Free Quarterback's Secret Baby (Bad Boy Ballers) by Imani King

and all of those things you usually associate with the word 'family.' I messaged her that I was on my way and walked off to find my Suburban in the parking lot, thankful that I didn't have to think about what Brandon had said anymore.
    Later that night, after I'd eaten with Tasha's family and made Rosa laugh until she almost puked by chasing her around the house and roaring like a monster whenever I caught her, Tasha and I were sitting on the front stoop.
    'You can't see the stars for shit in town," I commented, looking up.
    "What?" Tasha asked. She was wearing a skirt and I had my hand on her soft, warm thigh underneath it. Just the thought of how close I was to her panties had me rock hard, as I generally was around her all the time when we were alone.
    "Uh, the stars," I said, distracted by that perfect thigh under my hand. "Too much light pollution. Out in the hills, you can see way more stars than this. Sometimes you can even see the Milky Way, really faintly."
    "Really?" Tasha asked skeptically as she leaned her head in against my shoulder. God I fucking loved it when she did that. This is probably going to sound dumb as hell but goddamn if she didn't make me feel like a man. All protective and shit.
    "Yeah. We should go camping this summer - I used to go out there all the time as a kid with my dad. I still have a tent and all the gear. We should go."
    "Camping?" Tasha asked warily, looking up at me. "Isn't that, like, sleeping on the ground?"
    I laughed. "Well, yeah, I suppose. But you have a little sleeping mat thing to lie on. And it's just really different to be out there in the hills, alone. So quiet. I bet you'd enjoy it. Come on!"
    She kept looking at me, as if trying to figure out whether or not she was being tricked. Then she just shrugged her shoulders and nodded. "OK, Kaden. I'll go camping with you. I'm probably not going to know how to do anything but-"
    "Don't worry about it," I told her. "I know how to put up a tent. And I know how to kill snakes."
    "Snakes?"
    "I'm kidding. There aren't any snakes - well, there aren't any harmful ones, anyway."
    Tasha agreed to go camping because of me. She didn't say it, but I just knew it. She wouldn't have gone camping with anyone else. I still didn't know everything there was to know about her but I did know she wasn't naturally outdoorsy. It made me feel proud that I'd managed to convince her so easily.
    "Ha ha, look at you," she said, smiling. "All proud of yourself."
    She wasn't naturally outdoorsy, that was true. But she was already almost freakishly good at reading my thoughts - better than I was, most of the time.

Chapter 10: Natasha
    Reinhardt High's prom was held in late May. Other than my mom, who spent her afternoons resting in bed in those days, I had the house to myself on the actual day. The first thing I did was prepare dinner for everyone and put it in the fridge so they would have something to eat that night. Butterflies fluttered in my belly as I mixed the dough for biscuits and I tried in vain to ignore them. Why was I nervous? It was just a school dance, right? I'd been to a lot of school dances over the years.
    My nerves weren't about prom, though. I was just telling myself they were, pretending that there wasn't something else, some other milestone, hanging in front of me like a tantalizing but somewhat scary exotic fruit.
    Kaden messaged me at 1:30 in the afternoon: "I'm bored."
    I messaged back: "Don't you have to get ready?"
    "Already did. Haircut, suit fitted. Bored. Want to go for a drive?"
    My reply was a single word: "Yes."
    By that time, I knew very well what 'going for a drive' meant. It meant what it always meant when Kaden and I managed to spend any time alone. That's why I said yes. Because even though I still wasn't anywhere close to being ready and even though I was tight with a fizzy, unknown kind of anticipation, I wanted to be with Kaden. I always wanted to be with him. It was obvious he thought he was the only one holding back,