“What?”
“Kiss your man so he can get home to his son.”
“Whatever,” she muttered, but still, she kissed him, wet and sweet.
Then he pulled them both off the couch and walked her to her door, holding her hand.
It was Hix who kissed her, wet and sweet, at the door.
“Twenty-two hours,” he whispered when they were done.
She shot him one of her blinding smiles. “Yeah.”
He touched his lips to the tip of her nose, let her go and walked out.
He heard the lock go before he was halfway across her porch.
Twenty-two hours.
An eternity.
Something Worth Fighting For
Greta
“YOU’RE REALLY GOOD.”
“I don’t suck.”
“No. Really. You’re really good.”
“Thanks, man.”
I stood beside Hix just outside the gates of Raider Field, watching a just-showered-after-the-game Shaw lift a hand and smack Andy on the biceps.
I’d just watch the Raiders lose (unfortunately).
But I’d done it with my brother sitting on one side of me, Hix on the other, Mamie wedged in between me and Hix.
This happening part of the game.
The rest of it, she’d wedged herself between me and Andy and they got in a competition to chatter each other’s ears off, a competition that ran four ways with Maple and Snow.
It was a little bit of a surprise that Mamie hung with her father (and Andy and me) when her mother, uncles, aunts and grandparents were sitting in those same bleachers not too far away.
But we’d barely sat down before she was jumping down the seats to give her dad a hug, me a hug (which was sweet) and then shoot Andy a huge smile and cry, “Is this your brother, Greta?”
That started it and it didn’t end. Lou had come with the girls and they sat on the bench behind us, so I got to chat with her and Andy got to hold court with Mamie and Maple (Snow took off with some of her friends).
He’d loved every second of it.
So had I.
I just hoped he remembered it.
For me, it was a night I’d never forget.
“Your dad’s the sheriff,” Andy informed Shaw, and I tensed, not thinking Shaw would be strange about Andy telling him something he very well knew for reasons he probably couldn’t fathom, just understanding sometimes talking to Andy could be awkward until you got to know him and understood how he expressed things.
I didn’t have to worry.
Shaw just smiled big and said, “Yeah, bud.”
“He arrested my mother,” Andy shared.
Shaw’s smile faltered, he looked to his dad but looked back to Andy when he kept talking.
“It was awesome.”
“Right,” Shaw muttered, fully regaining his smile but Andy lost his attention when Wendy (Shaw’s girlfriend was one of my clients, I now saw) walked up.
He lifted an arm her way and she slid under it so it was around her shoulders.
“Hey, babe,” he said. “This is Andy, Greta’s brother. Andy, this is my girl, Wendy.”
“Hey,” she said shyly to Andy.
“Hey,” Andy greeted Wendy.
I studied Shaw and his girl.
Wendy was a good kid and I’d always thought she was pretty. Lots of ash-blonde hair she begged her mother to let me highlight (her mother hadn’t yet given in but I hoped she would soon because it would be fabulous). She was long, slender, but not tall, just average height, so since Shaw was tall, she fit right into his side like she was meant to be there.
Very nice.
“Hey, Mr. Drake. Hey, Miss Greta,” she called to us.
“Wendy,” Hix replied from where we were standing five feet away, with me in the same hold as Shaw had Wendy.
“Hey, honey,” I called in return.
“You gonna go get pizza?” Andy asked them and both Shaw and Wendy looked to him.
Shaw shuffled his feet a bit before he answered, “Yeah, Andy, do you wanna . . . uh . . . come with us? We can, well . . . take you back home after.”
It seemed Wendy snuggled closer to Shaw when he offered that.
As for me, I did the same into his father but only so I wouldn’t melt into a pool of gratitude that Hix’s boy was such a good guy.
“Aren’t you, um . . . goin’ on a date?” Andy asked in confusion.
“Uh . . . yeah,” Shaw answered.
“Then you don’t want me there.” Andy twisted at the waist and threw a hand Hix and my way. “Anyway, Ta-Ta and Hix gotta take me home so they can go on their date.”
I loved my brother.
But we so did.
“Right,” Shaw replied through a grin.
“We’ll go to pizza some other time when you aren’t on a date so Ta-Ta and Hix can have another date,” Andy told him.
“Yeah, man, that’d be awesome,” Shaw said, still grinning.
“Cool,” Andy muttered.
“We should all probably get going,” I called. “Shaw’s undoubtedly hungry after that game and it’s getting late.”
“Yeah,” Andy agreed, looking my way and then turning to Shaw and Wendy. “You did good tonight, sorry you didn’t win.” His attention turned to Wendy. “Cool to meet you.”
“Cool to meet you too, Andy,” she said.
“Thanks, bro,” Shaw said. “See you later.” But with that, he went on, “Uh . . . Sunday? That’s your, uh . . . day with Greta. So, um . . .” He glanced Hix and my way before he looked back to Andy. “Well, she’s with us on Sundays now so we get you too. Right?”
I didn’t know the Drakes had claimed my Sundays.
But since I liked the Sunday I’d had with the Drakes, and they wanted Andy too (or at least Shaw did, but I seriously doubted Hix would argue), that worked for me.
Just as long as it worked for Andy.
It did and I knew that when my brother shot Shaw a bright smile. “Yeah. Yeah. Sunday.” He moved toward Hix and me but did it still aimed toward Shaw and Wendy. “Have fun.”
“Thanks, you too,” Shaw replied.
“’Bye, Andy,” Wendy said.
Hix’s arm around my shoulders tightened as he turned us while we called our goodbyes to his son and his girl, and Andy fell into step beside us as we walked toward his Bronco.
There weren’t many people left hanging around after the game. We’d said goodbye to Lou and the girls before Shaw came out and Mamie had taken off with her mother, who made it clear she was taking pains to ignore the fact that Hix and I existed, and she did this by leaving and not hanging to tell her son his team might have lost, but he’d done a good job.
That said, her parents both came right up to Hix, her dad shaking his hand and introducing himself and his wife to me in a surprisingly friendly way (though, I knew Hope’s mom, Marie, she was a client of Lou’s).
Marie gave Hix a brief hug before she smiled hesitantly at me and they both took off after Hope. Hope’s brothers and their families didn’t do the same, though one of the brothers gave Hix a wave, and both wives did (one, Jessie, was my client and she hadn’t stopped being that even with all that was happening, the other one, Molly, was Lou’s client and she’d been in two Thursdays ago so clearly they also weren’t holding grudges, which was a relief).