Page 19 of Thrown Off Balance

I take a step back and run a hand through my hair. I think Sophia’s emotions are all from the pregnancy, but I'm going to keep an eye on her. I don’t want my sister going through something feeling like we’re not there for her.

“She’s ok,” Peck says softly as he appears at my side and places a hand on my shoulder. “She’s just really emotional from her hormones being all over the place.”

“There’s nothing else going on?” I glance at him, knowing Peck would never keep anything from us.

“Nah, she’s happy. She just misses having her brothers next door. Why do you think she comes to every game? I don’t know what she’s going to do when the baby is born. I don’t think it’s hit her that her life will change drastically.”

“We’ll get a box,” I growl.

We’ve never had box seats for our family, purely because they all enjoy being in the center of the action, but if Sophia can still come to our games and feel closer to us, I’ll ask Coach about a box tomorrow. I don’t care how much it costs or what I have to do to get one.

Wyatt’s lucky. Owen has a box for Mulberry Lane at the baseball stadium, even though we don’t use it much. He says he wants to make sure we all know we’re welcome and if he knows we won't be using it, he’ll make sure it gets used, but it’s always available for us. I wish Owen would buy the Pythons too, but I don’t think he really has any interest in hockey.

“Do you want to go out for dinner?” I eye my sisters. As much as I’d love to go home and relax the rest of the night, it’s only five o’clock and I'm starving.

“Yes!” Sophia pushes away from Jax and stares up at me with wide eyes. “Where are we going?”

“Anywhere you want, sweetheart.” I chuckle at how quickly her mood can turn around.

“You’re coming too, Jax, right?” She peers up at him with big innocent eyes.

“You think I’d turn down dinner with my favorite women?” He arches a brow. “Never.”

We both grab our duffle bags off the ground and hoist them over our shoulders. We’re about to head towards the parking lot, I'm sure we’ll all pile into my car so we don’t have to wait for everyone to get their cars out of the packed lots.

“Jax! You were amazing tonight!” Jude’s voice cuts through the nice family moment we were having.

Jax lets out a quiet growl of frustration before plastering a fake smile on his face. He turns around and acts like he and Jude are best friends. I don’t know how he does it. If anyone other than my family saw him right now, they’d think Jax was actually happy to see Jude.

“Thanks, man.”

“Jude, we should get going,” Sloan says softly.

“No! I want to hang out with Jax.” He glares at Sloan before turning a big smile on Jax. “What are we doing tonight?”

“Well, I'm going out for dinner with my siblings…” Jax grips the back of his neck uncomfortably. He glances in my direction looking for help, but I don’t know what to do. Jude can’t take a hint.

“Oh! We’re free for dinner. Where are we going?” He’s grinning ear to ear like a complete idiot.

“They didn’t invite us, Jude,” Sloan hisses, trying to pull her boyfriend away from Jax. He slips from her hold and ignores her.

“I… I don’t know where we’re going.” Jax sighs like there’s no winning this. He sends an apologetic glance in Sophia and Charlie’s direction.

“Well, this baby is craving protein.” Sophia places her hands on her tiny stomach.

“What about the Brazilian steakhouse?” I arch a brow with a smirk.

For being such a small human, Sophia can eat her weight in meat when we go to the Brazilian steakhouse. She loves it.

“Oh my gosh! Yes! I love that place!”

“Alright, we’ll meet you guys there!” Jude smiles triumphantly.

Chapter 10

Sloan

I’m going to kill him.