The Game of Love: (BWWM Romance) by K. Alex Walker Page A

“There were years where Austin made you want to pull your hair out.”
    “There were years when he did pull my hair out, Ma,” she continued. “But I liked how close we were. I’m not saying that sisters couldn’t have been just as close, but the dynamic between me and Austin, it was unique. At least to me. I wanted the girls to have that.”
    Emma sat and Isabela scrambled from Austin’s lap over to her grandmother.
    “What’s it like?” Austin found himself asking. “Being a parent? I was just thinking about how I feel about Ari and Izzie and I can’t imagine anything greater than that.”
    Arielle and Emma exchanged looks.
    “You can’t explain it,” Emma answered. “It’s love, protection, pride—a mix of emotions wrapped into a ball to make one feeling that they don’t have a word for yet.”
    Arielle nodded. “Then take that feeling and magnify it by about a hundred percent.” She took another glance at her son. “You’ll know the feeling one day.”
    Austin did his best to suppress his grin. “Maybe.”
    “You will,” she insisted. “But until then …,” she rose and walked over to where he was sitting, “…hold your nephew.”
    Even more cautiously than usual, Austin held the nearly weightless baby in his arms. Silky, black curls poked from underneath his blue cotton cap, and Austin ran a finger down the boy’s small, soft cheek. As if responding to his touch, a corner of his mouth turned up in a smile that revealed a crater of a dimple.
    “Did something happen?” Arielle suddenly asked. Austin had always been a good uncle and Aria and Isabela adored him, but with the way he studied his nephew, she saw something different. She saw a man that wished that he was holding a child of his own.
    “What?”
    “Did you and Jessica get back together?”
    He looked up. “No, we didn’t. Why?”
    “Is your biological clock ticking again?” She teased.
    “No, Sommer,” he answered and as the room fell silent, he immediately realized his tongue slip and searched for a way to explain himself out of it. Although he desperately wanted to tell his family the truth, he didn’t want to say anything without talking to Sommer first.
    “I meant, Arielle,” he corrected, turning towards his mother. “And I was going to ask you, Ma, if Sommer worked early at the bakery today.”
    Emma paused, her suspicion piqued. “No. She told me today that she’d be closing.”
    The clock on the wall was pushing towards six-thirty, which meant he only had a half hour to drive out to the café and try to catch Sommer there alone. Rising, he gently handed his nephew back to Arielle.
    “I’ll be right back then. I have to go ask her about something.”
    Arielle’s curiosity was doing everything except spurting from her face. The move to a more densely populated city like Charlotte had done nothing to curb her small-town nosiness.
    “Ma, can you hold—”
    “I’ve got him,” Emma was already saying as she scooped her grandson from Arielle’s arms. Austin knew that protesting was futile, so he let Arielle follow him out the door, stopping only when he got to the car and felt the weight of her stare on his back.
    “You’re going to ask Sommer about her baby, aren’t you?” she asked.
    “Maybe. But it’s not like you don’t want to know about it.”
    Arielle rubbed her arms as a cool breeze off the lake brushed by. “You two must have gotten pretty close when you were here.”
    “You could say that.” He tugged open the car door and Arielle narrowed her eyes.
    “Austin, you know something.”
    “Arielle—”
    “Did you already know she was pregnant?”
    “No.” He slid onto the seat and pushed the key into the ignition. “But my sole reason for going over there is because she’s pregnant and taking care of her sick mother. Doesn’t that sound like someone who needs a friend?”
    Arielle pushed the door closed. “Hell, even pregnant and married sounds like someone that needs a friend. I