Maggie’s the queen, or whatever, but the Lean Dogs couldn’t function without you. If anybody gives you any bullshit about sucking dick to get that job…” His hands curled to fists.
“Send ‘em to you?” she asked with a little smirk – one that quickly melted into a truer, softer look. “You’re a sweet boy, and I appreciate it, but you don’t have to go to bat for me, darlin’.”
“Yeah, I really do.”
Gently, she said, “No, it’s okay. I’m not your old lady.”
He started to protest – and she rested a finger against his lips.
“Hush,” she said, her smile soft, her voice sweet. “It’s not your fault. It’s not like you haven’t tried.”
But he’d failed, he guessed. They more or less lived together, and they slept together, and she’d shown up to one of Maggie’s big dinners at the farm on the back of his bike, but it wasn’t official, was it? No ring, no tat, no heartfelt declaration of love. He’d not rescued her from kidnappers, or killed for her. Nor knelt at her feet and offered her forever.
He was a quarterback, but not really, not anymore. He was a Lean Dog, but not an essential one. No reputation, no striking of fear into enemies’ hearts. And he was her old man – but not really. No one saw him as that.
The story of Carter Michaels was a story of almost. Of nice try. Of obscurity and inadequacy.
Sometimes he wondered why he ever bothered trying. Anything.
“Hey,” she said, and cupped his chin. “It’s alright. We’re alright.”
He swallowed, and it hurt.
“Take me to dinner, huh?” She cocked her head, imploring, smile encouraging. “We’ve got to celebrate.”
He swallowed again. His voice was tight. “Yeah, okay.”
They climbed down the bleachers and headed toward the parking lot with the shrill blast of the coach’s whistle ringing behind them.
Carter didn’t look back. He knew if he did, he wouldn’t be able to keep going.
Two
Plans had a funny way of changing.
Leah set the last of her boxes down on top of the stack in the center of her new living room, and cast a look around the space. It wasn’t grand, but she was trying to look on the upside: it was hers, and it was comfortable. It was spacious enough.
Knoxville hadn’t reached Nashville levels of in-demand yet, but it was a college town, and it was constantly expanding, reinventing itself, and becoming all the while more charming, accessible, and trendy. Finding a spot downtown was becoming a tall order; when she’d known she was moving back home, she’d called her parents – and then she’d called Ava. Because Mom and Dad had thrown some Zillow listings her way, but Ava had said, “Lemme ask Mom,” and next thing she knew she had a showing of a second-floor, two-bedroom, two-bath walkup in a charming, sprawling complex occupied mostly be retirees. No wild nighttime parties, no farm animals in the pool, no shootouts or car break-ins. A club old lady, someone newer to town named Kristin she had yet to meet, lived on the ground floor in this same building, and the price had been spectacular. Leah had no doubt either Maggie or Kenny Teague had greased palms and applied the right sort of pressure.
The complex had been built in the early nineties, and looked it: from the laminate floors to the green Formica counters, and the ruffled lace curtains in the bedrooms. But it was spotless, well-maintained, and smelled fresh, like open windows and lemon cleaner. It would take time to get it decorated to her liking, but of all the changes she’d undergone in the past three months, this wasn’t one she could complain about.
“Tell your parents they can drink coffee for free forever,” she said, gratefully, massaging the tension from her lower back.
Ava sat cross-legged on the floor, pulling wrapped items out of boxes, and chuckled. “Pretty sure they already do.”
“I’ll have to bake them cookies, then. Seriously, I can’t believe this place. I was ready to live in Mom and Dad’s garage, and now I’ve got two bedrooms, and my own washer/dryer.”
“Don’t mind us,” Aidan said as he and Tango toted in the sofa, a secondhand leather monstrosity she didn’t really want to know the origins of. “Stay right in the way, that’s fine. We’re only giving ourselves hernias over here.”
“Oh my God,” Ava deadpanned, “it’s finally happened. Your full transformation into Dad.”
He halted, spluttered out a clumsy, “Hey, fuck you,” and nearly dropped the end of the sofa on his foot.