Until Friday Night (The Field Party #1)(31)

I eased the door open slowly and peeked inside.

“Stop being quiet, boy. I hear you. Come on in.” He wheezed then coughed. It was a much weaker version of the booming voice I’d always known.

Maggie didn’t pause but walked right inside with her hand still firmly tucked in mine.

“That’s the prettiest friend you ever brought home,” he said, smiling as if he weren’t hurting all over.

“Thank you,” Maggie said.

“I thought I raised you better,” my dad said, still wheezing through his words. “Girl who looks like this one ain’t for friendship. You’re supposed to snatch her up.”

Maggie laughed beside me, and Dad’s grin grew.

“He’s got a train of girls waiting for their turn. He doesn’t need to add another to the long line,” she replied, and my dad laughed. It wasn’t the deep belly laugh he used to do, but it was the first laugh I’d heard from him in a while.

After he coughed and got his breath back, he looked at me. “Got a line, do you now?”

I shrugged. I didn’t talk about girls with Dad much. Not after he caught me looking at porn on the computer when I was thirteen and gave me the sex talk. We talked football, school, life. But not girls.

“Yes. You should hear the girls in the stands at the pep rallies. He’s very popular with them,” Maggie informed Dad.

He laughed again. “I’m sure you got boys lining up for you, too. If this one is too blind to lay claim, I don’t doubt one of them will.”

My smile left. I didn’t want to think about that. Maggie was meeting my momma and my dad. What if she started talking to another guy? What if she wasn’t just mine anymore?

Dad let out another laugh, and I lifted my gaze to see him looking directly at me. “Ain’t fun to think about, is it?” he said.

My gut twisted and felt sour. I didn’t like thinking about that, and my dad clearly knew it.

“All this laughter in here. What in the world am I missing?” Momma asked as she stepped inside, looking happier than I’d seen her in a long time. Hearing Dad laugh was good for both of us.

“There’s my favorite girl,” Dad said as Momma walked over to him. He still looked at her like she was his every wish come true. Momma bent down and kissed his lips. “I had to go make these two a snack. Tonight is game night, and West needs some carbs.”

Dad looked from Momma to me. “You gonna win tonight?” he asked. This was always our thing.

“You know it,” I replied just like I always did.

“That’s my boy.”

It Takes Years Before They Wise Up

CHAPTER 21

MAGGIE

I had texted with Aunt Coralee several times during the game to check on Mr. Ashby, or Jude, as he’d told me to call him. She had assured me he was sleeping and everything was fine. I wanted to be able to reassure West that everything was okay every time he looked up in the stands at me.

He did it several times, and each time I nodded.

Through it all, he managed to run in a touchdown and make several plays I didn’t understand but that, according to Uncle Boone, who explained things as they happened, were very impressive. West was always there for Brady to make the best plays.

I knew tonight he wouldn’t be going to the field party. He was worried about being away from his dad. I had asked Aunt Coralee if I could go home after the game instead of going to the field party with Brady. Even though I was glad I’d met his parents, emotionally, I was spent.

Although Jude had talked to me, it had been hard for him, and he was using all the energy he had to talk to us. He gasped for breath and coughed. Then watching the way he stared at his wife like he adored her had broken my heart.

I couldn’t remember a time in my life when my parents had looked at each other that way. I could remember them fighting and yelling, and they’d always made up. Yet not once did they look at each other the way West’s parents did.

To think that they would lose that was so incredibly sad.

As the crowd made their way out to their cars, I followed Uncle Boone as he went to wait on Brady to come out of the locker room. I wanted to see West before I left. Leaving his dad today had been hard on him. He’d held on to my hand the entire ride back to my house. If I could’ve held his hand on to the football field, I would have.

“There’s West,” Uncle Boone said, nodding toward the field house. “I reckon you’ll want to go see him. I think he’s probably looking for you.”

I glanced up at Uncle Boone, and he gave me an understanding smile. I hoped he didn’t think what West and I were doing was anything more than friendship. I had explained it to Aunt Coralee because she’d asked me. But I hadn’t really explained it to Uncle Boone.

I nodded and headed over to West. But Serena got to him before I could. She squealed and wrapped her arms around him. I stopped and waited. I had come to realize that sometimes West needed me, but other times he needed her. Or someone like her. I wasn’t sure if this was one of those times.

West listened to her talk, and he gave her a nod. I decided it was Serena time not Maggie time, and I turned and headed back to Uncle Boone. He was standing where I’d left him, watching me. He didn’t look happy, but he didn’t look mad, either. Just concerned.

I stopped when I got back to his side, and we waited on Brady.