4. Misadventures in Sitting

I"d honestly so much rather be taking a nap than watching the Mustangs game. But here I sat, with Seven in my lap and bowl of popcorn by my side, keeping a running tally in my head of the best football butts. I"d be reading, but when I pulled out my Kindle, my mom gave me the look, and I put it away.

"Yeah, take that "Stangs, you pussies," Xander shouted at the television and the rest of us pretended that was normal.

Football games were long and slow and... shh... boring to me. They just did the same thing, over and over. Then the other team did the same thing over and over going the other way. I knew the rules of the game. How could I not, living among the footballiest family next to the Kingmans? I just didn"t care.

When your twin brother plays football in junior high, high school, and college, a supportive and discerning sister must find something to occupy her time at all those damn games. At least I"d been spared most of the college games since I was always very, very out of town.

To make sure my mind didn"t melt into a pile of bored goo at a thousand and one football games, I ranked the butts of football players. In my head of course. Couldn"t let a list like that get out. In school, Hayes hadn"t ranked high or low on that list.He"d just sort of been in the middle.

Until yesterday.

Apparently, I"d been paying attention to the wrong side of the uniform, which became very obvious when he"d gotten a huge bulge in the front of his pants. And it wasn"t like he"d been wearing gray sweatpants or something either. He"d had on jeans, and I could still see the outline of his dick. Poor guy probably had an imprint of his zipper in his flesh.

I snort-laughed and then had to shove a mouthful of popcorn in my mouth when everyone in the living room looked over at me like I was cuckoo for cocaine puffs. Even Seven made an irritated, be-quiet-human, squeaking meow and tried his best to poke me in the leg disguising it as a stretch.

I"d spent way too much time thinking about Hayes and his dick. But he started it by prancing around naked in his backyard.

There had always been girl talk back when we were in high school, saying that the Kingman boys were well hung, but how did that monster between his legs even fit into his football uniform pants? His cup had to be a size eleventy-billion.

"Woo-hoo," George, sporting his new autographed H. Kingman jersey that he swore he"d never wash, jumped up and did a little dance. "Touchdown Mustangs!"

Uh-oh. Xan scowled and grabbed his empty beer bottle. He didn"t even say anything, just skulked away toward the kitchen. We all tolerated the way he cheered for any team playing the Mustangs. Except George, who refused to dampen his pure love for the team.

Of course, George was the one who gave me the head nod to go after Xan and make sure he wasn"t crying in the kitchen. Not that I"d ever seen my brother cry. Even when he maybe should have.

I waved at the cat on my lap. It was against the rules to move a sleeping feline. The universe might implode or something.

Liam shook his head at me, but with a smile. "Anyone need any refills?"

The second Liam moved toward the one room in the house that Seven was allowed to have treats, my traitorous cat jumped off my lap like I was made of dog slobber. Fine. I"d accept the sign from the universe that I, too, was needed in the kitchen.

Xan was leaning against the kitchen island nursing a new bottle of Fat Tire. He"d never been a big drinker, since he was forever in training, so it niggled at my brain that this was his fourth, and the game wasn"t even at halftime yet.

I glanced at Liam, who just shrugged and grabbed the bag of treats from above the fridge. Seven curled around his leg until he tossed a few crunchy snacks on the floor. Then the rest of us no longer existed to him.

I worked on filling up a tray with more of Liam"s famous fall caramel apple cider. Then I snagged one off the tray and propped myself against the fridge, across from Xan. "How was your game yesterday?"

I already knew it had gone well and that he"d scored the game-winning touchdown. But nothing put Xan in a good mood like getting to relay his accomplishments. To me.

Instead of answering my question, he pointed his beer bottle at me and then Liam with a glare. "You two were awfully cozy with Kingman yesterday."

"He just stopped in to get a cup of coffee, and you know Liam couldn"t resist doing something for George." Regardless of his mad-on for Hayes and all things Mustangs, I knew Xan could never hold a grudge when it came to George and Liam. Me, on the other hand, well, let"s just say twin telepathy made it too hard to keep very many secrets from each other, and that made it hard to hold grudges.

I had a secret, and I was afraid Xan would go off the rails when he found out I was going on a date with Hayes. I should have just said no. But he was so stinking cute trying to ask me out that I couldn"t resist. Besides, it wasn"t like anything could come of it, I was only here for a few more days.

It wasn"t even enough time for a fling, really. Did it count as a one-night stand if it was a few nights in a row and you were likely to run into your one-night stand every summer?

Ooh. Could we be one of those couples that only saw each other once a year and fucked like bunny rabbits for those few days, trying to get as much of each other as possible to hold us over until the next year?

Or... uh, had I been reading too many romance novels and was creating a ridiculous rom-com scenario in my head? Probably. Because never once in my life had I even considered a one-night stand or had a fuck-like-bunnies boy toy. I had the bare minimum of sexual experience, and most of that had been with a French guy who didn"t speak a lick of English.

It might be nice to kiss, and touch, and suck, and be sucked by someone who could actually understand when I said, "No, no, not that hole."

"Well, he"d better not become a regular." Xan took another swig. "There are a hundred other places he could get a cup of coffee. He doesn"t need to take up space at my spot."

I curled my toes and gritted my teeth not to roll my eyes. Xan was allowed to have feelings. But I think we were now on the fifty-seventh stage of grief that he didn"t get drafted. Fifty of those steps had been anger directed at Hayes, who did.

Liam picked up his tray and headed back to the living room. "I think I hear your mother actively dying of thirst. I"d better get these drinks out there."

Before he got past the little hallway between the two rooms, George whispered to Liam, just loud enough to hear. "Did you ask her?"

"No." Liam whispered back. "And I told you, I"m not going to. She"s got a whole-ass life and I love that for her. I"m not interfering with that."

"But you have a whole-ass life too, Li." George"s whisper got a bit gruffier and cracked a little. "When we didn"t think you would. It doesn"t hurt to ask, does it? Maybe she wants a new adventure."

I glanced at Xan and pointed to my chest, mouthing the word "me?"

He mouthed back, "duh."

I strained to listen to more of their conversation, but they moved away and I didn"t catch anything else. "What was that all about? Liam already asked me if I wanted to stay a little longer, but I really have to get back to work."

"I"m not supposed to interfere." Xan shrugged.

"Tell me, or I"ll sit on you when you least expect it." He had a good ten inches on me, but I had a good hundred pounds on him.

"You"re going to make them more mad at me than they already are."

"Wait, why are they mad at you? You"re the golden child, the one who will bring fame and football upon us all."

He ignored my jab and went and actually answered my real question. Dammit. "They want to go on a cruise."

"Okay." And what? That was no biggie. Did they want to do one in Asia, like out of Singapore, and come visit? I probably couldn"t take a whole lot more time off, but I had enough free time during the weekdays to show them around. When I was working evenings and weekends, they could surely entertain themselves. "They should."

"They can"t." The way he said it made it sound like a prompt I"d give to one of my students to get them to fill in the blanks and figure out the answer to the problem.

"Why? I though Liam had a clean bill of health." They"d said he was well. He had to be better. "He really is okay, right?"

It was a good thing I was the teacher and Xan wasn"t because he sucked at the whole helping me figure out what was going on thing. "They don"t want to do a three-day Caribbean cruise or some shit. When Li wasn"t doing great, George bought them tickets for an around-the-world cruise so they"d have something to look forward to, something to live for."

Whoa. "That"s badass. So, why can"t they?"I was done guessing and made a motion for him to continue.

"Liam won"t close Cool Beans to do it."

"Oh." The coffee shop meant everything to the two of them. Not because it was their income. George had a gazillion dollars from an inheritance and some smart investing, and then there was that app he designed and sold to some big online betting conglomerate. They were rolling in it. The coffee shop was more of a hobby.

But it was the place they"d met. And then George had bought it for Liam as a wedding present. The coffee shop was a symbol of their love, and so, yeah, they"d never close it. Not even to go on an around-the-world cruise to celebrate life in a bangarang way.

"Yeah, oh."

Oh. Oh shit. They wanted to ask me to run it for them, didn"t they? Come back to Denver. Live here. Be stuck here.

"Uh, I gotta go." I turned from the kitchen and bolted right upstairs to hide far, far away from family obligations.

Seven raced up the stairs ahead of me and made it to my room before I did. When I flopped down on the bed and covered my eyes with my arms, he crawled onto my chest and made himself into a purring loaf of bread.

George and Liam had granted me my freedom from life in Denver under the disappointed eyes of my parents and brother. They knew how much that meant to me. No way they"d force me to come back.

I laid there for a long time, my mind just racing around and around like the Indy 500 worrying about when and how they might ask, and what I"d say, and if I should say yes, or no, or what alternatives there could possibly be. I might have sunk into the pits of despair all night letting Seven snuggle me into sleep if my phone didn"t buzz.

I"m on my way. Can"t wait to see where you picked.

Shit. The date.

I definitely needed to get out of this house for a little while. Immediately if not sooner. I sent a quick reply message to Hayes.

Stay where you are. I"ll meet you at your house.

He replied with the big eyes scared emoji and I laughed. I imagined he was now running around his house picking up beer cans, throwing out pizza boxes, hiding the porn mags, and spraying air freshener everywhere.

I"d give him a minute while I brushed my teeth and ran a brush through my ponytail. I still hadn"t told him where we were going, and I hoped he was at least slightly food adventurous. I"d known him most of my life, but honestly didn"t really know him at all. I was rarely allowed to hang out with my brother and his friends, especially once we hit puberty.

Xan was always warning his teammates and buddies that I was off-limits. Whatever. I hadn"t really cared that much because, besides their butts, I wasn"t into athletes. I liked someone who could talk books, or had traveled or wanted to, or other things that according to my brother were nerdy.

So I"d dated the drama nerds, or the band geeks, or the AV club guys, which turned out to be code for gamer boys. Gamer boy plus book girlie was a great combo because I could read while he gamed, and that counted as spending quality time together. Although, not real romantic.

I couldn"t imagine Hayes sitting around on his couch for hours on end. Zan could never sit still for more than a few minutes. They"d never know the joy of curling up with a cat and a good book for a long weekend afternoon.

Wait, where had Seven gone? I wanted to give him another snuggle before I headed out. Poop face.

I put on a layer of mascara, some light lip gloss, and dotted some vanilla behind my ears, on my wrists, and just for good measure, a touch of it right between my boobs. Might as well manifest some making out in my future. And then I put a fingerful of vanilla down my pants.

Now I really hoped Hayes was an adventurous eater.