After the Game(61)

“There are West and Gunner. Maggie’s there too. You’ll like her,” he told me. I already did. From what I knew of her.

People shouted out his name, and he waved at them as we went straight to his closest friends. A truck was backed up and the tailgate down. Asa sat on it with a redhead, who looked familiar but I wasn’t sure about her name, standing between his legs. West was on a tire beside Maggie, and Gunner was sitting with Willa on a log.

“Finally got here. What’d you do, stop to make out first?” Asa asked with a smirk.

“Shut up,” Brady replied.

“Can’t believe we pulled that shit off tonight,” West said, holding up a red plastic cup toward me. “Thanks for having the balls to do it. We’ll be the talk of high school football all week.”

“I wasn’t the one to run it past the defensive line. That was all you,” Brady told him, sitting down on the other end of the tailgate and pulling me with him. I sat down beside him, but he kept our locked hands on his thigh.

“Shit about gave me heart failure,” Asa remarked and took a drink of what I assumed was a beer.

“You thirsty?” Willa asked me. “I’m going to go get another water.”

I was, but the way Brady was holding on to me I wasn’t sure I needed to leave him. “I’m good for now. Thank you, though,” I told her.

She glanced at Maggie. “What about you?”

Maggie stood up and followed Willa toward the large coolers over by the main fire.

“You could have gone too if you wanted one,” Brady whispered.

I shook my head. I wasn’t leaving him. Not tonight.

“I’m okay.”

He nodded and gently gave my hand a squeeze. I squeezed back.





I’m Moving Out





CHAPTER 46


BRADY

I would never have made it through that without Riley. Pulling up outside her house, I wanted to go inside with her. Stay with her. Going home and facing reality scared me. My mother could know now. What would that look like?

“Call me if you need me,” Riley said when I put the truck in park. “I’ll keep my phone by my ear.”

I sighed. “I wish I didn’t have to face this. But if she knows, she’s going to be broken. I can’t not go home. And if she doesn’t know, he’s going to have to tell her. I’ve told him I know. I can’t let this drag out. What if she were to find out another way or, God forbid, walk in like I did and catch them?”

She didn’t say anything because she knew I was right. There was nothing to add to that.

“Thanks for being there tonight. At the game and the field.”

She gave me a sad smile. “I wish it had been easier for you. Both of them.”

I leaned over and pressed a kiss to her lips. Tasting her and being close like this always eased the ache. She filled a piece of me that my father had ripped away. I needed her.

When she had needed someone, no one had been there. That killed me every time I thought of it. She was so giving and kind. She didn’t hold grudges or bitterness from what we’d all put her through.

Reluctantly I ended the kiss. I couldn’t stay with her all night, as much as I wanted. I had to go home and deal.

“I’ll walk you to the door,” I told her, and she shook her head.

“No. Go home. You can watch me safely get inside. No reason to walk with me. You have to get home and check on your mom.”

Normally I would argue, but tonight she was right. I’d stayed out longer than I should have. I should be at home.

“Good night,” I told her, and the words I love you almost fell from my tongue. I stopped them before they came out, but they had been there. So easily. So quickly.

Shit.

“Good night,” she replied, and I watched silently as she climbed out of my truck and went inside.

Shit. I didn’t need to love her. Not now.

On the drive home, the words I love you played over and over in my head, keeping me distracted until I pulled in behind my father’s truck. He was here. Lights were on downstairs.

I had left Maggie at the field with West, so it would just be us. With the truth.

Taking a deep breath, I steadied myself and headed inside. Each step I took was heavy, full of dread. The dread grew to fury, and by the time I opened the door I wanted nothing more than to see my father walk out of our lives and never come back.

I heard their voices, and although there wasn’t screaming or crying there was a heaviness to the tone. I followed the sound and found them in the kitchen sitting across from each other at the wooden farm table.

My mother’s eyes were bloodshot from tears that were now dried. She looked stronger than I had expected. Did she know the truth?