Chapter Five

Gwen

“Okay, so remind me again, why are we going to a football game?”

I smirked at Vivi’s question. “I got free tickets. Thought it might be fun. Ya know, mix it up.”

Even with my eyes fixed on the snowy road ahead, I knew Vivi was staring at me. We’d known each other since junior high. She knew me way too well to buy my load of bullshit. I dared a sidelong glance at her as I pulled my dad’s SUV to an easy stop at the stop sign just a few yards away from Vivi’s apartment building. As I’d suspected, she was staring at me, one thin, drawn-in eyebrow arched high.

A laugh slipped out and I rolled my eyes. “All right, fine. I met one of the players and he invited me to come watch the game.”

Her other eyebrow joined the first. “You met a player? A real one? Where? When? How?”

I laughed again and pushed on the gas. “I was working at Aunt Maggie’s and he came in. I didn’t know who he was until we’d been talking for a little while. I just thought he was a cute guy.”

Vivi bent forward and rummaged through the large purse she had dropped on the floor as soon as she’d clamored into the SUV. A moment later, she straightened, gripping her pink cell phone in her hand. “What’s his name?”

I bit my lip.

Vivi snapped around in her seat. “Come on! Who is he? I need to Google this shit!”

“Carson Stiles. He’s a quarterback.”

Vivi’s phone played rapid typing sounds as her fingers went to work on the screen. I merged onto the freeway that would drop us downtown and tried to quiet the hammering of my heart. In just a few hours I’d be seeing Carson again. At least, I hoped I would. We hadn’t formally made plans to meet up after the game, but in the days in between our meeting and the game, I’d decided that he’d given me the tickets with the intention of seeing me.

“Oh. My. Gosh!” Vivi slapped my arm. “He’s gorgeous! Damn! Why don’t I watch football? Oh right, it’s because it’s too fucking cold out here!”

I laughed and leaned back in my seat, forcing myself to appear more relaxed than I felt. I wasn’t ready to confess just how keyed up I was over the prospect of seeing Carson. It would only feed the crazy fantasies that were playing in my mind for the past few days.

“So, wait. He gave you the tickets and invited you to the game?”

“Sorta. We were hitting it off and then my dad came by to pick me up. It was the night the snow started again.” I paused, my mind drifting to the question of what would have happened if my dad hadn’t shown up. If Carson had given me a ride home in his truck. Where would that version of the night taken us? It was my favorite jumping off point for the steamy dreams I’d indulged in for the past few days. “Anyway, when my dad said he was a fan, Carson offered us the tickets. My dad’s out of town though, so I called you.”

Vivi was too busy scanning through images of Carson to glance up. “So, he’s hot, rich, and famous? What was he even doing at Aunt Maggie’s? I mean, don’t get me wrong, the food is bomb, but it doesn’t seem like the a-list type of place a pro baller would hang out.”

I shrugged. “He was studying his playbook. He doesn’t really seem like the flashy type.”

“Hmm.” Vivi glanced up. “So, this was a few days ago. Have you talked to him since then?”

I shook my head. “No. He left me his number on the back of his receipt, but I haven’t called him.”

“Why not?” Vivi demanded, her voice booming around the interior of the car.

“’Cause I’m a chicken.”

Vivi sighed. “Gwen, Gwen, Gwen. What am I going to do with you? You go off to Yale and you’re supposed to have all these amazing adventures but instead, you spend the entire time in the library. Now, you’re back home and free from all the school shit, but you’re still playing it safe!”

“Come on, Viv. You’ve known me forever. Are you really surprised?”

She giggled. “No.”

“I didn’t know what to say. Besides, I’m the girl, he’s supposed to call me.”

“Does he have your number?”

I fidgeted in my seat.

Vivi laughed. “You could have texted. That’s safer.”

I couldn’t argue. I’d thought about it more than I’d liked to have admitted, but when it came down to sending it—I’d re-read the message, decide it was lame, and promptly delete it.

“All right, so what’s the plan? We’re going to the game and then what?”

“I don’t really know. I’ve never done this before. That’s why I brought you.”

“So, I’m your dating coach?”

I shot her a sideways grin and replied, “Something like that.”

“Will you do everything I say?”

I laughed. “Within reason.”

“Hmm. All right.”

“First, we have to sit through a football game where I’m pretty sure we will both be completely dazed and confused—and frozen. What’s the temperature anyway?”

“Friggin’ cold! Did you wear your cuddle duds?”

“Hell yeah! And brought a couple of blankets for my ass. I’m sure those seats are frozen.”

“Luckily, the stadium sells booze. Maybe they have hot toddies. Isn’t that half the point of football anyway? Fast food and a few drinks?”

“Trade mine for a glass of rosé and we’ll talk.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Our exit was approaching and I clicked on my blinker before moving into the other lane. There was another question I wanted to ask Vivi while we were still alone. I gave her a cautious glance. “Heard from Vinnie lately?”

Vivi was still looking down at her phone but I could see a play of emotions flicker over her delicate features at the mention of her brother’s name. “He calls once a week and I go out there to visit once a month or so. Whenever I can.”

My chest clenched, wanting to know more but afraid to ask. “How is he?” I ventured, my tone low.

Vivi leaned forward and tossed the phone back into her purse and then leaned back with a heavy sigh. “He’s hanging in there as best as he can. As far as I can tell he hasn’t gotten tangled up with anyone…bad.”

My fingers worked the steering wheel as I nodded. “That’s good.”

“Yeah.”

“I’m still waiting on my bar exam results, but if I passed, I’ll start my job at the public defender’s office at the beginning of the year.”

Vivi rolled her head against the seat to look at me. She offered a weak smile. “Thanks, Gwen. Vinnie and I appreciate everything you’re doing.”

“Well, I haven’t really done much yet…”

“Yeah, but you will. And you believe in him. That’s more than most people at this point.”

The sadness in her words broke my heart into two. “Your parents—”

“Are a lost cause. They don’t know what to do.”

I sucked in a sharp breath. “I’m sorry, Viv.”

She shrugged. “Yeah, but they tried.”

I rolled to a stop at a traffic light and looked over at Vivi. The pain on her face was there, despite her words. She might want to pretend everything was fine, that she didn’t care, but I could see the lines etched around her eyes, making her appear several years older than she really was. Her hands rested in her lap and I pat the backs of them. “We’re going to get him out, Viv. I swear.”

She bit her lower lip between her teeth and nodded. Her green eyes were filling with tears, and I felt a stab of guilt for picking at the scabbed wound. It wasn’t my intention at all, but anytime we spoke of Vinnie, she got that way. There wasn’t a way around it. At least not that I’d found.

The light changed and I followed the huge line of cars heading for the entrance of the underground lot closest to the stadium. It was slow going, especially with my heart still slamming around inside my chest, partway for Vivi and Vinnie and partway for Carson and the endless possibilities for the evening that lay ahead.

****

“I might not know anything about football, but it seems like these are pretty good seats,” Vivi commented as we consulted the tickets in our hands and compared them to the marked seat numbers in front of us.

“Not bad. Now, we just have to fit in with everyone else. Cheer when they cheer, yell when they yell, you know, that kind of thing.”

Vivi laughed and warmth rushed over me at the sound. It had taken her a minute to shake off the darkness from our brief conversation in the car, but she was smiling and seemed at ease once again. “I think we deserve a little more credit than that…”

“My dad watched football. But I’ve never found the attention span for it.”

“Until you met Carson,” she retorted, waggling a finger at me.

My cheeks flushed and I gave a quick look over each shoulder, wondering if anyone had overheard Vivi. I didn’t know why it mattered, it wasn’t like I knew any of the people around us, but I looked anyway.

Vivi rolled her eyes. “Don’t be such a Pollyanna, Gwen. It’s okay to like a guy.”

“I know that,” I argued.

Vivi selected a nacho from the paper plate in her lap and popped one of the cheese coated chips into her mouth. “Want some?”

My stomach rolled at the look of the congealed cheese. “No thanks.”

“You’re such a snob,” Vivi teased, her eyes dancing with mischief as she reached for another chip. “Sorry the stadium doesn’t stock caviar or pâté.”

I laughed and shoved her playfully. “You are such a brat.”

She stuck her tongue out.

“Be nice, or I won’t ask Carson to introduce you to any of his friends.”

Vivi laughed. “Yeah, that’s just what I need, a boy toy.”

I opened my mouth to fire off another smartass retort but stopped short. I knew the reason why Vivi wasn’t interested in dating. Ever since Vinnie went away, she’d had a hard time moving on and enjoying herself. Most of the time she was too busy working at the two jobs she held down to even go out for a drink. I didn’t realize how bad it was until I’d moved back a few months ago. When I was away at college, I was too busy to notice, and we’d go weeks without talking. Now that I was back in town, it was glaringly obvious how out of touch she’d become.

Before I could think of anything to say, the announcer started to go over the opening ceremony. Or whatever the hell it was called. All I knew was that the breath in my lungs hitched when he called Carson’s name.