After the Game(65)

“Hey,” I said to her as she started to leave. She turned to look back at me. “If you need to talk. Or anything. I’m here. Always.”

She gave me a sad smile. “Thanks. We’re going to be okay, Brady. All three of us. We can survive this.”

She was right. We could.

* * *

Practice was grueling. The last play of the game may have been a success, but the fact that we’d had to pull off a miracle to win meant we hadn’t played the game like champions. Coach drilled that into our heads a million times in the two hours we were on the field today. There wasn’t a part of my body that didn’t ache.

Mom would have dinner ready, and going home to eat with her and Maggie was important right now. Problem was I really wanted to see Riley. She was what kept me sane in all this.

I picked up the phone and called Mom.

“Hello.” Her voice wasn’t the usual cheerful tone I was used to.

“Hey, Mom, how are you?”

She sighed. “Good. Maggie and I cleaned house today, made cookies, and are finishing up supper. Are you coming home or going to Riley’s?”

Maggie had been with her all day. It was my turn to take over and give her a break. I couldn’t expect Maggie to take care of my mother all the time, just because this was hard on me.

“I’ll be there in a few minutes,” I said, almost reluctantly.

Mom paused. “Why don’t you invite Riley and Bryony to dinner? I’d love to have them and get to visit with her daughter. Would be good to have a baby around here to lighten things up.”

The woman was a mind reader. She knew why I had called and what I was dealing with internally without my saying a word. “Thanks, Mom. That would be great. Let me call her.”

There was a soft laugh from her, and hearing her laugh even a little helped.

“I’ve made plenty tonight.”

As soon as I said my good-bye, I called Riley, hoping she hadn’t eaten yet and this was a way I’d get to see her.

“Hey,” she answered after the first ring.

“Have you eaten dinner?” I asked her immediately in case she was in the middle of it. I wasn’t above begging her to stop midbite and come with me.

“Uh, no, Mom was waiting on Dad.”

“Good, because Mom has invited you and Bryony for dinner. She said it would be good to have a baby around to lighten things up.” And I want to see you really damn bad. I didn’t add that last part.

“Oh,” she said, then paused. I was afraid she was thinking of ways to turn my offer down, so I dove right back in.

“I missed you today. I want to see you, but I need to go home to Mom, too. If you’d come, that would make this easier.”

Yes, I just threw in the feel bad for me card. I wasn’t ashamed of it. I was a desperate man who was in love with a girl and couldn’t admit it because what he had seen of love sucked in the end.

“Okay. Yes, we’d like that. Bryony will think this is an adventure. She’s not used to going somewhere new. When do we need to come over?”

I let out a sigh of relief. She was coming, and dinner wouldn’t be so hard now. We would all have something else to focus on other than Boone not being there. And why.

“I can come get you,” I told her, turning my truck down her road.

“Okay, but we will need to move Bryony’s car seat to your truck.”

“I’ll do it as soon as I get there. Y’all just get ready.”

It was funny how the idea of eating dinner with Riley and Bryony at my house made things feel lighter. Happier.





It All Seemed Normal





CHAPTER 49


RILEY

Brady’s house was like I remembered. But this time I was walking in as a mother, and his . . . friend who was a girl. I had no idea what to call us, really. Asking him to make that clear while his life was in turmoil was inappropriate. So for now we were friends, I guessed.

Brady led us to the kitchen, where the smell of fried chicken permeated the air. Bryony was holding on to me tightly. She wasn’t used to new places. We had our routine, and we had just stepped out of it. As excited as she had been when I told her what we were doing, she was nervous now.

“Hey, Mom, we’re here,” Brady called out just before he walked into the kitchen. I followed behind him with Bryony on my hip.

His mother was wearing a pink-and-white polka-dot apron and holding a cast-iron skillet full of biscuits in her hand when she turned around to greet us.

“Hello.” She smiled brightly.

Brady walked over and kissed her cheek and whispered something in her ear. She patted his cheek and then turned to us. “Riley, she is precious,” she told me as she set the skillet on the table and made her way over.