Derrick’s comments were punctuated by the chirping of an incoming text. Derrick grabbed it off of the coffee table and stabbed at the phone’s screen with one finger while continuing to play. “It’s my mama. She wants to know if we’re safe.” He tapped in a short message and put his phone back down on the table.
“It’s late. Don’t they sleep?” Seth said.
“Does your mama sleep when she thinks you’re up to no good?” Derrick said.
“I’m guessing all the pizza’s gone,” Drew said.
“There’s an entire extra pepperoni and sausage in the fridge,” Seth said.
Drew grabbed a cookie sheet, shoved a few slices of pizza on it to reheat them, and turned on the oven.
The TV set went blank. Drew heard groans and some choice obscenities from Seth and Derrick as they worked the game controllers.
“Goddammit, did Xbox Live crash?”
“What the fuck. I had the high score!”
Seth jumped up from the couch and tried rebooting the gaming system. It wasn’t coming back on. Drew could get upstairs, change, and rejoin them before they noticed what he was wearing. Maybe the late night, the storm (and three beers each) made them less observant.
He was wrong.
Derrick dropped the game controller onto the coffee table and whipped around on the couch to face the kitchen. Derrick looked, and then he stared at Drew.
“Hey, big guy. Did you go shopping in a dumpster earlier? What the hell is THAT?” He indicated Drew’s outfit with a nod in his direction and let out a booming laugh. “Does Coach know you’re wearing another team’s merchandise?”
Seth turned to look at Drew. “Dallas. You’re joking, aren’t you?” Seth said.
“My clothes were wet. I needed something to change into.”
“How wet were they, and what the hell were you doing earlier?” Derrick got up from the couch and moved closer. The grin bloomed over his face like a flower filmed in slow motion. “Nice logo. You were at the Westin, you dawg.”
“I was not—”
“Our boy got laid, Derrick,” Seth said.
“Doing the walk of shame, were you? This calls for a beer.” Derrick vaulted off of the couch and invaded the kitchen. “Do we know her?”
Telling them nothing happened would do no good. It was also a lie, but he knew they wouldn’t believe it. He tried it anyway. “I told you. My clothes were drenched. I borrowed these.”
“Borrowed, huh? Is that what it’s called now? I’m surprised you’re not in a better mood, McCoy,” Derrick said.
“What’s her name?” Seth said. “Are you going to see her again?”
Derrick strolled back into the family room gripping three cold and already opened beers. He handed them around. “Let’s drink to Drew’s love life.”
“Let’s not,” Seth said. “He gets more than the rest of us do.”
“Come on. Don’t you have a girlfriend?” Drew said to Seth.
“Bad topic,” Derrick warned.
“Yeah, I have a girlfriend.” Seth didn’t elaborate.
“And she’s why you’re here playing video games with two of your teammates on a Friday night,” Drew said.
“Uh huh. And I’m about to beat your ass at Madden again if we can find the game DVD.”
DREW TRUDGED INTO his bedroom after one AM. He’d made sure the guys were settled in guest rooms before hitting the sack himself. He should have been in bed hours ago. The storm raged on, though, and he couldn’t send Derrick and Seth out in it. Luckily, he had plenty of room for the guys at his place until things calmed down a bit outside. He pulled on clean, dry pajama pants and a T-shirt.
His teammates gave him shit on the regular for buying a 5800-square foot, five bedroom family house as a single guy. Whatever. They seemed to end up at his place a lot. He liked doing the yard work, and there was somewhere for his parents, three siblings, and their spouses and kids to stay when they visited. Truthfully, he bought the house because he could see his future wife and kids here. He’d like to think he could be lucky (and persuasive) enough to end up with a woman like Kendall.
She was beautiful, but that wasn’t the most attractive thing about her. She was sophisticated, intelligent, interesting, had a sense of humor, and she loved books. He also had to admit he wanted to spend some time in her bed; she pulled him toward her like metal to a magnet. Unfortunately, it didn’t look like he’d be spending any time at all with the lovely Ms. Tracy anytime soon.
He wanted to find someone he could spend the rest of his life getting to know, just like his parents had. His mom and dad had been happily married for thirty-five years now. His mom had dinner on the table every night at six. Her whole world was his dad and Drew’s brother and sisters, and he wanted the same thing: a woman who wanted to make his house a home.