Without another word, he motioned for Riley to follow him up the stairs to a guest room that consisted of a big bed and a couple pieces of old furniture.
“There’s an adjoining bathroom right through that door. Let me know if you need anything else. Good night,” his uncle said and hesitated briefly, as if he wanted to say more but didn’t. Instead he turned and left the room.
After tossing and turning in the big bed for an hour, Riley crept down the stairs for a glass of water. He stopped at the sound of Cooper’s irritated voice coming from the kitchen. Riley stepped back behind the corner and listened. Cooper was talking about him.
Well, what the hell am I supposed to do with a teenage boy? I’m gone all the time. He can’t stay here. A pause. Riley could hear Cooper pacing. I can’t. It’s Mom and Dad’s trip of a lifetime. You were my only option. Yeah, yeah, I understand. More silence and a heavy sigh. I can’t put the kid in a foster home, not when he has relatives. Yeah, crap. I’ll just have to find his mother so I can get him the hell out of here. Our sister is a damn flake.
Cooper cleared his throat. Riley heard the frig open and the top popped off a bottle, probably a beer. His appearance had driven his uncle to drink. More pacing.
It can’t be that hard to find her. The sooner, the better. I start camp in a few days. Besides, I’m not father material, hell, I’m not uncle material.
Riley slipped back upstairs, feeling sick to his stomach. He’d known the truth but hearing it made him even sicker. His mom’s family didn’t want anything to do with him or with her. The sooner he got out of here the better, but tonight he just wanted to sleep one night in a warm, dry place without the sound of rats scurrying through the vents.
The cat followed him to the room. Riley stared at the bed. Instead of getting in it, he sank to the floor between the bed and the wall. Unshed tears filled his eyes, and he swiped angrily at them. He would not cry. Crying was for sissies, and he wasn’t a sissy. Hell, he’d taken care of his mother for years. He could certainly take care of himself.
Cooper didn’t want him. That much was obvious. He’d tried to pawn him off on someone else. If the jerk put him in foster care, Riley would bolt. He’d rather live on the streets. But for now, he just wanted to sleep and weariness took over.
Riley curled into a ball on the floor and hugged the cat to him.
Tomorrow he’d plot his next move.
Cooper had had an older sister once, but that was a lifetime ago.
Not that she was dead—except to him. Hell, as far as he knew she might well be dead—now. A chill ran down his spine.
No one in his immediate family had been in contact with her in years with the exception of an aunt, who heard from her once or twice a year. Julie’s choice, not theirs. Though the drama factor in their lives decreased exponentially after she’d walked away and never looked back.
Cooper walked upstairs and opened the bedroom door a crack to check on the boy. The bed hadn’t been slept in. He swung his gaze around the room, zeroing in on a lump on the floor. Curled in a fetal position, Riley lay on the floor between the bed and wall. He clutched a pillow and one arm was wrapped around Joker who purred happily. Frowning and feeling completely out of his comfort zone, Cooper crossed the room. When his nephew didn’t wake up, he pulled a blanket off the bed and covered him.
With one last glance at Riley, Cooper left, closing the door quietly behind him.
He leaned his forehead against the wall in the hallway and closed his eyes, the weight of his world on his shoulders.
He was an uncle. A fucking uncle to a kid whose mother hated Cooper and blamed him for everything bad in her life. Even worse, Cooper blamed himself.
His secret shame.
He’d never said a word; even when he could’ve saved his sister, he’d stayed quiet to save himself.
You were only ten years old.
Still, he’d been a coward.
He owed Julie that much. He’d take care of Riley, do right by him, until his parents returned.
Raw emotions swirled inside him, especially guilt. Guilt for a ton of reasons, guilt that he hadn’t even cared enough to find out he had a nephew, guilt that he’d deserted his sister, guilt that he had every intention to pass this kid off to the next available family member.
He was a shitty brother and an even shittier uncle.
And now his sister’s hot mess of a life had come to roost on his doorstep in the form of a pathetic kid with nowhere else to go.
Shaking his head, Cooper pushed himself away from the wall, his mind running one more time through his limited options.
Earlier he’d made a few phone calls, first to Cyrus, the team’s attorney, waking him up and explaining the weird circumstances. After grumbling about the ungodly hour, Cyrus agreed to contact a private investigator he worked with on occasion and start the ball rolling. If anyone could find Cooper’s sister, Cyrus claimed this guy could.
Then he’d woken up his younger brother, Dan, who wasn’t any happier than Cyrus had been. The sooner he found a temporary home for Riley, the better. Training camp and preseason games started in a few days. Cooper couldn’t have a kid living here, not when he was gone fifty percent of the time. Unfortunately, neither could Dan. With a rambunctious five year old, a baby on the way, and both him and his wife working, he declined to take on another person in their tiny New York flat. Of course, he sympathized and worried about their sister, but that was the best Cooper got out of him.
He knew better than to call his parents. They were travelling all over Europe for the next few months, finally retired and able to take their dream vacation, the one they’d saved up for years. Sure, they’d fly back in a heartbeat, but Cooper couldn’t do that to them. Nor could he cause them any more worry over their missing daughter, not until he knew something concrete about what happened to her.