.

  “Mr. Hart.” He steeples his hands in front of his chest, raising a brow at me.

  Fuck. This is it. This is where I get hauled in for being in that van, or for even being a fucking associate of my uncle.

  “Look, I don’t want a scene, Agent,” I mutter as I draw my head up high and meet his look. “Not here, not in this hou-”

  “You’re in the clear, Hart.”

  I blink, the words tripping over themselves in my mouth before I frown at him.

  “Excuse me?”

  “I said you’re in the clear.”

  “Sir, I-”

  Ivy elbows me in the ribs and kicks my shin at the same time.

  I clear my throat and shrug at Agent Riley. “I mean, yeah, of course I’m in the clear.” I smile broadly at him. “I mean it’s not like I did anything, right?”

  He raises a single brow at me, clearly suppressing the grin.

  “So you wouldn’t know anything about an attempted robbery at the North Shore Shipping office down in Lynn?”

  My brows perk up.

  Attempted robbery?

  Agent Riley smirks at me. “Relax, Silas, I told you you’re in the clear. Your uncle on the other hand,” he shrugs, another smirk coming to his face, “well, not so much.”

  “And just what sort of trouble might my dear uncle have gotten himself into, Agent?”

  Ivy elbows me again, and Agent Riley arches another brow.

  “Don’t get cute, Hart. We got a tip-off call from your aunt right before Declan and his little pals tried to hit the offices.”