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No matter where it came from, they’d embraced me without question. The same with Liam, much to my chagrin.
Chris and Amie were Liam’s family just as much as they were mine. Which was why I had very little choice but to cross paths with him, no matter how much of a dick I thought he was.
“Before you go,” Amie said, shooting Chris a quick look, “Chris and I wanted to ask you both something.”
Liam glanced over at me, and I fought the flush in my cheeks when he, yet again, looked down at my empty ring finger. But his expression never changed.
“What is it?” I asked.
Chris set one of his big hands on Amie’s shoulder and smiled. “We’d love it if the two of you would be Mira’s godparents.”
I laid a hand on my chest and let out a soft exhale. “Really?”
Liam’s jaw clenched. “What does that mean?”
Amie adjusted Mira slightly under the blanket and winced again. “It means you’ll look out for her. Be there for her when she needs it. Chris and I don’t have family; she won’t have aunts and uncles and cousins running around as she grows up. But we’d like her to have you guys.”
My eyes welled instantly, and this time I didn’t fight it. “Of course. I’m honored; thank you.”
Chris and Liam were locked in some wordless conversation, and I couldn’t help but note the tension held in Liam’s big frame. His shoulders, already so broad and heavily muscled, were rigid.
Chris held out his hand, refusing to concede to whatever little battle was happening in Liam’s head. “Stubborn asshole that you are, you’re the closest thing I have to a brother,” he said, his deep voice even and steady and sure.
“Fuck,” Liam muttered quietly. Then he clasped Chris’s hand. “You’ll probably regret asking me this when I give her completely bollocks advice.”
“I don’t doubt it for a second,” Chris said.
Amie laughed from the bed, a contented, happy laugh too. I tore my gaze away from Liam’s serious face, his undeniably handsome features.
My ring finger had never felt more naked than when I was around him.
And somehow I knew that this one hospital room visit ... it shifted something big between the four of us.
Of course, I never could have guessed how much. That wouldn’t come until a long time later.
Chapter One
LIAM
Present day
For a guy who didn’t want a family, it was nothing short of laugh-your-balls-off irony that I ended up as the father figure to an entire fucking team of idiot football players.
“You can’t spend all your money on betting and women, Richards,” I told him.
He gave me a look, one of those stupid puppy-eyed looks that made me want to punch him in the throat. “Why not?”
“Because it’s stupid,” I barked. “You won’t play forever, and trust me when I tell you that the money dries up faster than you can imagine when you’re tossing it at every set of long legs that opens in your general direction. And there will be lots of those if you keep this up.”
One of the veterans, also just out of the shower in the locker room, sent a smirk in our general direction. “Might as well listen to him, Richards. He doesn’t spend his money on jack shit, so he’s probably got more in the bank than the rest of us combined.”
Richards eyed me, and for a brief moment, I saw just how much he didn’t care that my bank accounts were full, considering they all knew my bed was empty of female company.
Football was my mistress—had been since the age of eighteen. She was demanding and harsh, beat the shit out of me on the regular, and I kept coming back for more. There was nothing left in the tank for anything outside that.
I leaned in. “Listen, rookie, you’ve got one career. If you’re lucky, it’s a long one. But that’s no guarantee. You’ll have plenty of assholes who want to take every single pretty penny out of your pocket, and it’s up to you to make sure that your future—whatever it looks like—is taken care of when your body decides you’re done.”
“I just don’t think it’s that serious. I’m having fun.” Richards shrugged. “You should try it sometime.”
