Butcher

Chapter 23

23

Sexton

“Mom. Wait! Where are you going? You don’t even have a hotel room to sleep in.” I jogged after her as she walked into the lobby.

“I’ll be fine, Levi.” She headed toward the front desk.

I glanced behind me to see Austin, Kaylee, and Coop walk toward the elevators, and then I turned back to my mother. “Can we talk, please?”

“It’s late. I need to sleep.” She looked at the front desk clerk, who was waiting patiently. “I need a room for the night.”

The clerk frowned. “I’m sorry, ma’am. We’re completely booked.”

My mom’s shoulders sagged.

I reached out and placed my hand on her arm. “I have a room with two beds. You can stay with me as planned.”

Mom snorted. “Stay with you? Now I know why you were so eager in Dallas to stay with your teammate.”

“Mom, please. Let’s not do this here,” I begged, looking out of the corner of my eye at the hotel employee. I really didn’t want a stranger who might go to the media finding out about my private life.

Mom hung her head. “Fine. There’re some things you need to know too.”

I figured as much and while the revelation about Kaylee losing a baby hadn’t fully hit me, finding out what my mom had been hiding from me was something I needed to know. And even though I would tell Austin and Kaylee whatever my mother told me, I didn’t want to go up to the room that shared a wall with theirs. I wanted the opportunity to process whatever it was before I talked to my boyfriend and girlfriend about it. I also knew Kaylee was in excellent hands with Austin and that made not rushing to be with her a tiny bit easier.

“My room is connected to theirs . Let’s find a place down here where we can chat.”

It was after midnight, and the lobby was quiet. We found a spot in the lobby bar that was empty except for a bartender who was cleaning up. I waved off the bartender, letting her know we weren’t needing any service, but just a place to sit. She smiled, nodded to us, and went back about her work. It was past curfew, but I didn’t care. If Coach had an issue with what I was going through, then it was his problem.

We sat off to the side and after a moment, I asked, “Do you want to go first, or do you have questions for me?”

“I have questions.”

“Okay. Let me have them.”

She took a deep breath. “How long have you been dating them?”

I thought for a moment, unsure if I should tell her it had been since Vegas or when the three of us decided to be together officially. “Well, we’ve been … ah … hanging out for a while now, but committed to each other for a little more than three months.”

Mom sighed, pulling her hand away and looking up at the ceiling. “Three months? You’ve been dating for three months, and you didn’t think to tell me?”

“We haven’t told anyone except a few of our teammates, and they only found out because it got too hard to hide in person.” Hell, after what happened in the locker room, the entire team probably knew now.

“If you were in a normal relationship, you wouldn’t have to hide.” A tear slid down her cheek and it hurt to know she didn’t approve.

I didn’t like the way she said normal either. As if there was something abnormal about us. Just because I wasn’t living within the narrow confines of what her and my father deemed acceptable, didn’t mean we were doing anything wrong.

“Why does normal matter if I’m happy?”

She stared at me for several long moments and then asked, “ Are you happy?”

“Yes,” I didn’t hesitate to answer and then smiled. “So happy.”

“We didn’t raise you to be this way.”

“My upbringing has nothing to do with who I’ve fallen in love with.”

Mom looked down at her hands, more tears slipping from her eyes. “You’re not the only one lying to me.”

I leaned forward and grabbed her hand that was on the table. “Dad?”

Her eyes met mine, and for the first time, I saw an intense sadness in them. “I found out shortly after your season started that your father has been living a double life. He’s been seeing someone else, and he has another family.”

The words hit me like a punch to the gut. I could barely process them. “What? Another family?”

Mom nodded. “Yeah. He doesn’t know I know. A member of the church in Cedar Hollow called me out of the blue. She wouldn’t tell me her name but told me I needed to check on what my husband had been up to for the past year. So, the next time he went there, I told him I wanted to go. At first, he said no and now I know why, but I insisted. He thought he could hide it from me, but I knew what I was looking for. The way he smiled at Pastor Harrison’s daughter told me everything I needed to know.”

“Pastor Harrison’s daughter?” I questioned. My mom nodded. “She can’t be more than twenty.” I couldn’t remember exactly when she was born, but I was just a kid myself. I remembered going to Cedar Hollow and having to play with the baby a few times while my father gave his sermons.

“She just turned eighteen.” She bowed her head.

I was going to be sick. “You’re telling me Dad slept with a child and got her pregnant?”

“Yes, and that money I helped raise for that single mother who was a widow? It went to her. Your dad lied about who needed it.”

The story kept getting worse and worse.

She sniffled and wiped her nose with a tissue. “I don’t know what to do. We’ve been married for almost thirty years. I have nothing in my name, no money. The only way I could come to your games was because I told him I wanted to see you. There was a little part of me that hoped eventually I could move to Boston, but I’m scared.”

“Jesus Christ.” I stood and pulled her into my arms. Hugging her against my chest, I said, “Yes, absolutely, yes. I will put you on a plane tomorrow.”

“But you have Kaylee and Butcher.” She sniffled.

“I do, but you’re my mother. I would do anything for you.”

Mom pulled back and looked up at me with tears in her eyes. “I want to be okay with you dating both of them, but it’s a lot. And who was the father of her baby?”

“I don’t know. Austin and I didn’t know she was pregnant.”

“I know. She said no one knew while we were in the ambulance. She was so scared.”

“Thank you for taking care of her, even if you didn’t know how much she means to me.” I hugged my mother again.

“I did it for her. She was alone and now I understand why.”

“Her friend was supposed to come,” I explained.

“Coop’s husband, right?”

“Yeah.” I nodded. “But he had a family thing come up last minute.”

“I’m happy I could be there for her, especially knowing what I know now.”

“Does that mean you’re okay with it?”

Mom stared into my eyes. “If you’re truly happy, then I will be too.”

“I am,” I reiterated. “We all love each other very much.”

“Now I understand why she was wearing Butcher’s jersey tonight and not Coop’s.”

“She switches off between Austin and me.” The innuendos in those seven words. I cleared my throat. “But let’s get you on a flight to Boston tomorrow and then get you up to my room to sleep. I need to check on Kaylee and talk to her and Austin.” I slipped my phone from my slacks to look up flights.

“Between the game and everything you’ve had to deal with tonight, you have to be exhausted.”

“I’m drained, but making sure everyone I love is okay is more important to me.”

“You’re a good man, Levi Sexton.” Mom smiled warmly and cupped my cheek.

“Thank you.”

I got Mom on a flight close to the time I knew our flight was leaving for Chicago, and then we headed upstairs. The connecting door to the rooms was open, so I closed it to give my mom some privacy while I got her settled. Once I did, I walked through the connecting door to see Kaylee lying in bed. She turned so she could face me while Austin looked up from his cell phone as he leaned against the headboard next to her.

“Everything okay?” Austin asked me.

I shook my head. “There’s a lot going on, but I think it will be. How are you feeling?” I walked to Kaylee’s side of the bed.

She turned, and I knelt beside her, brushing her hair away from her face. “Still having some cramps, but doc said that’s normal.”

“Is there anything I can get you?”

She shook her head. “No. I just want to lie here. How’s your mom?”

I ran a hand down my face, stood and sat in the chair off to the side. “I think our relationship is the least of her worries.”

“What does that mean?” Kaylee questioned.

I rested my head against the back of the chair and closed my eyes for a moment. Finally, I took a deep breath and said, “Seems my father knocked up an eighteen-year-old. And it’s been going on for a while.”

“What?” Kaylee breathed and rose to sit up as Austin questioned, “What the fuck?”

I snapped my head forward, shushing them and nudging my head in the direction of the wall behind them. Then I whispered, “She’s another pastor’s daughter.”

“Holy fucking shit,” Kaylee breathed. “That’s some …”

“Pedophile shit,” Austin finished for her, with a lowered voice.

“Everything is blowing my mind,” I admitted. I was trying to keep everything bottled up, but it was all too much. Kaylee was in pain; both physically and emotionally. I was almost going to be a father. I was a brother. My father was an asshole—well, that wasn’t something new. My mom was leaving my dad. My mom was moving in with me. Was I missing anything? Because so much had happened in the last several hours that I wasn’t even sure if it was real. Was it all a dream? A nightmare?

“It’s been a long night.” Austin slid off the bed. “I talked to Coach and told him we’d meet the team downstairs in the morning to catch the flight with the team.”

“Okay.” I nodded. I hated that we had to leave Kaylee once again while we were on the road, but that was our job and it wasn’t as though we could just call in sick. “Thank you.”

Austin grabbed a bottle of water and tossed it to me. “I also booked Kaylee a flight back to Boston too.”

My hand stilled from opening the bottle. “What time is the flight?”

“Around ten.”

I looked at Kaylee as she took a swig from the bottle that was on the nightstand. “My mom will be on that flight too.”

Kaylee’s blue eyes widened in surprise. “Really?”

“I can’t let her go back home knowing what I know my father has done. She’s going to stay with me until we figure this shit out.”

“Totally understandable,” my girlfriend responded.

Austin’s phone dinged. “I ordered us burgers. They’re here.”

My stomach growled at the mention of food. Usually after a game, we grabbed something from the post-game spread, but since he and I had raced out of the arena, we hadn’t eaten. “Thank you. I just realized I’m starving.”

“I’ll be back.” Austin snagged a room key and then left.

I stood and shrugged out of my suit jacket, tossed it onto the chair, and then sat on the bed in front of Kaylee. “How are you really feeling, sweetheart?”

She looked down at her lap. “Everyone keeps asking me that, and I don’t know how to answer. All I keep thinking about is I was pregnant and now I’m not. I don’t know why I’m this upset since I didn’t even know I was pregnant this morning.”

I pulled her to me, cradling her head against my chest. “I think it’s safe to say we’re all sad, but no matter what, I love you, and I’ll always be here for you.”

“I love you too.”

A tear slid down my cheek and as I held my girl, I finally let myself feel .