Getting Schooled (The Wright Brothers #1)(13)

Justin let out a heavy sigh, then sat back. “So y’all don’t think it’s kind of… fast?” He was the one who’d asked my dad if he was really ready to be out there again like that.

Joseph saved me the trouble of answering. “It’s been four years. Nah, I don’t think it’s fast. He’s probably lonely.”

“I don’t mean fast like that,” Justin scoffed. “I’m saying… just last year he couldn’t even talk about her without tearing up, and now he’s all excited about going on a date?”

I shrugged. “That’s probably why. I mean, we all know he loved the hell out of mama, but there’s always a point where you have to kinda let go of the past. Figure out how to live with what you’ve got now. I mean, come on… I know that shit better than anybody. Let Pops live. We all remember what it was like when he wasn’t trying to, right?”

That question was met with somber nods from Joseph and Justin, and they exchanged a glance with each other before they looked back to me.

“Aiight baby brother,” Joseph grinned. “I guess you might have something rolling around in that big ass head after all.”

And just like that, we were off my dad’s business, and back on each other. Our attention drifted back to the game as the night wore on, and my attention wandered as the Connecticut Kings pulled off another win. A sports reported stopped Jordan Johnson to talk, and she asked what he thought about BSU’s prospects for the college season. I only vaguely cared about that, but the mention of BSU put something else on my mind.

I wondered what Friday night was looking like for a certain BSU princess.



- & -





“Bitch I will kill you.”

Those words were immediately followed by a sharp swat to my hand.

I snatched it back with an exaggerated “Owww!” and then slumped against my arm of the couch, scowling at my best friend. “It was an honest mistake!”

“The hell it was,” she said. “Ten in the box, and your greedy ass already had six. This one is mine.” She took a vicious bite, her chew slow and exaggerated, with plenty of sound effects as she savored the last wing. I crossed my arms, pouting as I turned back to the preseason football game on the screen.

“Supposed to be my friend, treating me like a goddamned animal in my own house. Hmph!”

Devyn sucked her teeth, then took another bite of the wing. “I hear you over there, crazy.”

“That’s the whole point,” I laughed. “Hey… would it be like… too greedy of me to order another box of wings?”

She lifted an eyebrow. “Only if it would be too greedy of me to help you eat them.”

“Okay so then not at all.”

I reached for my phone and placed the order right as the game ended, and fine ass Jordan Johnson ended up on my screen. We’d actually started BSU together in the same freshman class, and shared a few courses. I left shortly after that, and by the time I came back, he was already the resident college football hero of the school.

“Hey, you work tomorrow, don’t you?” I asked, even though I already knew the answer. Devyn was a nurse, and she was almost always at work on Saturdays, a twelve hour shift that started at two in the afternoon.

“Of course.” She sighed, then relaxed back into the couch cushions with her feet up on the ottoman and the silky, honey-blonde strands of her chin-length bob covering her face. “But I did I tell you I applied to University hospital?”

I sat straight up, and screamed. “You did?! Yesss!”

Devyn peeked at me through her hair, and shook her head. “I knew you weren’t going to leave me alone unless I did it, so… yeah. We’ll see what happens.”

“You’ll get the job is what’s going to happen,” I gushed. I’d been on Devyn about applying at the newer, state-of-the-art hospital for years now, but she was comfortable at the small hospital a county over. She made decent money, and had good relationships with her coworkers, but even I could tell she was bored.

Everybody who needed medical attention mattered, but I knew my friend. She craved a challenge, and the facts were that the difficult cases, the interesting cases, and the fast paced environment were located right in the heart of the city, at University hospital.

“We’ll see,” she insisted, brushing her hair aside to show her pretty honey-toned face. A spattering of light brown freckles covered her nose and fanned onto her high cheekbones, a trait she’d inherited from her mother, who was my mother’s bestie. Devyn was two years older than me, but she didn’t feel like a big sister. She felt like my twin.

“Okay, okay.” I tried to tone down my beaming smile. “I’ll leave you alone I guess, since you’re all embarrassed now.”

“Uh huh. Let’s talk about something else… like the college cutie you got in trouble about.”

“Ugggh,” I groaned. “Let me guess – Imara and Irene have been bumping gums.”

Devyn giggled. “You already know it. Now, last I heard, J. Wright had you ready to toss your panties at him. Now you’re verbally sparring with this kid?”

“He’s not a kid,” I corrected quickly. “He’s your age, a grown ass man. And he still has me ready to toss my panties at him.”