Free Romance: Sports Romance: ON SIDE (Secret Baby Pregnancy Football Romance) (Contemporary New Adult Fiction) by Raven Monet Page A

Micah was silent, cradling our child who was fast asleep, to his chest. The porch swing swung back and forth, creaking ever so slightly. The humid air around us felt suffocating – at least to me. I knew the struggle to breathe wasn't just from the air, however. It meant he was close.
    “Are you sure you're gonna be fine?” I asked, biting my nail as I stared at the two loves of my life.
    “We're going to be just fine, Lucy,” Micah said softly, turning those dark eyes toward me. “I'm more worried about you.”
    I felt the heat rising in my face. To look at Micah like that, knowing I was going to be spending the night with his brother, hurt. But a deal's a deal, and it kept both my boys alive and actually meant they had to work hard to repair their relationship. Neither one wanted to hurt me. The easier solution would be for Deacon to stay away for good, to never come by, but was that fair to him? Our daughter could very well be his, and while Deacon wasn't the perfect fatherly-figure, he still wanted to see her. Even if it meant he stayed on the sidelines, posing as her uncle.
    “I'm going to be okay, Micah,” I said, bringing his hand up to my lips. “And I'll be back here in the morning. I'll be back in your arms as long as you'll have me.”
    “I'll always love you, Lucy. No matter what happens tonight. I know I couldn't ask you to cut all ties with him, knowing what I know now. Knowing how it hurts you when you can't go to him.”
    “This is why I love you more than life itself, Micah Walker,” I said, leaning forward and brushing my lips against his. “This is why you'll always be the only true love in my life, the father of my children, and the man I spend all of the eternity with.”
    I got one night with Deacon every few months, Micah got eternity. Deacon might consider that the raw end of the deal at times, but truthfully, he knew that family life wasn't for him. Marriage wasn't for him. Fidelity wasn't his forte. This way, he could sleep with other women, do as he pleased, and while I worried about his safety – because part of me would always care about him – he wasn't my entire world.
    My world was right there, on the front porch of our home. Micah and our daughter, Ava. Ava Walker wouldn't have to grow up to be a typical Walker – which in terms of Walker women meant subservient to the men in the family. No, not my daughter. Not my little girl. Even Deacon agreed with that when we found out I was having a girl. He didn't like the way his father treated his mama, never liked the way women were treated amongst the lions – even though they did a bulk of the work rearing children and caring for the family while the men went on runs and got into trouble.
    That was no life for me. That was no life for Ava.
    Micah, on the other hand, was the perfect father. Doting, gentle, and absolutely in love with his little girl. Her room, once we found out what her sex would be, was decked out in pink polka dots, with her name hand-painted by him above her bed. When Deacon saw it, he'd actually complimented his brother, said there's no way he could have ever done something like that.
    This arrangement might not be ideal, but it did bring the two men closer together in a way I could never have imagined. You'd think sharing a woman would tear them apart, and at first, it looked like it might. But they both knew their place in my heart, they both knew how important they were to me. Micah knew to never doubt my love. Even a night with Deacon wouldn't keep me from coming back to his arms or his bed.
    I felt him before he even spoke, but his words still sent a shiver down my spine.
    “Hey Lucy, Micah,” Deacon said, standing on the stairs.
    He'd walked all the way here, knowing I wouldn't climb on the back of his bike anymore. It was too dangerous. I had a child to think of now.
    “Deacon,” Micah said, nodding at his brother.
    “How's Ava?” Deacon asked, looking down at the bundle in Micah's arms. “May I –