Hidden Desire

Prologue

"Mama, I'm going to go to Val and Reggie's," I said when I'd come down the stairs. Despite my brother being a multi millionaire, thanks to his thriving NFL quarterback career, we still lived in the same house we'd lived in my entire life. Reggie had offered multiple times to buy us a bigger house, to send me to private school, but my parents were having none of it. He'd finally gotten them to agree to pay for my college education. That was still a year away, but he was counting it as a win.

I didn't want to go to a private school anyways. Everyone at school knew me before I was the sister of a three time Super Bowl MVP. If I went to a new school, I'd be known only for being Reggie's much younger sister and not for the person I really was. I liked my school. It was the same one Val, Reggie and Mikey had graduated from eight years ago now.

And now, Reggie and Val had a baby. It was their first, and honestly, I was surprised it had taken them so long to have one.

"Did they invite you?" Mom asked when I walked into the kitchen.

"I texted, Val."

"They have a new baby," mom said, as if I could forget that. "You can't just be driving up there on a whim to drop in on them."

"It's almost Christmas. Once break is over I won't be able to see them nearly as much."

"Drive safe, please. Are you spending the night there?"

"It depends, but I've got clothes with me just in case."

"Text me when you get there."

"I will. Love you mom."

"Love you too, sweetie."

I grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge to keep me hydrated on the nearly four hour trip to see them. They lived just outside of DC in Alexandria. They'd lived there since Reggie was drafted by them after playing at UVA for four years. At least now they didn't have their stupid name. Even their dumb nameless name was better than what it had been.

I'd be there by lunch.

I could wait the three days until Chrismtas when we all got together at my parent's house. It had been the same for as long as I could remember. Reggie and Val with Val's mom and her new husband, Thomas. They'd been married for five years now. She'd met him when she was his photography student shortly after she divorced Val's dad. Val and Mikey never saw their dad anymore. At least Val didn't, I couldn't be too sure about Mikey. I'd only seen him a handful of times since he graduated. After UVA he'd been drafted into the NBA, all the way to San Diego, California. He'd lived there for the last four years. We only ever saw him during holiday's. He'd never once brought a girlfriend home for the occasion. It was only ever the eight of us, and those were my favourite days. I missed my big brother like crazy.

My dream was go to Georgetown University in DC. That would put me so much closer to him and Val. I'd always seen Val as an older sister while I was growing up. I'd been ecstatic when she and Reggie had finally gotten married just after his first NFL season was completed. And I was even more excited to have a little nephew now. They'd named him Vincent.

I had just turned seventeen and had only one semester of high school left. Mom wasn't thrilled that I drove so far across the interstate at such a young age, but to appease her, Reggie had convinced her to buy me a car. It had all the latest safety features, including automatic breaking, lane detection. It wasn't a luxury model, mom had drawn the line there; it was just safe. Reggie had also paid for me to have defensive driving classes and driving instructions from a private company. None of that was required for me to get my license, but mom had been insistent. Reggie and dad had been too. I went along with it because it gave me more freedom.