I’d bet she was excited. She’d just admitted her only child was spending the night at my house. Of course she was going to be ready to get the hell on with her Friday night. She hadn’t even bothered coming inside the house to make sure I didn’t have cages or a torture chamber. The boy on the Tornado team had been kicked to the curb: my curb.
Two out of three boys were over, and I could already hear them stomping around inside my house.
Oh my God. What had I done? Why had I agreed to this?
I wasn’t built for sleepovers.
If I could have hunched over and cried silently, rocking back and forth, I would have. Something was going to get broken before the end of the night, and I had no way of knowing what it would be. My sanity maybe. God, help me. I’d already eaten two packets of Pop-Tarts from how stressed I was and I had another foil-wrapped package tucked into my back pocket in case of an emergency.
When the sound of a truck engine idling had me opening my eyes again, I let out a deep breath and watched as the passenger door to a black Dodge pickup truck opened and out hopped a blond boy with a backpack in his hand. I’d forgotten Josh had mentioned that he was one of the kids spending the night. I smiled as he bounded up the pathway, not even turning around to pay attention to Trip who had parked the truck and was making his way around the front grill.
“Hi, Miss Diana.” The little blond smiled in a way that would have been shy on any other boy except him. On him it looked like… I don’t know what it looked liked. Trouble, more than likely. He’d come right up to me at the last practice and introduced himself. If I thought Josh had confidence, he had nothing on this kid. It reminded me of someone I knew: his dad.
“Hey, Dean. How are you?”
“Good.” He was still smiling.
So was I. He was cute. “Josh and the other boys are inside. Want me to show you where?” I asked him, glancing up to see Trip coming behind him, a knowing smirk on his playful, handsome face. From the looks of it, he had the ability to smell his own kind too, except his was trouble.
“I can figure it out.” Dean blinked those blue eyes just like Ginny’s. “Thank you for letting me spend the night.”
“You’re welcome,” I said, stepping aside to let him in the house.
Trip watched his son as the boy went in without a second glance behind him, calling out, “Bye, Dean!” in a sarcastic tone. To which he got a shouted reply of “Bye!”
Just “bye.” Not “bye, Dad,” no nothing. Even that hurt me.
Trip and I both shook our heads. I grimaced and he just looked resigned. “It’s the beginning of the end, isn’t it?” I asked the blond man still coming up the pathway.
Dressed in jeans, his usual motorcycle boots, and signature white T-shirt minus his motorcycle club vest, he looked freshly showered and too good-looking with his dark yellow scruff covering the lower half of his face. “It’s been the beginning of the end since he started talkin’. I’m gonna be payin’ for all the stupid-ass shit I did with that boy.”
I laughed because I could tell, like father like son. And hadn’t I just thought the same thing about Josh?
He winked as he stopped in front of me on the deck, his face playful, eyes bright.
“Hi, Trip,” I greeted him, grinning wide.
“Hey, honey.”
Feeling a little shy, I held out an arm and he leaned into me, throwing his own arm over my shoulder to give me a hug. The big smile on his face as he pulled back reminded me of how much I liked him. Part of it was because he reminded me so much of Ginny, but I really did feel like I knew him and was comfortable around him.
“Thanks for inviting Dean over,” he said, resting his hands on his hips.
The laugh I let out was all balled up nerves and dread and panic, and that must have been noticeable on my face because the older man burst out laughing.
“You just figured out you’re in for a world of shit tonight, huh?” Trip cackled out the statement.
Oh my God, I really cracked up that time, everything bubbling up inside of me. “I am, aren’t I?” I wheezed. “I’m scared to go in there. I really am.”
That only made him laugh harder.
“I’m just going to lock them in the room together and see what happens,” I joked, not knowing how else to cope but to make a joke so I wouldn’t cry. “Jace’s mom pretty much just kicked him out of the car and waved at me from the driver seat, and Kline’s mom came up to the door with him and burned rubber getting the hell out of here,” I told him.
“Jace and Kline are here?”
Oh God. “I messed up, didn’t I?”
“You got Benadryl?”
“Yeah….”
“I know me and Kline’s mom wouldn’t even be a little mad if you slipped ‘em some Benny later.” He could barely get the words out. “I’m just sayin’.”
What had I done? I should have asked for report cards and shit to approve the boys before they’d come over. Incident reports from other parents. Interviews. Something.
I groaned. Then I groaned a little more. I wasn’t going to cry this early in the evening. I wouldn’t.
Just messing around, I asked, “You got plans tonight? I have a few steaks in the fridge I was going to make for dinner tomorrow. I could be convinced to grill tonight…” I trailed off, half laughing as I said it.
One blue eye peered back at me, the corner of a grin caught high. “I was plannin’ on headin’ over to Mayhem since you’re keepin’ Dean tonight.” He pursed his lips together. “I could run to the store and get some beer and come back.”
Well shit. I hadn’t exactly expected him to take me seriously, but now that he wasn’t disagreeing… I eyed him a little, hoping he hadn’t gotten the wrong message from my invitation.
“As long as you promise you’re not gonna hit on me or anythin’.” He pretty much gurgled out in a laugh.
Goddammit. I couldn’t believe it. Dallas had told him. I threw my hands up as I leveled a glare at the blond. “Just friends, Jesus Christ. The little one is here, too. There will be supervision.”
“I’m fuckin’ with you, honey,” he chuckled. “Need anything from the store?”
I had already stocked up that morning since it had been my day off. “I’m good, thank you.”
Trip winked. “All right. I’ll be back then.”
I was beyond relieved to have someone else in the house with me while they were all over, even if that person was Trip. I gulped and turned to head back into my house as my new dinner buddy made his way toward his truck. Inside, the living room was empty, but I could hear a racket coming from Josh’s room. With Louie nowhere in sight, I peeked into his room and found him sprawled width-wise across his bed with his tablet in hand going at whatever game he was playing.
My guts went as far as to look into Josh’s room to find four boys in there. Josh had already asked me if we could move the Xbox into his room for the night, and I’d agreed. His other aunt had given him a small television for his last birthday, so if they broke anything, at least it would be his TV and not our forty-five inch. Before I got caught, I snuck back out and headed toward the kitchen.