“That was the tenth.”
When I get mad, I tend to lash out and throw whatever I can find. I can’t control myself. Blinded by fury, I see flashes of color and then snap.
“It’s better than someone’s face.”
He gives me a strange look and then forces his cell phone into my hand. Annoyed that Austin resorted to calling Marcel, I sit up and raise the phone to my ear.
“I’m not in the mood, Aus.”
“How could you do that to Kat?”
I laugh at his question. “Are you kidding me right now? I didn’t do shit to Kat.”
“Duke, your reaction was horrible. She’s scared. She needs us. And you flew off the handle like you always do and made her cry.”
“Shit,” I grunt. “I didn’t mean to… I wasn’t expecting—”
“None of us were,” Austin interjects. “But you have to deal with the reality that Kat’s pregnant. She’s having a baby!”
“I can’t believe she was with that asshole the entire time.”
“I don’t think she was,” Austin admits. “Kat said it only happened recently.”
“So she gets pregnant by the first guy she hooks up with?”
“Yeah,” he sighs. “That’s what I got from Kat.”
“Fuck. How did this happen, Aus? I thought we… We should have…” My chest feels like it’s going to collapse as I choke out the words.
“Duke, just fucking breathe. Stop hyperventilating. She’s not mom. Kat isn’t dying. This isn’t the end of the world.”
Austin is the only person who understands me well enough to pull me out of my head. I don’t know how I would have raised Kat and the twins if Austin weren’t there with me. Our childhood sucked. For most of our lives, we either watched our mom slowly die or had to take on our delinquent father’s responsibilities.
“Duke, listen to me,” Austin says with authority. “Kat can do this. She’s strong like mom. I know you don’t like Dean, but he’ll take care of her. You know he will. It’s not like we haven’t known all along there was a possibility of them being together.”
“Guys like Dean don’t have female friends,” I mutter. “I always knew he wanted to…” I can’t even finish my thought I’m so pissed off.
“Why did you turn off your phone?”
“I broke it.”
He sighs. “Again? Seriously, bro, you need to chill the fuck out.”
“My anger gives me a competitive edge,” I say with sarcasm in my tone.
“I know what you’re thinking. Don’t do it.”
He knows me so well.
“No idea what you’re talking about,” I lie.
“You’re playing in Philly next week.”
Dean is in his rookie year with the Philadelphia Flyers. Kat and Dean don’t even live in the same city anymore, which means he probably got her pregnant when he visited our house over the summer. Fucking asshole.
“So,” I mutter. “And you’re in Philly next month.”
“You know what I’m getting at. Kat will kill you if you rough Dean up.”