Page 63 of Forever Offsides

“You what?” barks out of my mouth, my body shooting upright along with it. “Russel, what the fuck? You were in a relationship with this girl to that point, and I never even knew about her.”

I can’t keep the hurt from my voice, but that seriously kills me. More than the fact that it’s her. He was so in love that he was thinking about marriage. Her brothers and father knew about it all, and I had no clue.

He bows his head, staring at his hands that are dangling between his parted thighs. “I was mad at you.” He chuckles ruefully. “I was always mad at you. Mom told me a lot of things over the years, and when I graduated college, your team didn’t pick me.”

Jesus. “I tried. I was a tight end coach back then. I didn’t have a lot of pull.”

“What do you want me to say? We didn’t have the best relationship, and it wasn’t always easy being your son.”

“Meaning what?” I do my best to keep the annoyance from my voice, but I did everything for this kid. Fucking everything.

Slowly he lifts his chin. “Meaning you’re a lot to live up to.”

I sigh, my hands going to my hips. “I never made you feel like you were less than you are. Not once.”

His lips twist. “Whatever. I don’t want to talk about this right now, and it’s not the time with them coming up here in a minute. I just wanted you to know because it might come out, and I didn’t want you to be blindsided.”

Too late. No wonder Crew hit him, and Mason was itching to be next.

Another knock sounds on my door. “Come in,” I call out, and Mason and Crew waltz in. They take the seats in front of my desk and not at the table, and yeah, this isn’t starting well.

“All right,” I start, rounding my desk and taking my chair so I can see all three of them at once and I’m not standing over them. “The deal is done. All parties agreed. So now we have to figure out how to do our jobs and play as a team without outside influences taking over.”

All three are silent before Crew spins in his chair and faces Russel. “Why’d you do it?”

“And why didn’t you talk to me?” Mason jumps in. “I was your quarterback, and if you felt you weren’t getting enough ball time or whatever bullshit you told her, why didn’t you talk to me?”

The answer isn’t easy, and I can see it all over Russel. I may not know him as well as I’d like, but he’s still my son, and I do know him. He didn’t leave because he wanted more ball time. He left because he was afraid Quinn would take the ball time from him. Except with his selfishness, he acted like a child.

Dallas is a shit team and hasn’t hit the playoffs in over six years. Yeah, they wanted him back then, and they paid him a lot, thinking he’d be their savior. It didn’t work out that way.

Now he wants to win. He wants to be a superstar. A legend.

But there’s no other woman like Quinn.

“I’m not sure the past matters that much,” I say, trying to defuse the tension. “What’s done is done.”

“It matters to me,” Mason states, and I sit back. They need to work this out together.

“I loved her. You both know I did.” Russel leans forward, dropping his elbows to his thighs. “She wasn’t going to be a football wife. She was going to be a surgeon. I was always going to come in second to that, and it would have limited any options I had.”

He glances over at me, and I wonder if he’s referring to my career and how I stayed in Florida for him. Interesting.

“I was young and selfish, and what I did to her was shitty. I know it was. I apologized to her the other day, and I meant it.”

More silence.

“How do we make this work? Because the three of you need to be a unit.”

“I don’t want him near my sister.” Crew stares him down before he flips back to me. “You want us all to get along, that’s my demand.”

“You can’t dictate my private life.”

“Watch us,” Mason bites out.

Russel blusters out a noise and sits back in his chair, throwing his hands behind his head and butterflying his elbows out. “I got scared, okay? She was a gold medal athlete, graduated high school early, and was top of her medical school class. She wasn’t going to have time for me, and we already had little time to start with.”

“Boo-fucking-hoo.” Mason isn’t having it. “I’m married to a doctor, and we have a son. We make time. Yeah, Quinn’s better than you. Everyone already knew that. What you never got was that having a woman who’s better and smarter than you are makes you better.”