He needed to sweat his desire for Kiersten out of his blood.
“Let’s do that play again. We’re playing the Golden Nugget tomorrow. It’s gonna be a rough—” When Garrett turned around, he found his teammates on the floor. “What the hell are you pansies doing on the ground? Taking a nap? Get the fuck up.”
“Okay, what the hell is wrong with you?” Riley asked from somewhere near Garrett’s feet. “You run us down all day long, and then yell when we don’t jump up in excitement for you to do it all over again?”
“Yeah, I do,” he snapped. His eyes roamed over the court. “Where the hell is Al? Did he go home to get a princess Band-Aid on his knee?”
“No, he went to get stitches,” Mike said slow and clear. “You busted open his knee. He left when you were doing your three pointer binge.”
Garrett dropped the ball on the floor, resting his foot on it, and his gaze swept over his teammates. Every single one of them was bleeding or out of breath. Remorse swept through him. They all took their frustrations out on the court, but tonight he’d gone overboard. “Shit. I’m sorry, guys.”
They exchanged looks and stood, brushing off their clothes and mumbling their acceptances of his apology. Yet they all backed away from him except Mike. “It’s fine, but I think we should be done for the night. We got enough practice in,” Mike said, wiping the sweat from his brow. “Time to go home.”
“Of course,” Garrett agreed, averting his eyes from his exhausted teammates. They were suffering because of his pent-up frustrations and fears of the future. He was going to be a dad. A fucking dad, to two kids.
What did he know about that shit?
He’d been trying to keep his cool around Kiersten, but inside he was panicking. He had to live with her, but not touch her. Pretend to be with her, but not be. Be a dad to two kids, but stay single for the rest of his life. He didn’t miss the repercussions of his actions when he agreed to the plan. Sure, he could fall in love and get married to another woman. That’s what Kiersten inferred.
But he couldn’t really.
If he left them and married another woman, how would the kids react? What would Kiersten do? How would their little family recover?
There were only two options available to him. Find a way to show Kiersten that maybe she could love him if she opened her heart to the idea, or stay a bachelor who only had meaningless flings when the opportunity presented itself.
He much preferred option one.
The feelings he had for Kiersten weren’t fading. If anything, they were getting stronger. But he had to find a way to make her feel the same way, and he wasn’t sure that was even possible.
“Go ahead, head on out,” Mike said to Riley and Stephen, who were still eyeing Garrett cautiously when he returned to the present and out of his fucked up future. “I’ve gotta talk to Garrett alone.”
Great. Just great. Everyone wanted to talk to him alone lately. And usually it didn’t involve good news. “See ya guys later.”
Riley and Stephen plodded wearily to their gym bags, whispering and looking over their shoulders as they went. Once they left the gym, Mike turned on him with a glare. “What the fuck is wrong with you tonight?”
“What do you mean?” Garrett asked, dreading what he knew was coming. He busied himself with wiping his face with the white towel on the bench. He wished he could keep it over his face so that Mike wouldn’t be able to read him so well. When would Kiersten let him tell Mike? This evasion was killing him. But she wanted to tell Chris first. Then Mike and Brianna. “I’m just energetic.”
Mike yanked the towel off of Garrett’s face and threw it across the gym. The custodian tossed him a dirty look, and then bent to pick it up. “Who is she? Do I know her?”
Garrett opened his mouth to deny there was a “she,” but thought better of it. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“I know you’re seeing someone.” Mike shoved his stuff into his bag and then gave Garrett a once-over. “What happened with her? You look like a kid who just discovered Santa is fake.”
“How do you know I’m even dating anyone?” Garrett watched him, unable to believe that his asshole of a best friend paid that much attention to his damn feelings. “And why the hell do you know that much about my love life?”
Mike rolled his eyes. “You haven’t scored at the bar with me for months. I know you well enough to know you’re not being celibate for nothing, so it’s easy enough to figure out. There’s gotta be a girl.”
He couldn’t lie to Mike. He didn’t have to give the whole truth, but he could give a little bit of it. Withhold names or some shit like that. “There is a girl, but that’s not why I’m worked up,” Garrett muttered, his heart picking up speed. “I just found out that I’m going to be a dad.”
“What?” Mike blinked and sat down, looking slightly green. “Aw, shit, man. Who is she? Do I know her? Is she keeping the baby? Do you love her? Are you getting married? Who is she?”
The one question he couldn’t answer, Mike had asked twice. Fucking awesome. Garrett shook his head and sat beside his best friend. “She doesn’t want to be with me…but I plan on trying to change that. Yes, you know her, but I’m not ready to talk about it yet. I’ll be moving in with her, so you’ll find out soon en—”
“Wait.” Mike held up a hand. “She doesn’t want you, but you want her, and you’re moving in with her? How long have you known this woman?”
Too long. Garrett swallowed and covered his face with his hands. “Long enough to get her pregnant,” he said dryly.
Mike leapt to his feet and paced, his face intent. Garrett groaned at the determined expression on Mike’s face and began collecting all of his stuff. Mike would go postal once he figured out who he was talking about, and with good reason. Mike was extremely protective of his sisters, and had been since their parents died.