Fair Catch - A Football Romance Read Online Free

so much. Did you know Marta is coming tonight? And Grandma and Grandpa and—”
    “Whoa, little lady,” I say, picking her up and swinging her around like a rag doll. Salina squeals, and her sisters laugh as I take turns spinning them around in the front yard.
    “So everybody’s here tonight, huh?” I say when we walk into the house, all of us out of breath from laughing.
    “Yes, that’s what I was trying to tell you,” Salina says, dramatically dragging out the word, trying , with an eye roll. Pre-teen girls are nothing if not dramatic.
    “So what’s the big deal?” I ask.
    Marisol steps in to answer, “Uncle David is here.”
    Ah, okay, that explains the hurried greeting and dramatic tone. Uncle David has been having marital trouble for the past year, and he’s been keeping his distance. I wonder what’s gotten him to a family dinner all of a sudden.
    “Well that’s cool. Are Aunt Misty and the kids here too?” David has a five-year-old son and a seven-year-old daughter, and we’ve been missing them a lot over the past year. I wasn’t lying when I told Angel I love kids. I’m crazy about them. I spend as much time in the off-season with my seventeen nieces and nephews as possible. Last year, I somehow orchestrated a trip for all of us to Disney World. It wasn’t easy, but we got it done, and I was in heaven the entire time.
    “No, he brought his girlfriend,” Alicia whispers just before we enter my brother, Noah, and his wife, Maria’s, living room.
    Girlfriend? That motherfucker left his wife and kids? And he dares to bring a girlfriend to our family dinner after skipping out on us for the past twelve months?
    Every family has a black sheep, and David is ours. Always into trouble as a teenager, he didn’t get good grades and never earned any scholarships to help him get into college. We weren’t surprised when he disappeared for a couple of years after he miraculously graduated high school. He had always talked about being in a band, so we figured he was following his dream.
    Then one day, he turned up with his pregnant wife, Misty, and he seemed to finally have his shit together. We were all skeptical at first, but when they had Conner and then two years later, Carmon, and bought a house, we wiped the sweat from our proverbial brows and figured he had settled down.
    “Hola, mi hermano,” Maria says, taking my face and pulling me down so she can kiss me on both cheeks. My brother met Maria on a trip to Spain when he was studying abroad in college. She’s a gorgeous woman, and he’s a smart man for keeping in contact with her until he finished law school. He brought her to California for a vacation, and she never left. They have been married thirteen years, and aside from my parents, they are the best role models for a great marriage that I could have.
    “Hola, Maria.” I return her kisses with my eyes on David and his guest, who are standing on the patio, looking out at the ocean.
    “What the hell is that?” I say and jut my chin toward the patio.
    “Oh, River, please don’t kill him before dinner. I worked all day cooking, and I can’t stand to waste food.” Maria places her warm brown hand on my chest over my heart, and I snort at her attempt at a joke.
    “Where’s Misty? Where are the kids?” I ask.
    “He says she left him and took them with her. He doesn’t know where any of them are.”
    “When?”
    “Three months ago.”
    “And he never bothered to tell us what was going on? Looks like he bounced back pretty easily.”
    “I know, but he isn’t being a dick, and she seems to be . . .”
    “Seems to be what?” I ask.
    “I think Noah calls it skanky. Yes, that’s right. She’s not skanky.”
    Maria speaks fluent English, but slang still stumps her at times. The girls scattered as soon as we entered the room, anticipating an argument between David and me. Even eleven-year-old girls know it’s stupid to do what David is doing.
    “I will take the high road tonight,