“Hey, Troy?” Chris asked.
He sighed. “Yeah.”
“Tell me, was our brother Luke ever in a Christmas play?” Chris asked. “I could have sworn he was but I might have been dreaming.”
I arched an eyebrow at my oldest brother in question. “Well, answer the man.”
Troy begrudgingly said, “No, I don’t believe Luke has ever been in a play, Christmas or otherwise.”
I grinned in triumph, not at all graceful in victory. “Debra, can you come in here for a sec?”
Debra came out of the kitchen wiping her hands on a towel. “What’s up, guys?”
Clara followed right behind her, red hair shining in deep sunset waves that hypnotized me. “The food’s not ready yet. But I brought you a cookie.”
I got up to wrap her in my arms, careful not to crush the cookie. “It’s not food I want, but thank you, beautiful. Troy wanted me to tell his wife the story about how he got kicked out of Baylor.”
Clara’s eyes brightened. “Now that sounds fun. Was it for betting?”
Troy groaned. “Please don’t tell my wife this story. She’s going to leave me.”
Debra laughed and rounded the table to place her hands on Troy’s shoulders. “You think I don’t know that story?”
Troy looked over his shoulder at her. “You know it?”
“Honey, everyone at school heard the story.” She laughed. “I thought it was hilarious.”
“You did?” Troy grinned like he couldn’t believe it. Then he narrowed his eyes at her. “Wait, are you sure you know the story?”
She nodded. “Yeah, I think so.”
“Well, I don’t know the story,” Clara said, leaning her back against my chest. “And since this is part of the bet that almost broke up Luke and me, I think I should get to hear it.”
I glanced at Debra. “Do you want to tell it or should I?”
“You tell it,” she said. “In case I got any of the details wrong.”
I nodded. “Okay, so it’s fall in Waco, which means it’s still ninety degrees out at night.”
Troy held up his hands and shook his head. “Whoa, you don’t have to set the scene so much. What does it matter what the weather was like?”
“It was warm out,” I said. “Which is why you felt like you needed a midnight swim.”
Debra laughed and clapped. “Okay, yes, this is the story I’ve heard. Please go on.”
Troy looked at his wife with love in his eyes. “And you still agreed to go out with me?”
“It’s the whole reason I said yes when you asked me. Now let him tell the rest.” She gestured for me to continue.
“Thank you, yes, as I was saying, Troy went out to the bar with his buddies and got hammered beyond recognition. And on the walk back to the dorm, Troy got hot. And he decided he needed a swim.”
Troy sat forward intently. “You guys, seriously, it was really hot that night. Like humid and sticky and terrible.”
“So he went to the campus pool, stripped bare-ass naked, and went for a swim.” I paused as everyone laughed. “Unfortunately, good old Troy enjoyed the swim so much he fell asleep right there, still naked as the day he was born. That was problem one. Problem two? He wasn’t in the pool. He was in a fountain in front of an office building.”
Everyone laughed again and Troy kept looking at Debra, like he was making sure she was actually okay with all of it. For years, he had thought she didn’t know and I knew it had haunted him. It turned out he didn’t need to worry.
Debra grinned and lowered her voice. “Everyone heard about the guy who got expelled, and they also heard about his giant… well, you know.”
