After the Game

I had been worried about leaving them to watch over Bryony longer, although she was asleep and rarely ever woke up at night. Still, she was my responsibility. I didn’t like to leave her with my parents too much. Our life had been so different before Brady Higgens had walked back into it. I wasn’t used to having anywhere to go.

“I’m so glad things went well. You’ll have fun at the field. I remember you always talking about going when you were younger. That got snatched from you,” she’d said.

I was coming home from the field party when Rhett had pulled down a dirt road and raped me. That wasn’t a fond memory, although the result was my daughter. The moment I held her in my hands, the emotions regarding that night faded. They no longer seemed important. She was all that was important.

Mom was now in her bed, and I locked the door behind me as I stepped outside to meet Brady halfway on the sidewalk. He’d been coming to the door to get me. I liked that about him.

“Everything okay?” I asked him, knowing his mother would have wanted answers once they were alone.

He looked pained. Like the weight of the world was on his shoulders. “No, not really. Doubt it will ever be okay again. She asked and I told her to talk to her husband about it.”

“You called him her husband?” I asked

He nodded. “I can’t call him anything else. I even hate calling him that.”

“Was he at home?”

He shook his head. “No. And when she called him, he didn’t answer. My guess is he ran off to tell his girlfriend they were about to be exposed. Fucker left my mother there alone. He didn’t even tell her he was leaving. She knows something is very wrong. I can see it in her eyes.”

“Should you go home and stay with her? What if he comes home tonight and tells her?”

Brady paused at the passenger side door. “I thought about it. But if he’s going to tell her, I don’t think she would want me there. That would upset her more for me to hear. I’m not planning on staying out too late, though.”

I didn’t blame him. His mom was going to need him soon.

He opened the door and I climbed inside.

I watched him walk around the front of the truck, and instead of tonight’s victory being a reason to celebrate, it was the furthest thing from his mind. His father had taken that from him too.

We drove in silence toward the field. His hand held mine firmly as if he needed the reassurance that I was there. That he wasn’t alone. I thought about his mom and wondered if she was facing his father now or if she had any idea as to what was to come.

When he pulled into the darkness of the trees and toward the light of the bonfire, I remembered a night like this one in August when I had come here. I hadn’t planned on getting out. I’d just wanted to see it. See the people here that I had left behind. The only person I saw was Brady, and he glared at me. That one look had told me how unwelcome I was. He hadn’t had to say anything.

Now here I sat with my hand in his, in his truck, about to walk into this scene while his world fell apart around him. Life was funny like that. The twists and turns it made were never expected. You couldn’t predict this. That made life interesting, worth going on and seeing how it would change.

Brady didn’t know that yet. He would find out one day. When this was a memory. The pain would heal. Telling him that didn’t help the present, though. So I kept my mouth shut and looked at him as he stared straight ahead. As if getting out of the truck was too much right now.

“They think my life is perfect,” he said, watching the people laughing and partying in the distance. “I always had the easy life. All of them have probably faced something. Not me. Not until now.”

I didn’t have a response for that. I didn’t think he needed one. He was lost in his thoughts. I let him collect himself and get mentally ready to act like the Brady Higgens they were all expecting.

This was the field party, but after a game it was Brady’s show. They all wanted to be near him. He knew that, and tonight that wasn’t going to be easy.

“You ready?” he asked, squeezing my hand.

“If you are,” I told him.

A sad smile touched his face. “Then let’s go.”

We walked toward the party with our hands once again linked. If the kiss wasn’t seen by enough people after the game, this would be noticed by the entire crowd here.

“There are West and Gunner. Maggie’s there too. You’ll like her,” he told me. I already did. From what I knew of her.

People shouted out his name, and he waved at them as we went straight to his closest friends. A truck was backed up and the tailgate down. Asa sat on it with a redhead, who looked familiar but I wasn’t sure about her name, standing between his legs. West was on a tire beside Maggie, and Gunner was sitting with Willa on a log.

“Finally got here. What’d you do, stop to make out first?” Asa asked with a smirk.

“Shut up,” Brady replied.

“Can’t believe we pulled that shit off tonight,” West said, holding up a red plastic cup toward me. “Thanks for having the balls to do it. We’ll be the talk of high school football all week.”

“I wasn’t the one to run it past the defensive line. That was all you,” Brady told him, sitting down on the other end of the tailgate and pulling me with him. I sat down beside him, but he kept our locked hands on his thigh.

“Shit about gave me heart failure,” Asa remarked and took a drink of what I assumed was a beer.

“You thirsty?” Willa asked me. “I’m going to go get another water.”

I was, but the way Brady was holding on to me I wasn’t sure I needed to leave him. “I’m good for now. Thank you, though,” I told her.

She glanced at Maggie. “What about you?”

Maggie stood up and followed Willa toward the large coolers over by the main fire.

“You could have gone too if you wanted one,” Brady whispered.

I shook my head. I wasn’t leaving him. Not tonight.

“I’m okay.”

He nodded and gently gave my hand a squeeze. I squeezed back.

I’m Moving Out

CHAPTER 46

BRADY

I would never have made it through that without Riley. Pulling up outside her house, I wanted to go inside with her. Stay with her. Going home and facing reality scared me. My mother could know now. What would that look like?

“Call me if you need me,” Riley said when I put the truck in park. “I’ll keep my phone by my ear.”

I sighed. “I wish I didn’t have to face this. But if she knows, she’s going to be broken. I can’t not go home. And if she doesn’t know, he’s going to have to tell her. I’ve told him I know. I can’t let this drag out. What if she were to find out another way or, God forbid, walk in like I did and catch them?”

She didn’t say anything because she knew I was right. There was nothing to add to that.

“Thanks for being there tonight. At the game and the field.”

She gave me a sad smile. “I wish it had been easier for you. Both of them.”

I leaned over and pressed a kiss to her lips. Tasting her and being close like this always eased the ache. She filled a piece of me that my father had ripped away. I needed her.

When she had needed someone, no one had been there. That killed me every time I thought of it. She was so giving and kind. She didn’t hold grudges or bitterness from what we’d all put her through.

Reluctantly I ended the kiss. I couldn’t stay with her all night, as much as I wanted. I had to go home and deal.

“I’ll walk you to the door,” I told her, and she shook her head.

“No. Go home. You can watch me safely get inside. No reason to walk with me. You have to get home and check on your mom.”

Normally I would argue, but tonight she was right. I’d stayed out longer than I should have. I should be at home.

“Good night,” I told her, and the words I love you almost fell from my tongue. I stopped them before they came out, but they had been there. So easily. So quickly.

Shit.

“Good night,” she replied, and I watched silently as she climbed out of my truck and went inside.