Chapter 17

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

DUSTY

Brody had gotten into another fight. Henry had found him trying to wash the blood from his nose and puffy lip in the locker room late in the evening. How he’d gotten in when all the doors were locked was anyone’s guess, and nothing would induce him to explain. He sat in the coach’s office, wearing his P.E. clothes and a heavy scowl. Water dripped from grown-out hair onto his heathered gray shoulder, but his arms didn’t move from their stiff position on the armrests.

I’d put the plate of Nova’s lasagna in front of him and he eyed it greedily but wouldn’t budge. Something was definitely going on with this boy.

When he was with the team, he was a born leader. Alone like this, he was just a sulking kid waiting to find out how much trouble he was in.

Henry stepped out to call Brody’s grandma. I was sitting on the edge of my desk, my arms crossed over my chest. “If you tell us what happened, we can help you. You know the school has a low tolerance for fighting.”

As in zero tolerance. I was hoping the fact that it was a Saturday night and the fight didn’t appear to happen on campus were going to work in his favor.

He said nothing, so I continued, “They won’t be happy about breaking and entering, either.”

“Then don’t tell them.”

That was my impulse, too. But at some point Brody needed to learn his actions had consequences. If we coddled him through school, he’d make the same mistakes when he left us, but the consequences would grow tenfold.

The little voice in the back of my head reminded me that maybe all Brody needed was a little coddling. No, not that. Maybe just someone in his corner. I’d hoped helping me out with the kids on the flag football team would be a good distraction for him, but was that my attempt at recreating history? I’d quit fighting and straightened out after Henry had made me his assistant and forced me to work with him to pay off my idiocy in tagging the school with spray paint.

Brody hadn’t done anything destructive like that. At least not to anything but his own face. And maybe someone else’s too.

A million little things floated through my mind. You need to step up. You can’t act this childish when you’re eighteen in a few months. The team is relying on you to make it to state your senior year, so don’t screw it up. Care about your standing and your future enough to quit jeopardizing both . None of those words left my lips. When I looked at the deep grooves on his forehead and the defiance in his posture, I deflated.

Brody didn’t need another lecture. He needed to feel like he mattered enough to try.

I scrubbed a hand over my face. “Who’s giving you trouble?”

He kept his mouth sealed shut.

“Are you the one starting it? Because I have a hard time believing that.”

“It’s stupid,” Brody said.

That wasn’t much, but hey, at least we were making progress. “The fight, or the reasons for it?” Both, obviously, but I wanted to know what he meant.

Brody sulked lower in the chair. “It didn’t mean anything.”

So, both. Like I’d thought. “Were these the same kids as last time?”

Brody looked away, making me think they were. At least that meant he wasn’t going around fighting anyone he could. There was a reason for it.

“Listen, I get it. You don’t want to tell me anything, and you don’t have to.” I pleaded with Teenage Me to send me the right words. “I’m not judging your choices, though. That would make me a hypocrite. I’ve been in your shoes so many times, I can’t hold the fighting against you. Just know I’m here if you need someone, okay, B? If you need help, you can come to me. I’m not going anywhere.”

He looked up, some of the tension leaving his rigid posture. We sat in silence for a minute, Brody watching me as if imagining me getting in fights and being a punk kid. Or maybe he was debating whether to trust me. We were so close, I could taste it. He had opened his mouth to speak when the door opened with a metal clang, the blinds crashing against the little window, and Henry came back in.

Brody promptly closed his mouth again.

I swore under my breath.

“Your grandma’s on her way,” Henry said. “What do you plan to tell her?”

Did she have to leave work for this? I saw her at Pleasant Gardens most evenings I was there. It wasn’t often she was on the morning shift and had the night off.

“Sorry,” he muttered.

“That’s a start.” Henry seemed as lost as I was. We’d found Brody in the locker room, but he hadn’t really done anything we could directly punish. The whole situation felt oddly out of our hands. There was no proof of forced entry and nothing broken. Just a kid using the facilities to recuperate after a fight.

An idea came to me, and I forged ahead. Henry had been quiet so long I didn’t think he was about to dole out punishments, anyway. “Do you have an after-school job?”

“No, sir,” Brody muttered.

“Do you want to go to camp this summer with the team?”

Brody’s eyes snapped up at that. I took it as a yes.

“Then you can help with the fundraiser.”

“The auction?” he asked. We’d had the boys put fliers up around the school and post it to the parent groups on social media.

“If we don’t get the money we need, no one is going to camp. If you help us with the auction, we’ll forget that you ever broke in here.”

He looked interested. “What do I have to do?”

“Be my assistant,” I said. I wasn’t looking away, because I wanted to make him agree with my eyes. I was afraid of pushing too hard, but I sat firm.

Henry’s gaze snapped to me. If he saw what I was doing here, he kept his mouth closed. We’d never directly talked about the influence he’d had over my life, and now that we worked together, we’d become friends on a different level. He was more than a mentor to me. But we didn’t have to speak about these things to understand each other.

“I don’t have a car,” Brody said.

“You don’t need one. I’ll give you assignments when I have them, and you can help me get them done. It won’t take much time.”

“Do I have to?” Brody asked.

“No.”

We were all quiet for a minute before he nodded. “Okay. I’ll do it.”

“Great.” I tried not to sound too relieved. Now to come up with tasks. “Stop by the office Monday after school and I’ll have your first job ready.”

“Yes, coach.” Brody returned to sulking.

I pushed the plate and plastic fork closer. “Eat something before your grandma gets here.”

He picked up the fork. I’d microwaved it, but it probably wasn’t hot anymore. He dug in, making my body heave a quiet sigh of relief.

Henry gave me a subtle nod of approval when Brody wasn’t looking at us. If he thought it was a good idea, then it probably wouldn’t be a total disaster. Now I just had to see it through.

Lacey brought our food on a round black tray and set the plates in front of us. We were sitting in Gigi’s like we were on a double date again—me and Gracie Mae opposite Tucker and June. I was beginning to think the girls were having these meetings more to get me and Gracie Mae together than out of any wedding-planning need. It wasn’t like I had anything valuable to add to the conversations about flowers and music and cake.

This wasn’t normal, right? I didn’t think it was. Not that I had any experience with weddings. Jack and Lauren’s was the last one I’d gone to, and all I’d had to do was show up.

“How’s the fundraiser coming along?” June asked before taking a bite from her burger. I’d never gotten around to stopping by the store to ask her for a donation, and I hoped she hadn’t taken it personally.

“We’re getting there. I could use more donations, but I have a man on the job.”

“Man?” Tucker asked around his fried chicken. He was all caught up on the Brody debacle and my intention of using the kid to get donations from the shops along Main Street.

“Brody McAllister is going to use his charm and his football jersey to get us more donations. These boys need a lot of money if they’re going to make it to camp.”

“I can donate some books,” June said hesitantly. “Or a gift card to the store.”

We used to be such good friends. I knew I was the one standing in the way of that by making things awkward, but I couldn’t help feeling the residual dregs of her abandonment. It was stupid and unfair. She was back, she’d apologized, she was sticking around. But I’d been abandoned by too many people not to take it hard and, for some reason, my mind was having a hard time forgiving her entirely.

But I could try harder. “Books would be great, June. You can choose from whatever stock you want to move so it benefits you, too.”

“Okay, great.” She pushed back her curly blonde hair. “I’ll get a few bundles put together.”

“I’ll send Brody by the store to pick them up next week. He’s supposed to be my assistant for this thing. I need to come up with more jobs for him to do.”

“Great. They’ll be ready.”

That wasn’t so bad. Maybe a few more of those conversations and we’d be back to being real friends. I needed to reach that point before the wedding, at least. I couldn’t stand up with Tucker while I still felt hurt over June’s betrayal. If Tuck could forgive her, I really had no excuse.

The bell rang above the door, and I looked up to see Chad Lincoln come in with Nova and her kids. The lunch date.

Every muscle in my body constricted. I’d seen enough of his crappy relationships over the years that my gut clenched at the thought of him being with anyone I cared about.

I must have stared too long, because Tucker and June looked over their shoulders to see who had walked in.

“Don’t let him bother you,” Tucker said, taking the attention off Nova. Good man .

Gracie Mae took a sip of her Coke. “Did you see he’s dating Hannah now?”

Another girl we’d all gone to school with who had returned to Arcadia Creek after college. I had never known her really well, but she was obsessed with Tucker’s brother, Jack.

“I think they broke up,” June said. “Hannah took some of their photos together off Instagram.”

“I don’t blame her,” Gracie Mae muttered when Chad sat in the booth beside ours. Nova slid into the side facing my table—if I leaned a little to the side I could look right at her.

“Coach!” Ben said, jumping up from his seat and coming to our table. “I’ve been working on catching!”

“Nice, buddy,” I said, leaning over Gracie Mae and offering my fist.

He bumped it. “My mom isn’t good at throwing though, so it makes it hard to catch them.”

“Hey,” Nova called, “I heard that.”

“It’s not her fault she’s a Yankee,” I whisper-yelled.

“Heard that, too,” Nova said.

“She doesn’t play baseball,” Ben said, scrunching his face in confusion. His blond hair stuck up in the back.

I tried to subdue my grin, sliding my arm along the back of the bench. “It’s also a term for a person from the East Co—from New York.”

“Then I’m a Yankee too.”

“Nah,” I said, settling in. “You’re a Texan now.”

Ben’s grin spread over his whole face. “Yes, sir,” he said. Clearly he’d picked up on how the other boys responded to an adult.

The reality that everyone at my table was watching this interaction closely should have alarmed me, but it didn’t. I glanced at Gracie Mae and noticed she was settling in under my arm. I hadn’t even realized I’d practically thrown my arm over her shoulders when I’d rested it along the back of the bench. I pulled it away. “Enjoy your lunch, Ben.”

“Yes, sir,” he said, hopping back to squeeze onto the bench beside Alice and his mom. Neither of the kids had chosen to sit by Chad, which made me happier than it should have. I looked at Nova between Tucker and June’s heads and caught a smile on her lips while she looked down at her son. Then Chad scooted over, hiding her from view and making my chest go stiff.

The rest of the lunch was an exercise in extreme patience. Chad made Nova laugh a few times, which made me want to reach across my table and smack the back of his head. Obviously, I didn’t. He’d probably arrest me for assault, to say nothing of the fact that making a woman laugh was not a head-slapping offense.

There was also the whole violence thing. I’d utterly avoided it since high school; I didn’t want to break my record now.

But I was in one of those moods where everything Chad did made me want to hit something. Yes, I could see how unreasonable I was being.

We made it through the rest of our meal and paid our check without incident. I gave Ben a fist bump on my way out and winked at Alice, not looking up to see what Nova thought.

“See y’all,” Gracie Mae called when we got outside. She gave me a wide smile and I returned it, then walked toward my truck.

“Hey, Dusty, wait,” she called.

My body tightened. I was forming an excuse about heading out to see my Grandpa so Gracie Mae wouldn’t rope me into doing something with her. But when I saw Nova hurrying my way, I realized she had called my name.

I instantly relaxed. It was time to talk to Gracie Mae again, I knew that. But, honestly, a guy could only say he wasn’t interested so many times before it was on her to understand and move on.

“What’s up? ”

“I didn’t hear from you last night,” she said, a little breathless from hurrying after me. “Is Brody okay?”

“Oh, yeah, he’s fine. A little scraped up.”

She nodded. “Good. I was worried. Must be the mom in me.”

Or just goodness, plain and simple. Not all moms worried about their kids. Mine certainly never had. “He’s been fighting with some other kids. I’m trying to keep him from getting in trouble with the school, so I’ve brought him on to help with the auction we’re having at the end of the month.”

“That’s good of you.”

“I like the kid. It’s not a trial.”

She nodded. “Well, thanks for all you do for these boys.”

“One more point for me?” I asked.

“Who’s keeping track?”

“I am, obviously. Since we’ve met, I’ve been racking them up. I’m going to win.”

She gave an incredulous laugh. “Win what?”

Her, hopefully. I swallowed the thought, shoving it to the furthest recesses of my brain. I didn’t even know where it had come from, since I was actively trying not to think of her that way. I wasn’t playing the long game here. I wasn’t playing any games.

She turned and started walking back to the diner, probably sensing I had no ready response. “See you later, Dusty.”

“See ya,” I called, feeling like a total idiot.

Fine, I’d admit it, but only to myself. I was starting to fall for Nova.