Page 13 of Falling for the Unexpected

Chapter 4

Kyle

Erik and I watched Trent chase his niece around the backyard while we waited for Addie and Simone to return from the car. Addie had confided in me on the way over here that she was feeling nervous about the prospect of seeing Brad again. She hadn’t seen or spoken to the asshole since the day Simone announced she was pregnant. I knew she was relieved that Brad wasn’t here and I was happy to see her reaching out to Simone.

The thought of them clearing the air had me reflecting back to that night two years ago.

My sister had been heartbroken and I was so enraged I was seeing red. Brad had left pretty quickly once he realized he wasn’t going to be able to talk his way out of his latest fuck up. I had only managed to get one shot in before Jim stepped between us. I respected the man enough to stop then but Brad still deserved an ass-kicking. It took a couple of hours, but I was finally able to get Addie calmed down. Once I knew she was asleep, I called Trent and told him I needed to pay his little brother a visit. He could either go with me or stay home, but he wasn’t going to be able to stop what I had planned. Truthfully, I wasn’t surprised when he said he would pick me up in thirty minutes and drive me to the apartment where Brad was staying.

Knocking on the door we could hear Brad shouting on the other side. I knocked a little harder, my knuckles turning red quickly. After a few moments, Brad opened the door with his cell phone to his ear. He was furious, his face was red, teeth grinding together, and his hand was clenching the phone so hard I thought for sure it would break.

“See if you can score...” He paused, looking at his brother and me. “I’ll have to call you back,” he said to the person on the other line, and disconnected the call. He glared at both of us, like we had no right to interrupt his precious phone call. “What the fuck do—”

My fist crashed into his jaw before he was able to finish the question.

“How could you do that to my sister, asshole?” I yelled as I grabbed his shirt in my hands and yanked him back up to his feet.

This time I punched him in the stomach and let him fall back to the ground. With a final kick to his ribs I turned around to walk back down the steps. My job was done.

However, Trent wasn’t. When I turned back to see if Trent was following me, I saw him pick Brad back up off the ground and then shove him up against the wall. Getting in Brad’s face, Trent spoke in a voice that was so quiet and menacing that it actually scared me.

“You need to do the right thing and make sure the mother of your child is taken care of!” Trent growled.

“We don’t even know if that bitch is pregnant with my kid! Why should I do anything until we know for sure?” Brad continued to speak defiantly as though he wasn’t in the middle of a shit storm. He would probably have blamed Simone for it all if he could.

“Seriously?!” Trent shouted in Brad’s face. He shoved his younger brother back into the wall every time Brad tried to dodge free. “Stop being a punk ass bitch and think of someone other than yourself for once. Mom and Dad are so disappointed in you. The only hope you have to redeem yourself is if you tell them you’re taking responsibility for your actions. And if you don’t, Mom and Dad will cut you off. How do you feel about that? No more sponging off them. You’ll actually have to figure shit out for yourself without their help.”

With that, Trent shoved away from Brad and joined me on the landing where we started down the stairs together. Even though I doubted Trent’s parents would ever cut Brad off, the look on the asshole’s face made me think he believed it.

“Do you think he’s going to step up?” I asked, knowing that Brad had always been irresponsible, reckless, and completely selfish.

Trent’s jaw ticked, not cooling down yet. He looked over at me, his eyes hard. “He won’t do it on his own, that’s for sure. My parents will have to convince him to make the right choice. But he’ll listen,” Trent said grimly. “I’ll make him…”

“Ky play?” the sweetest little voice asked me, bringing me back to the present.

I looked down at the cutest toddler I’d ever seen. She had big chocolate brown eyes and soft, wavy black hair that barely touched her shoulders. She was a mini version of her mother. On occasion, I would hang out with Trent when he would take Stella for a couple hours. While I didn’t have much experience with kids I’d always been good with them.

“Sure, I’ll play,” I answered and turned to Erik, my eyebrow arched in question to see if he was going to join us.

He chuckled and shook his head. “I’m going to see if they need help inside.” I smiled at his back. Erik had made it clear that kids made him nervous. He was an only child and his experience with small children was extremely limited.

“Hide Unky Twent!” Stella exclaimed as she grabbed my hand and started running toward the large oak tree at the back of the Thompson property. She wasn’t a master at speaking yet but I could understand her enough to know we were playing hide-and-seek.

She raised her finger to her lips. “Quiet!” she shouted which made me laugh out loud. When those brown eyes glared at me I quickly quieted down. She was obviously taking the game very seriously.

“Ready or not, here I come,” I heard Trent announce when he finished counting.

I watched Trent wandering around the backyard pretending like he had no idea where we were hiding. Then suddenly I heard Stella shout, “Daddy!”

When I turned around I saw the one person I didn’t care to spend any time around. He was coming in through the side gate; he must have had some reason for avoiding the house. I only felt disgust when I looked at him.

I watched Stella run across the large yard directly to her father. I was expecting him to wrap his arms around her and lift her up. Instead he let her grab onto his leg. He barely glanced her way when he firmly nudged her off him and away. That infuriated me beyond belief. Stella was still young enough to not understand rejection but that would soon fade. Her innocence wouldn’t last forever. When Stella tried to latch back on to her father, Brad snapped at her to knock it off. Stella pouted, but like all little kids, she got over it quickly. However, it wouldn’t be long before her little mind would start asking: how could her own father not want her? I knew, because I had asked myself that same question when my own father had rejected me. The very thought that Stella would go through that was disheartening and it pissed me off.

The guy was such a douchebag. Here he was, lucky enough to be blessed with both a beautiful wife and daughter, yet, he couldn’t be bothered to acknowledge his baby girl.

“So you finally decided to show up, huh?” I heard Trent scoff as he walked toward his brother on the deck. I wasn’t far behind him, just in case.

“Mom called me, pissed that I wasn’t here,” Brad answered but he wasn’t looking at his brother. Instead he was scowling at me. There was definitely no love lost between the two of us.