Dirty Deeds by Stella Rhys

22

EMMETT

There was alwaysan obligatory rush of greetings I had to give and receive every time I walked into Empire Stadium. Between Julian and me, I was by far the friendlier, less scary Hoult, so it made sense that people came to talk to me more. From members of the front office to guys from the grounds crew, I had dozens of people I always caught up with before getting to my seat. I usually loved it too.

But not so much today.

Today, I just wanted to be with Aly. I just wanted to get her alone so I could kiss, touch and hold her however the hell I wanted, but as we walked down the hall, we kept getting stopped. I could feel Aly practically beaming up at me as I put on a good face and chatted with everyone, but even her smile wasn’t enough comfort for the fact that I couldn’t put my hands all over her already.

By the time we got to my suite, my body was rigid from head to toe.

And to make matters worse, I opened the door to find Julian in there with Sara. I let out a groan at the ceiling.

“Fucking hell. What are you doing here?”

“I own the stadium, asshole. Good to see you too,” Julian smirked before spotting Aly behind me. I noticed the slightest twitch in his brow, which was as much surprise or expression as anyone not named Sara would ever get out of him. “Aly,” he said with a genuine smile. “Christ, it’s been forever. I take it Emmett’s been tolerable if you’re choosing to join him this evening.”

“Yes, he has. Hi Julian,” Aly laughed, hugging Julian.

While they caught up, I turned to say hello to Sara. Her dark ponytail was swinging around as she bounced on her heels, waiting to embrace me. I was about to ask what she looked so giddy for but then she threw her arms around me, going on her tiptoes to hiss next to my ear.

“I’m pregnant!”

I pulled back with wide eyes.

“No fucking way,” I whispered as she mouthed don’t tell him.

“I’m sorry, I just had to get it out,” Sara said in an excited rush just as Julian’s attention returned to us. He pulled his eyebrows tight.

“What?”

“Nothing,” Sara and I replied in unison. Julian’s laugh was curt.

“Yeah?” His eyes flicked back and forth between us for a few seconds. “You two literally couldn’t be more suspicious right now.”

“You couldn’t be more suspicious right now. Now get out of my suite, I’m here with my woman.”

“Your woman?” Julian repeated as Sara’s face lit up.

Ah. Shit, I cursed to myself but grinned when I caught Aly’s slightly stunned smile. It was half slip of tongue, half me trying to get rid of Julian, but before I knew what was happening, Sara was excitedly introducing herself to Aly as Julian pulled me sharply aside.

“Are you serious, Emmett? This is everything I told you not to do.” he said, looking less amused with me than usual. I shoved my hands in my pockets and shrugged.

“I don’t know man,” I laughed. “Let me live.”

“How did this happen?”

“It just did, can’t explain it. Hey, how are you and Sara, by the way? Anything new?”

Julian paused to eye me. He had a perfect record when it came to staying on topic while I actively tried to change the subject. But today, for the first time ever, he caved. His chest expanded as he inhaled deep and clenched his jaw.

“Did she say something to you?” he asked.

“No. What would she say if she said something?”

Julian stared at me for two hard seconds. He dragged his hand across his face to hide the giant grin he broke into for half a second before containing himself.

“Fuck,” he hissed under his breath before glancing over his shoulder at Sara then back at me. He bounced exactly once on his heels before lowering his voice. “I think she’s pregnant. But she hasn’t said anything yet, and I don’t want to get my hopes up.”

I suppressed a massive smile. My stomach was somersaulting with excitement but I did my best to hold it in. I could easily take my own secrets to the grave, but I had a history of spilling the beans when it came to Julian and Sara, so I refused to let myself fuck this up.

“I don’t know, man. If she is, she is. If she’s not, she’s not. But it would definitely be cool for Ozzy to have a cousin.”

Julian snorted. “Right. I guess I should temper my kid’s expectations of ever having a human cousin. Sara has no siblings and you… are who you are.”

“I’m not entirely sure what you mean by that but I do think I’m offended.”

Julian laughed. “You realize you can’t let Mom find out about anything going on between you and Aly, right? She’s going to get so ahead of herself she’ll probably have to be hospitalized for heartbreak if and when you two break up.”

“Jesus fuck, take it easy. And Aly isn’t going anywhere, alright? I promise you that.”

Julian studied me. I expected him to launch into a speech about how I’d lost credibility after introducing a hundred different girls to my family, none of which ever lasted more than a week-and-a-half. But he surprised me by going in a different direction.

“I know how much she’s always meant to you,” he said, giving me a nod of acknowledgment. It was the first time my brother had given me credit for anything regarding a girl, and it actually felt kind of nice. “I mean you definitely had a shitty way of showing it then, but here’s to hoping that you can make up for it now.”

I raised my eyebrows. “That was actually really nice for your standards,” I said as he grinned.

“Yeah, well. Like you said, I’m getting soft.”

“Definitely. On that topic, remind me that I owe Sara a million beers for making you that much more tolerable since you’ve been together.”

“Yeah, I’ll remind you in nine months, hopefully.”

I chewed both lips back, making probably the stupidest face in the world as I tried not to let anything slip. I’d kept Sara’s secret for all of eight minutes but it felt like a tornado pummeling inside me.

The second they were gone, I had to let it out.

“Julian’s going to be a dad,” I blurted, my hands thrust in my hair. I broke into a huge grin as Aly gasped.

“Oh my God. Your mom’s going to freak out!”

I laughed because she was completely right about that.

“Holy shit,” I murmured to myself as I floated over to a chair. Aly tried to sit in the one next to me but I caught her by the hips and pulled her onto my lap, sitting her sideways so I could see her face. I didn’t even care that she was laughing at me. I needed to hold her while I processed this. It was honestly bigger news to me than when Julian bought the Empires. Way bigger. “Man. He needed this,” I finally said, grinning progressively wider as I nodded to myself. “He really did. He’s been waiting to be a dad for a long time.”

“Seriously?” Aly giggled. “I mean I remember him always being good with kids, but I also remember him saying that he was ‘a hundred percent never having children.’”

I smirked at her completely accurate memory. “Yeah, well. I think he changed his mind after our dad died.”

Aly’s face fell.

“Oh.” She took my hand in both of hers, quiet for a second. “I guess that makes sense.”

“Yeah,” I said, frowning as I remembered what Julian was like after my dad died. What my whole family was like. I was so lost in the memory that I didn’t register Aly tipping my face to hers till I was looking in her big eyes. “What?” I murmured.

“I feel bad,” she said straightaway.

“For what?”

“For not being there when your dad died. For not knowing your grandpa died right after.”

I winced when she mentioned Grandpa. He had cancer so we were all prepared for his death. The one we weren’t expecting was Dad. From what we knew, he was perfectly healthy. If anything, he was just stressed about his siblings fighting over Grandpa’s will. It was during this time – all these nights that our family spent in hospice with Grandpa – that Dad would pull me aside and talk about Aly’s father.

“This is why I’m grateful for Charlie Stanton,” he’d say. “He’s visited Grandpa more than your aunts and uncles have. He sends flowers. He’s been here for me the way my real brothers and sisters haven’t been, and that’s why you, me – all the Hoults will treat him like blood. Always. No matter what.”

It was conflicting to hear. In my heart, I knew something was off about Aly’s dad, but at the same time, it was hard to defy my father. He was the smartest man I knew, in terms of business, love and family. The love he had for my mother was the goal I’d set for my own life.

Unless I found someone I wanted to love the way Dad loved Mom, then I hadn’t found anyone yet.

“Honestly, I think I learned what family was from yours more than mine,” Aly murmured, gazing down at our entwined fingers. “In some ways, I can’t blame my dad for idolizing your family so much. You guys were perfect.”

“Until we weren’t.”

Aly paused and looked up at me just in time to catch the grimace on my face.

“I know something happened after your dad passed… but I don’t know what it was, and I feel horrible asking.”

I shook my head. “Don’t. We weren’t exactly open about it. It was a fucked up time. It wasn’t the way Mom wanted people to see us.”

“What do you mean?”

“Dad died after a fight with Julian,” I said, my heart beating fast as the words came out. I forced myself to peer up at the look of pure shock on Aly’s face. “Nobody knows about this. Most people think Julian went away because he was depressed. They definitely didn’t think it was because Mom blamed him for Dad’s death.”

“I remember my mom mentioning that Julian took a job overseas at one point,” Aly said, her gaze drifting off as she dug through her own memories. “I remember her saying how smart he was. For getting a change of scenery to help get over things. She said she’d always wanted to go to Sweden. That’s where he went, right?”

“Yeah. Everyone spins everything we do into something cool or glamorous,” I laughed, though it was more annoying than funny. “But the truth was that for a good five years after Dad died, we were barely a family anymore. None of us were talking for awhile. Not to Julian at least.”

Aly’s eyes flew wide open. “Not even you? But you guys were always so close.”

“Well, he was far away. And while he was gone, he made some decisions that made us feel like he was going to stay away for good. And Mom wasn’t doing well. Gram wasn’t either. They’d both lost their husbands in one week, so they were my priority. Not Julian,” I shrugged, putting on a casual face despite the pain twisting under my ribs. I’d gotten good at that.

“So it was all on you?” Aly’s eyes were a little wet as she looked up at me. “You were eighteen years old and everyone’s rock?”

I nodded. The story wasn’t even as simple as this, but I couldn’t get into it any further, so I gave another shrug and smiled.

“That’s why I’m excited to start building on the family again. We all needed this,” I said, relieved to see the happy little curl touch Aly’s lips.

“You’re going to be an uncle,” she said, breaking into such a big grin I had to follow suit. “Fun Uncle Emmett. That’s got a nice ring to it.”

“Definitely,” I laughed just as the crack of a bat sounded, drawing both our eyes to a home run on the field.

And for the rest of the evening, we watched the game, Aly leaning her head against mine as she popped kettle corn in her mouth. I leaned back in my chair, swigging my beer, both of us fully relaxed as the Empires coasted into their fifth win in a row.

At the final out, Aly looked up at me, saying thank you before grabbing my shoulders and hoisting herself up to kiss my forehead then my lips.

It felt so fucking good.

Strange, but good.

Because while we were sitting in the stadium we grew up in, we were somehow in a completely different place.