Page 51 of The Player I Can’t Pick

GUY

I pull up to my brother’s ranch needing some advice, but I wasn’t expecting half the family to be here. “Hey, Ozzy.”

Ozzy is standing at the foot of the steps in front of his house and points at me. “Don’t talk to me.”

I roll my eyes. “What is it now?”

He puts his hands on his hips. If the man wasn’t my brother, I’d probably be scared of him. He’s big, and working on the ranch every day has made him even stronger than he was. I used to be able to hold my own with him, but now I’d say he would give me a run for my money.

He juts his chin at me. “Get me off the dating site.”

My mouth drops open. Shit. “How did you know?”

He grits his teeth. “I was at the feed store, and ol’ man Becker’s daughter is working the register. She told me after she asked me for a date.” He points at me. “Get me off of it.”

He starts walking up his front porch, and I follow. “Ozzy, I can explain.”

He stops and looks at me. “I don’t need you to explain anything. I just want off of it.”

I’m quick to explain. “Look, I couldn’t join under my name because the media would have a field day with that.”

He holds his hand up. “Wait. Have you been going on dates posing as me?”

I can’t help it. I blurt out a laugh. “What? Hell no. Geez, I’m not some kind of freak, Oz.”

He huffs in frustration. “Okay, then what reason could you possibly have to join a dating app with my profile?”

Fuck, this is embarrassing. “So, uh, Nicole had an account, and I wanted to see if she was still on it or not.” I hold my hand up. “Trust me, I know it’s fucked up, and I shouldn’t have done it⁠—”

He stares at me. “Does she know?”

“Does Nicole know?” I ask. When he nods, I tell him, “Of course. I told her… I just… I was feeling insecure and… it was stupid.”

That stops him. “Hold up. You? The legend, Guy Brody, was feeling insecure?”

“Har, har, Oz. Seriously, I don’t know what I’m doing here. I love her.”

As soon as the words come out of my mouth, my sister comes out the screen door. “What did you just say?”

When I don’t answer, Skyler’s face lights up. “Did you just say you love her? Nicole, right? I’m assuming that’s who we’re talking about?”

I let my head fall back and groan. This is not how I thought this was going down. I was hoping to get some advice from my big brother. “Skyler, where’s my niece?”

She comes out onto the porch. “Oh no, mister, you ain’t getting out of this that easy. Grace is inside with her dad. Now tell me about you and Nicole.”

I walk over and sit on the porch swing. “Sis, seriously, I came to talk to Ozzy. Can you give us a few minutes?”

She opens her mouth, and I’m waiting for her to argue, but I’m surprised when she walks over and fluffs my hair. “I’m happy to see it, Guy. She’s a lucky woman.”

I just grunt. She waves to both of us and walks inside. Ozzy leans against the post on the porch. “All right, let’s hear it. What’s up?”

I clamp my hands together and lean forward. “So Nicole is the one.”

I hear a shrill of excitement from inside. I get up, walk over, and pull the front door closed, letting the screen door slam behind me. I then take my seat on the porch swing again. “Like I was saying. Nicole is the one.”

Ozzy nods. “That’s good. What’s the problem?”

I clear my throat. “Well, I guess with my history, she’s not putting much faith in this relationship.”