“Hi, Curtis. I’m good. Thanks.” Then, my dad goes back to watching the guys. My dad isn’t an outgoing guy by any stretch of the means, so his behavior isn’t abnormal.
Curtis approaches the guys, and I cringe at the reaction he’s about to receive.
“Take a seat, Piper.” My dad points to my vacant seat.
My eyes flicker back and forth between the driveway and my dad.
“Relax. He’s a big boy.” He laughs.
Reluctantly, I sit down.
We both watch Curtis bounce around him, each giving him a nod. Then, Tanner surprises me when he stops bouncing the ball, walks the two steps, and shakes Curtis’s hand. Afterward, Tanner cuts his eyes over at me, until Dylan bounces the ball to him.
My body ramps up to a heat level so high that I’m barely able to remain seated. Tanner is so transparent. No one can miss how torn he is right now, how hurt he probably feels that I haven’t ended it with Curtis yet. Even though Tanner never asked me to, he assumed after last night I would. Truthfully, he should have believed it would and if Curtis answered one of my ten phone calls, it would have.
“Hmm . . .” my dad sighs. “It’s like a showdown. Something going on that you haven’t told me?” He’s perceptive, figuring out things are awkward out there.
I’m half-tempted to ask my dad for advice. At this point, I just need to get a hold of Curtis and tell him.
I turn toward him, and he laughs at my fingers in my mouth.
Pulling my hand away, he gives me his best sorrowful look. “I don’t envy you.” He pats my knee again and stands up. “Here you go, Curtis. Take my seat.” Then, he runs out to the driveway like an old man. “Come on, guys. I’ll be the Ashby.”
“Dad!” Brad yells. “We need Piper.”
My dad smacks his back. “I showed you how to play this damn game.”
Brad cowers down, laughing, and slaps my dad’s back. “Let’s go.”
My dad smiles.
I love seeing them together. Then, it dawns on me how close my dad and Brad are, and there’s a high probability that my dad knows what happened two years ago. All this time I thought he was ignorant when he wasn’t.
“So, did you just miss me?” Curtis grabs my hand, entwining our fingers.
Again, my eyes fly to Tanner, who’s enthralled in the game. Or acting as though he is.
“Piper?”
I shake my head and twist to face him. “I’m sorry. What?”
“You called me, like, five times. Did you need something?” His eyebrows rise.
My teeth nibble on my bottom lip. “Um . . .” I stall when I should ask him to go on a drive or go out back, somewhere other than right here, but I can’t seem to pull the trigger on breaking up with him. My stomach plummets with the thought of him trying to change my mind. Then again, maybe I’m assuming he’ll fight for me when, in reality, he might not care.
“Hi, Curtis.” My mom scoots her chair over. “Do you want something to drink?”
I crinkle my eyebrows at her, and she smiles wide at me.
“No, I’m good, Susan. Thank you.” He shoots her his win-the-parents smile that wraps her in his web every damn time.
My mom eats it up. “Well, you know where everything is. Help yourself to anything.” My mom turns back around to talk with Lana.
“Hey, guys. You started without me.” Patrick walks across his own driveway to ours before stealing the ball from Dylan. “Not so bad in my old age, eh?” he says, showing his Canadian accent. He never did lose that after moving down here back in college.
“I’d give you a round of applause if you were actually able to steal the ball when I knew you were here,” Dylan eggs his dad on.
Patrick turns on his heels, and his hands swipe at the ball while Dylan dribbles it to each side of him.
“You talking trash to the man who is responsible for you being on this earth?” Patrick continues to banter back and forth with Dylan.
“Come on, Dad. You and I both know that Mom did all the work on getting me here.” Dylan laughs.
Tanner joins in.
“She needed a key part from me. You should thank me for making you a boy!”
“I don’t know. I think I’d like to be a girl. It’s easier being a girl. Right, Piper?” Dylan yells over to me.
All the men laugh.
“Shit, if I were a girl, I’d have it made. I’d be sitting my ass on the couch all day, letting my husband make the money,” Brad chimes in.
I narrow my eyes at him. “You think it’s so easy being a girl?” I stand up, walking over to them. “You want to be hormonal every month? Do you want to carry one of these for nine months?” I take the ball and shove it under my shirt.
“Your back hurts. Your feet get swollen,” Lana adds in, joining me in the driveway.
“Then, you have to pop the thing out from the size of a pea opening.” My mom saunters over in the fight against the men. “How about doing it twice, one after the other?”
My dad puts his arm around her shoulder, pulling her into his side. “Oh, honey, I’ve thanked you every day for my two miracles.” He kisses the top of her head and then glances over to Brad and me.
“You boys had better treat your girls like your dads do us.” Lana cuddles up to Patrick, and he hugs her tight.
Tanner’s eyes find mine, and they intently fixate on me. Then, his head turns into a slow nod, and my stomach flutters from his silent promise to me.
“We taught them well.” Patrick pats Dylan on the back, but none of them say anything. “Didn’t we, boys?” He slaps his son a little harder, and Dylan loses his footing.
They all simultaneously answer, “Yes,” nodding their heads.
With the basketball under my shirt, I begin to walk away when two arms wrap around me and spin me in a circle.
“Give us the ball, Piper.” Tanner says loud enough for everyone to believe his act is normal behavior.
I melt into his arms a little.
As I’m trying not to get nauseous from the spinning, he whispers in my ear, “I just had to touch you. God, Piper, I want you so damn bad.”
As if knowing what his words do to me, he stops me with my back to Curtis. His two hands reach up my shirt, his backside of his fingers grazing along my stomach, and then he grabs the ball. The motion is so quick that I’m positive no one saw it, but I felt the touch in every nerve ending.
Then, he dribbles the ball away and down the court as though he didn’t just make me a little wetter for him. When I turn around to Curtis, I find him on his phone, not even paying attention.
As if on cue, Bayli’s car pulls up along the curb, and her entourage emerges from her BMW. She saunters up the sidewalk, and Brad continues bouncing the ball, not even saying hello.
“Hi, Bayli . . . girls,” my mom greets them.
Bayli smiles. “Hi, Mrs. Ashby.”
Her friends stand by Curtis while Bayli tries to grab Brad’s attention. She winds her way through us with smiles and low hellos until she’s right in front of Brad.
“Hi, Brad.”
He takes his last shot, letting the ball bounce into the grass. I witness a change of personality with the snap of my fingers when Brad smiles, picks her up, and circles her around.
“Hey, baby! How was your day?” He stops the spinning and then bends down to kiss her.
I cock my head when his tongue thrusts into her mouth, and he pulls her against him. She squeals, taken by surprise, and then relaxes into his arms.
Tanner knocks his shoulder with mine, and we both shift our attention to them in awe.
“Huh,” he murmurs.
I nod in agreement.
“Hey, Piper. Where’s your friend?” Dylan comes alongside me.
Tanner laughs.
“Bea? She’s working.” I smirk, intrigued by his interest. “Why?”
“Yeah. Why, Dylan?” Tanner mocks my own curiousness about the situation and circles around to Dylan.
“No reason. She’s always around,” he remarks, busying himself with the basketball.
“And?” I ask.
“And nothing.” He ventures away from us.
“Is there something in the air tonight?” Tanner jokes. “Everyone’s acting odd.” He chuckles.