“Bet they don’t teach you that. Hey, man, I was just kidding. I’m Kyle. You need a ride somewhere?”
George slowed, looked at him and said, “Andy’s Kyle?”
Too surprised to respond, Kyle stared at him for a moment before saying, “Why would you say that?”
“Because she told me about you.”
“Told you what?”
“About the cheerleading squad for one thing.”
“What?” He looked off and then said, “That’s crap.”
“Not to her.”
“What do you know about it?”
“Enough.”
“Not as much as you think you do.”
“Maybe.”
Kyle had a feeling he would be wise to drive on, but common sense wasn’t winning out. “You need a ride?” he repeated.
“I was headed for the McDonald’s.”
“Me, too. Get in.”
Reservation clear on his face, George opened the door and slid inside. “Just so you know, I left a note at the Inn where I was going. In case you decide to do away with me or something.”
Kyle smiled. “Why would I want to do that?”
George cut him a look. “Maybe because you think I’m stealing your girl?”
“She’s not my girl.”
“So in addition to being a jerk, you’re also delusional.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Well, maybe neither one of you has figured it out yet, but she is your girl.”
Kyle swung a left into the McDonald’s parking lot. “Wanna go in or drive-thru?”
George shrugged. “Drive-thru’s fine with me.”
They pulled up to the speaker, gave their orders, pooled their change for the cashier and then waited at the second window for their food.
“What’s the real rift between you two?” George asked.
“No rift,” Kyle said.
George rolled his eyes. “Okay, no rift.”
“Actually,” Kyle said, “you’re the rift.”
“You might think I am.”
“You and what you represent,” Kyle said. “Andy doesn’t want to be here. She wants some other place, some other life, some other guy.”
“Has she said that to you?”
“She didn’t have to say it.”
“Oh, so you’re a mind reader?”
“I could punch you, you know.”
“I expect you could. But you won’t. Because you know what I just said is true. You haven’t asked her.”
“Why would I ask her when I already know what she’ll say?”
“That just seems plain stupid to me.”
The cashier opened the window, handed their two bags of food and cups of coffee to Kyle.
George gave her a smile that visibly weakened her facial muscles into an audible sigh.
Kyle rolled his eyes and jerked the truck into drive, gunning it forward. “You practice that in front of a mirror?”
“It was just a smile. You ought to try it some time.”
“I smile plenty.”
“Bet you don’t smile at Andy very much.”
“’Cause she’s always making me so damn mad.”
“Arguing’s better than not talking at all.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Kyle asked. He drove without thinking, waiting for George’s answer. When it finally came, it had an acceptance of sorts etched at its edges.
“You’re lucky to have a girl like Andy, Kyle.”
“Well, that’s where you’re wrong. I don’t have her.”
“You could if you wanted to.”
“So what are you doing? Just stringing her along or something?”
“When I agreed to do this ridiculous show, I never imagined I would meet a girl I liked,” George said.
The words cut Kyle like a knife. “But you did.”
“Yeah, I did.”
Kyle rolled the truck into the high school parking lot, coming to a stop at the edge of the football field. He turned off the ignition, reached for his coffee and took a sip. “What would make a guy like you do a show like that?”
George laughed. “You mean a guy like you think I am?”
“Whatever,” Kyle said.
“What else? The money.”
“Ah. You’re working on restocking the royal bank vault?”
George stared out at the far end of the football field. “Something like that.”
The way he said it made Kyle feel like he’d said something he shouldn’t have. “So, what, like it wasn’t your idea?”
“Not exactly.”
“Whose was it then?”
“Our family agent,” George said.
“You mean like movie agent, TV agent?”
“Media agent,” George said.
“Media agent.” Kyle took a bite of his biscuit, then said, “You don’t want any part of all that?”
“It doesn’t matter whether I want it or not,” George said. “It’s just the way it is.”
“Your family really needs this to keep the silver polishers coming regularly?”
“Will you cut it out?” George said.
They ate the rest of their food in silence. When they were done, Kyle got out of the truck, grabbed a football from the back. “Throw a few?”
George finished off his coffee. “Why not?”
They walked across the field, the dew dampening their shoes.
Kyle stopped, and George kept walking until he was far enough away for Kyle to pass him one.
Kyle put his best arm on it, rivalry impossible to deny.
George caught it with a solid whump, and then just as quickly, passed it back with an arm that made Kyle raise his eyebrows.
“Whoa. Where’d you get that?”
“Boarding school. Out in the country. Nothing else to do.”
“Play rugby?” Kyle asked.
“Yeah.”
“You any good?”
“Yeah.”
Kyle whaled him another one, which George caught and fired off just as quickly.
“Crap, man,” Kyle said, taking it in the stomach with a doubled-over groan.
George grinned. “You’re the big football star, aren’t you?”
“Yeah.”
“Modest, too.”
Kyle rolled his eyes. “Not like you got that market cornered.”
Both boys grinned then, throwing the football back and forth, each determined with every pass to show the other one up.
“So what’s your plan?” Kyle threw out as he whizzed the ball at George. “Have some fun with Andy, and then you’re jet-setting back off to the royal palace?”
George gave him a good long glare before saying, “You’re the one she’s crazy about. Beats me why you’re the only one who can’t see it.”
“Yeah,” Kyle said, “that’s why she’s been hanging out with you and ignoring me.”
“Maybe she’s been hanging out with me because I’m nice to her. This thing I’m doing with the TV show, it’s not a real date.”
“What is it then?”
“Entertainment,” George said.
“Oh, yeah, for the masses,” Kyle said.
George launched the ball at him. “It’s all funny to you, isn’t it?”
“What do you mean it isn’t real?”
“I’m engaged,” George said.
“Engaged? Aren’t you like seventeen or something?”
“Yeah, I’m seventeen.”
“Then how, why—”
“Our families arranged it.”
“And you’re cool with this?”
George dropped the ball on the ground, sank down beside it, wiping his forehead on the sleeve of his sweatshirt. “It’s just the way it is.”
“Are you serious about all that money stuff?” Kyle said, walking over and dropping down next to him.
“Yeah, it takes a lot to maintain the royal coffers as you say. Her family still has it, mine not so much these days.”
“That kind of sucks,” Kyle said. “What’s she like?”
“She’s nice,” George said.
“Are you like in love with her?”
When George didn’t answer, Kyle said, “Man, do you think it’s right to lead all these girls on? Letting them think you’re some available bachelor duke when you’re not?”
“I told her,” George said.
Kyle looked at him for a long moment, shook his head and said, “Told who?”
“Andy. Everything. I told her everything.”
“So she knows you’re not really available?”
“She does.”
“Why’d you tell her, man?”
“Because she’s great, and I like her. And if I weren’t already engaged, I’d be giving you a run for your money.”
“And she was cool with that?”
“Maybe you don’t know Andy quite as well as you think you do,” George said, getting to his feet and sticking out his hand. “I look forward to watching you on the big screen one day soon.”
The words surprised Kyle, and he guessed it showed on his face because George said, “Yeah, you’re that good, man. Stay with it, okay?”
Then he turned and headed off across the parking lot, the blue blood posture clearly back in place.
We may think we have forever. . .no one does.
Grier McAllister – Blog at Jane Austen Girl
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
It was just after nine o’clock when Grier left her mother in the care of two nursing assistants intent on sponging away the soot marks still on her arms and chest.
Grier sought out an information desk and asked for Bobby Jack’s room number. She found him sitting up in bed, drinking an enormous glass of orange juice while Andy fussed around his hair with a comb.
“That’s enough, Andy,” he said. “I don’t comb my hair that many times in a week.”
“You’ve got this cow lick thing going on,” Andy said.
“There is the cow lick thing,” Grier said.
Both Bobby Jack and Andy looked up at the same time.
“Would you please find her somebody else to fuss over?” Bobby Jack said playfully, smacking away Andy’s hands.
“You sure don’t look like you saved a bunch of people’s lives last night,” Grier said, walking closer to the bed.
“How’s your mama?” Bobby Jack asked, his face suddenly serious.
“She’s here,” Grier said. “Thanks to you.”
“And a lot of other people,” he said.
Andy rolled her eyes. “Modesty’s just one of his things, you know.” She glanced back and forth between Bobby Jack and Grier and said, “I’m starving. I think I’ll run down to the cafeteria and get something. Would you like anything, Grier?”
“No, I’m good, thank you.”
“Daddy?”
“All full,” he said, “with that delicious hospital breakfast.”
“Back in a few,” Andy said.
“Hey, Andy,” he called out.
She turned to look at him, “Yeah, Daddy?”
“Could you run home and feed Flo and Grier’s Sebbie? We left them there last night. I’m sure they’re wondering where breakfast is.”
“Will do,” Andy said, and she was out the door.
“Thank you,” Grier said in the silence that followed her departure. “I can’t believe I hadn’t thought about them yet.”
“I’m sure they’re fine. Just a little hungry.”
“And no doubt mad at us both.”
He smiled. “No doubt.”
Grier sat on the chair next to his bed. “How are you? Really?”
“I’m fine,” he said. “Breathed in a little smoke, took a beam to the back of the head, but the docs say there should be no lasting damage.”
Grier glanced down at her hands and then forced herself to meet his eyes. “Thank you,” she said, “for what you did last night.”
“You don’t have to thank me. I’m just glad I was there to help.”
“Have you heard anything about the damage to the place? How much?”
“One of the other volunteer firefighters came in earlier and said it was pretty much a loss,” Bobby Jack said.
They were quiet for several seconds, before he added, “You worried about where your mama’s gonna go?”
Grier shrugged. “If you had asked me a week ago if my mother and I would ever speak again in this lifetime, I would have said no. And now, here I am, worrying about what’s going to happen to her.”
Bobby Jack reached out and covered her hand with his. “I don’t think even your mama would deny how badly she messed up when you were young. But people change, you know, and get to points where they realize they could have done so much better. I kind of suspect your mama’s already reached that point.”
Grier started to deny it, but she knew it was true. She’d seen the look of regret in her mother’s eyes. And she knew, deep in her heart, she would take it all back if she could, redo it all if she could. But she couldn’t. “I don’t know if I can,” Grier said. “Forgive her.”
“I’ve got a feeling, it’s something you need to do not just for her, Grier, but for yourself, too. Speaking from experience, it’s a lot easier to walk around this world without the weight of anger and resentment sitting on your shoulders. I’ve been doing that myself for a long time, and you know what? I just don’t want to do it anymore. There was actually a moment last night when I was running in and out of that fire that it occurred to me I could actually die in there, along with those other people. I’m not sure that reality has ever hit me quite as square between the eyes as it did then. But it was kind of like someone flashed this big light in front of me, and I could see what really matters in my life.”
Grier felt herself holding her breath, her chest tight and full with something she couldn’t even name.
“I thought about Andy,” he said, “and how I’ve been so royally screwing up things with her lately. Worrying and fussing over things that, I don’t know, probably in ten years, we won’t even remember. What I do know is she’s everything to me. I can’t imagine my life without her. I thought about my mom and my brother. How they know me better than anybody. How all I have to do is call, and they’ll come running.”
They sat, silent for a string of heartbeats. Grier could hear her own pulse pounding in her ears, and wondered if he could hear it as well.
A sudden sense of urgency swept over her, a feeling so strong and overpowering that she stood suddenly, the chair sliding out behind her and making a harsh scraping noise on the floor. She pulled her hand from his and stuck it behind her back, as if it had just been burned. “I should go check on Mama,” she said.
She had reached the door when he called out, “Grier?”
But she didn’t turn around. She walked faster and faster, propelled by something she couldn’t even name until by the time she reached the end of the hall, she was running.
Friends come and go in life.
But brothers will always be brothers.
Grandma Randall to Bobby Jack and Darryl Lee
after breaking up a swinging match in her backyard
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
Darryl Lee stomped into Bobby Jack’s room and took the chair next to his bed, looking about as mad as he had the day somebody stole the hubcaps off his truck.
“I let you out of my sight for less than twenty-four hours, and you turn into Clark Kent?”
“I’m fine,” Bobby Jack said. “Sit down.”
“What were you trying to do? Kill yourself?” Darryl Lee pulled the chair up close to the bed, then leaned back and glared at him.
“Actually, I was just trying to save some lives.”
“You scared the heck out of me, brother.”
“I’m fine,” Bobby Jack said.
“Well, you might have been—”
“I wasn’t.”
“Coulda been.”
“Wasn’t. Where were you anyway?
Nobody could find you.”
Darryl Lee glanced out the window, then back at Bobby Jack with a look he didn’t recognize on him. “Trying to work things out with Dreama.”
“Did you?”
Darryl Lee shook his head. “I don’t think so.”
“What happened with you two? You had a good thing once.”
“We got lazy, I guess. Maybe I got lazy. Taking things for granted, you know.”
“You still love each other?”
“I still love her.”
Bobby Jack heard the note of vulnerability in his brother’s voice and felt a pang of actual pain for him. He wasn’t used to seeing Darryl Lee in a state of anything remotely resembling second chair.
“I guess what I know now,” Darryl Lee said, “is that you can’t look away and think things will still be there when you decide to look back.”
“What can I do?”
Darryl Lee shoved his hands in the pockets of his jeans, lifted his shoulders in a shrug. “Make your own happiness. And then don’t look away.”
“If you’re talking about—”
“Grier. Pissed me off at first, but clearly you’ve got it bad for each other.” He stopped there, looking as if he wanted to say more but wasn’t sure he should. And then, “Something real bad almost happened to Grier before she left here after high school.”
Bobby Jack’s heart jumped in his chest and he could see, just from the look on his brother’s face, he wasn’t sure he wanted to hear the rest of this.
Darryl Lee glanced out the window, his voice lower when he said, “You remember Sherry Apperson?”
“She was in your class, wasn’t she?” Bobby Jack said.
“She and Grier were good friends in school. Several years ago when she came home to visit family, we ran into each other out at the Beer Boot. She started talking about why Grier had left town and how she didn’t blame her. She said one night when her mama was loaded, she had a boyfriend over. I guess her mama must have passed out in the living room, and the creep tried to rape Grier. Apparently, it wasn’t the first time that kind of thing had happened.”
Bobby Jack felt the blood drain from his face, and a slow rage start to build inside him. He suddenly understood exactly how difficult what he’d just suggested Grier do would be for her. “Hell,” he said. “I’m such an idiot.”
Jane Austen Girl - A Timbell Creek Contemporary Romance Page 21