CHAPTER 50
BRADY
Dinner with Riley and Bryony was just a couple hours, but it seemed to help us heal. Odd how that happens. A reminder of someone else’s beauty after pain seemed to do that. Mom cried less. I was able to focus more that week on practice. Maggie didn’t leave school early anymore. But twice this week she had gotten home to find Riley and Bryony at my house entertaining my mom.
I knew why Riley was going over there, and if I hadn’t already known I loved her, that would have made me love her. I just wished I had more faith in love. And forever.
Riley would be here or wherever she planned on going next year, and I would be at college. Away. Missing her.
* * *
“So are you dating Riley Young?” Ivy caught me when I was walking out to my truck Friday. Today was the big game. The end. So they let school out at twelve for students to travel the two hours away to where the game was taking place.
“Yes,” I replied, knowing she had seen or already knew about the kiss. Not to mention the field party.
“When did that start? Last thing I heard she had fucked someone and tried to pin the baby on Rhett. Gunner just decided to forgive that cause his brother got drunk and came to homecoming.”
Ivy was being catty because she was upset. I had broken things off with her, but that wasn’t enough. She had been expecting we would end up together. I knew she planned on following me to college. Not something I wanted or had asked of her. Ever.
“None of that is your business,” I told her, jerking my truck door open and tossing my bag inside.
“We were together for eighteen months, Brady. We had taken a break only three weeks and four days before you were seen kissing her. How do you think that makes me feel? It was just a break!”
I had too much to deal with to add this drama to it. “It wasn’t a break. I told you we were over. It was done. We had grown apart and I needed to focus on my future. You wanted things I didn’t.”
She let out a loud, angry laugh. “That is a break!”
“A breakup,” I corrected, then climbed into my truck.
“You pretend to be this nice guy. The good guy everyone wants to be around. Mr. Quarterback with the perfect life. But you are cruel! Selfish! And I am glad to be rid of you! I deserve more than this.”
Her ranting was a time bomb that had been ticking. I was glad it was happening and we could move on.
“Okay” was all I said, hoping I could close the door and leave.
“Why Riley Young? She has a baby, for God’s sake!”
Because she was my fit. And I loved her. I didn’t say that, though. I wasn’t telling anyone before I told Riley.
“Good-bye, Ivy” was my response instead, then I closed my truck door and made sure not to hit her before pulling out of the parking spot and heading home to get ready for the last game of my high school career.
* * *
Riley’s red Mustang was in my drive when I pulled in. It made me smile to see it there. My conversation or assault from Ivy, whatever you wanted to call it, was over. I was home now. Riley was here. I was okay.
I walked in the front door and heard Bryony’s laughter coming from the living room.
I went toward the noise to find Bryony at the coffee table with homemade play dough—something my mother loved to do with me as a child. Riley was on the other side helping her roll it into small balls, and my mother was beside Bryony on her knees with a smile on her face again.
The ache my father’s departure had caused eased when my mom smiled like that. Her eyes weren’t bloodshot from tears today. It looked as if she hadn’t cried at all. She lifted her gaze to meet mine. “Look who came to play today,” she said, sounding as happy about it as she looked.
I bent down beside Riley. “And y’all made play dough. I used to love doing this.”
“And you loved eating it,” my mother added.
Riley chuckled beside me, and I cut my eyes over at her. She was beautiful. Her hair was up on top of her head in a messy bun, and she wasn’t wearing any makeup. She had the same happy expression my mother did, and sitting here like this with her, spending time with my mom, made me want to kiss her until we both ran out of breath.
“Hey,” I said instead.
She blushed as if she knew what I was thinking. I hoped so. “Hey” was her simple response.
“Bryony and I need to finish making the Christmas tree out of play dough. Riley, would you help Brady get his things together for me? He needs to be back at the school soon to get on the bus.”
That was Mom’s way of giving us privacy but reminding us not to take too much privacy.
Riley nodded. “Yes, of course.”
We stood up and Bryony seemed too preoccupied to care about our departure. I waited until we hit the stairs to press a quick kiss to her lips. I couldn’t wait much longer.