Talkin' Trash
Page 39

It’d been a little over a year since I’d last seen her, and time had not been kind to her.
“I think,” Bayou started. “That until we have all this figured out, you should probably stay away from Conleigh. The media will never let this go. With both you and Rome being involved with this woman, and both of you being professional football players…yeah, it’s not going to go well.”
No, it wouldn’t.
“That works seeing as she wants nothing to do with me,” I admitted. “I think she’s gone as far as to change her number.”
My phone rang again, this time with another local number, and I hit ignore.
“Who keeps calling you?” Rome asked, looking just as annoyed as I was, but likely not for the same reasons.
“Lisa from a credit approval department.” I paused. “They’re calling from local numbers now and making it supremely hard for me to answer the phone. It’s so annoying.”
Mostly because every time my phone rang, I prayed that it was Conleigh calling and not goddamn Lisa.
“Well, our first order of business.” Bayou sat down and stretched his feet out under the table that we used to have all of our discussions that pertained to the club at. “Is to find Tara. Our second is to do damage control—Linc, that’s you calling your publicist. Third, it’s to find Tantor, and figure out what, exactly, he wants. Then make sure to act like we’re playing his game while we find his weak link.”
And none of those things included making Conleigh forgive me.
Son of a bitch.
I looked down at my hands and scowled hard at my phone when it once again started to buzz in my hands.
This time I sent it straight to voicemail without waiting for the ringer to sound.
Thirty seconds later, the phone vibrated with a voicemail.
I tapped on it to get the notification to go away and shoved the phone back into my pocket where it stayed for the rest of the meeting.
Not once did I think about sending Conleigh a text message.
Nope. Not me.
Chapter 19
One day I was born. Then everything bothered me. The end.
-Conleigh to Steel
Conleigh
Two months later
I couldn’t tell you why I was watching the game.
Hell, it was the last thing on this earth that I wanted to do, yet there I was, doing it anyway.
And I was crying.
Why was I crying?
Because I had no self-control.
I’d seen Linc come out on the field and had completely lost it.
He didn’t take his helmet off, didn’t show his face like the other players, and when he was introduced as one of the new team captains for this year’s NFL season, he’d only nodded his chin in recognition.
A sound had me turning my head to stare at the door to my new place, and I glared.
I better not have visitors.
I didn’t have time for visitors.
There was a game on, and I wasn’t missing it.
And, sure enough, ten seconds after I’d heard the first sound, another bang followed, signaling a car door closing.
Shit.
I got up and looked through the blinds, barely cracking them so that nobody would be able to tell that I was home just in case I could get out of answering the door.
But when I saw who it was, I knew I wasn’t going to get out of anything.
Steel was at my door, and behind Steel was my not-so-little-anymore brother, Cody.
I opened the door and didn’t bother to conceal the tears that were still falling.
Now, not only were they for Linc, but they were also because I hadn’t seen my brother in so long that he was now taller than me.
“What are y’all doing here?” I cried out, throwing my arms around my brother.
Ganglier, yes. Taller, double yes. Grown? Not even close.
He was twelve and still had another six years to go before he was technically fully grown.
“We came here to set your head on straight,” my brother informed me, squeezing me tighter. “You’re being dumb, and we’re tired of it. Sean kept Stone so we could leave fast to deal with your crap.”
I blinked, then turned to my mother, who I hadn’t realized was there until I felt her soft palm on my face.
“Mom!” I cried, throwing my hands around her, while never letting go of my brother.
Cody made a gagging sound as I practically choked him in my haste to get to my mother.
My mom was smaller than me, but her hugs were harder. Almost as if she’d had way more practice at hugging—which she did.
I loved my mother more than I loved anyone on this planet, and I’d missed her. I hadn’t realized how much until right that second.
“You’re getting Cheeto dust on me, Conleigh! And you’re messing up my perfectly-styled hair!” Cody moaned.
I hugged him tighter but made sure to curl my fingers around his face so that I could run my Cheeto-dust covered fingers over his face for good measure.
“Ack!” he cried out, dropping like a stone.
I let him go and moved both of my arms around my mom.
Then I started to cry.
My mom squeezed me tighter for a few long seconds, and eventually, I felt my brother sigh and throw his arms back around both of us.
He squeezed us harder than we ever squeezed him, and I was hit once again with how big he’d gotten.
“When did you start to get so strong, Booger?” I sniffled.
“When you used to sit on me and put makeup on me when I made you mad, I realized that I had to start lifting weights and get ready for a war,” he teased. “I’ve been doing CrossFit. I’m a badass.”
“Your badass brother can barely lift the goddamn bar, but he’s getting better,” Steel muttered, coming out of my kitchen with a beer in his hand and sitting down on the couch to watch the game.
The game!
I gasped and let both of them go, hurrying to my previous spot where my snacks were all strategically placed and waiting for me to imbibe while I watched my man—my ex-man—play.
“I missed them score?” I cried out.
Steel grunted. “He who shall remain nameless scored by running the ball ten yards when none of his receivers were open.”
I felt my heart sink, and then picked up the remote and rewound it until I could watch the play.
Linc did, indeed, score.
He also didn’t look happy about it.
He didn’t celebrate like he usually did. He didn’t smile. Didn’t even stay on the field long enough for any of his crew to congratulate him. And when the kicker completed the kick yielding them another point, he didn’t even clap.
Holy shit, did he look like he was in a bad mood.
But so was I!
“What was that look for?” Steel asked me.
I sniffed and fast forward again, ignoring the way that the cameras kept going back to Linc, again and again. I also ignored the way his eyes scanned the crowd, almost as if he was searching for someone.
“You’ve seriously lost your freakin’ mind,” Cody grumbled. “Just get on with it already. I’m tired of sitting here watching her eat her body weight in junk food. It’s honestly disgusting.”
I looked down at the Cheetos, Fig Newtons, Oreos, cheese platter, and buffalo dip that I’d set out to watch the game, and then back at my brother. “Are you calling me fat?”
Cody gave me a level look that looked really close to the one that Steel sometimes aimed our way.
“Um,” he hesitated. “No. What I was calling you was pathetic. Everyone else knows that what happened to Linc was a bunch of bullshit. Especially since he’s been in love with you forever. Steel practically had to beat him off with a stick to keep him away from you. Did you know that he called Mom every week to ask how you were doing, regardless of whether you were talking to him or not, and nearly always asked if he could ask you out on a date yet?”
I felt something inside of me loosen just the tiniest bit.
“What are you talking about?” I asked, finally peeling my eyes away from the game and turning them toward my mother. “Linc used to call you?”
My mother smiled. “Every Sunday for the last few years.”
I blew out a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding and turned to Steel. “What’s your take on all this?”