Until Friday Night
Page 3

“’Bout time you showed up,” Brady said with a smirk, tossing me a can of beer. He rarely drank. It wasn’t that he was against it, but he was determined to play at the University of Alabama next year. I had been too—once. Now I was just making it day to day, praying to God my dad didn’t leave us.
Beer had become a crutch for me at these field parties. The anxiety from home was all over me, and I knew it. I needed to numb my mind.
I’m pretty sure Brady figured something was up and wanted me to tell him. Of all the women in town, his momma was the only one who was ever nice to my mother. She’d invited us to dinner many times over the years. She brought us red velvet cake during the holidays and always stopped and spoke to my mother at the games. I wondered if my mother had confided in Coralee.
“Where’s Raleigh?” Ivy asked.
I ignored her. Just because she was with Brady didn’t mean I had to answer her nosy-ass questions. I turned my attention to Gunner Lawton. Yeah, same damn name as the town’s. The guy’s great-great-great-grandfather founded it. They owned everything. He was one hell of a wide receiver, though, and around here that was what counted most.
“You alone tonight too?” I asked as I sank down on the bale of hay beside the truck.
He chuckled. “You know better. I’m just trying to decide who I want,” he replied with a smirk. All Gunner had to do was crook his finger, and the girls came running. Sure, he was obnoxious about it, but when you’re richer than God in a small town and one of the stars of the high school football team, you have a whole lot of power. And girls liked his looks, too.
“Let’s talk football,” Ryker Lee announced as he walked into our circle and sat down on the tailgate beside Brady and Ivy.
“I’d rather talk about the fact that you shaved your hair,” Brady replied with a grin.
Last year Ryker had been determined to grow out his hair and get dreads. I’d been surprised to see he’d cut his hair short the first day of practice. He’d gone with his family to visit his grandmother in Georgia, so we hadn’t seen him the last few weeks of summer.
“I got tired of it. I’ll have dreads when I play pro. Right now I don’t need that shit,” he replied, and ran his hand over his head. Looked like he was gonna say something else, but then he stood up and just started staring out over the field and grinning like an idiot. “Actually, screw football. I’d rather talk about who that is.”
I followed his gaze to see a face I didn’t recognize. She was standing just on the outskirts of the party near the rows of trees. Long dark brown hair hung in soft waves over her shoulders and the prettiest green eyes I’d ever seen looked in our direction. I let my gaze move down to her mouth to see perfect unpainted pink lips.
Then there was her body. Holy hell, she made a sundress look good.
“Don’t go there,” Brady warned. I wanted to look at him, to read on his face why he was laying claim to the new girl when he had one tucked between his legs. But I couldn’t stop looking at her. She seemed lost. And I was ready to go find her.
“Why, bro? She’s hot as hell, and she looks like she needs me,” Ryker replied.
“She’s my cousin, dipshit,” Brady snapped.
His cousin? Since when did he have a cousin?
I tore my gaze off the girl to finally look at Brady. “When did you get a cousin?”
He rolled his eyes. “You’ve met her. Like, years ago at one of my family Christmas things in Tennessee. She’s living with us now. Just don’t, okay? She’s not . . . She’s got some issues. She can’t handle you,” he said, then turned to look at Ryker and added, “or you.”
“I can help with issues! I’m fucking great at that,” Ryker replied, a big grin on his face.
I wasn’t going to say the same thing. I had my own issues and I needed an escape, not more shit to deal with. Besides, her issues couldn’t be as bad as mine. No one’s could.
Brady went on. “She doesn’t talk. She can’t. I only brought her tonight because my momma made me. I told her she could stay with me, but she refused to. She’s not all there, I don’t think.”
I glanced back at her, but she was gone. So, Brady had a beautiful but crazy, mute cousin. Weird.
“Shame. This year we get one new girl worth looking at and she’s your cousin and a mute,” Gunner said before drinking down the rest of his beer.
Brady didn’t like that comment, didn’t like it at all. I could see it on his face.
Gunner was right, though. We’d had the same girls in this town since elementary school. They were boring, superficial, and I’d slept with all the good-looking ones. No one was a distraction. They were all just annoying as hell.
Gunner stood up. “Going to get another beer,” he announced then walked off. Gunner was our security around here. If we got caught drinking, his daddy would have enough pull with the police to get us off the hook. I actually wondered if they already knew about it and that was why they never drove out this way.
My phone started ringing again, and my stomach automatically clenched. I quickly got it out of my pocket and saw my momma’s name on the screen. Shit.
Without any explanation to the guys, I just set my beer down and walked off before answering.
“Momma? Everything okay?”
“Oh yes. Just wanted you to know I left you some fried chicken in the oven to keep it warm. Also, if you could stop by the Walmart and grab some milk on your way home, that would be good.”