“I don’t take social guidance from Abby Nora.”
“You played soccer, right? You were aiming to go pro. Did you make it?”
Goldie shakes her head. “Broke my hip my senior year of college. Ended my dreams.”
“Oh my god. I’m so sorry.”
“Life worked out.” She looks at me. “Even when it feels like it won’t, it always works out if you look for the good you can still find in the world.”
“Bad luck, my ass,” Fletcher mutters.
I take the opportunity to throw another sauce packet at him and get the reward of having a Ziggy smile aimed at me.
Goldie ignores us both and leans closer to Ziggy. “So here’s what we’re gonna do. You and I were high school friends, and I can’t imagine your family would be upset at you reconnecting with agoodold friend instead of an Abby Nora. So we’re going to hang out, and that means you’ll be around Fletcher some. And probably Silas too. My brother.”
“You have a brother?”
“Four years younger. He wasn’t in high school the same time we were. I don’t think you would’ve known him.”
“Lucky you,” Fletcher adds.
“They don’t get along,” I murmur to Ziggy.
“I can clearly see how it must be completely her brother’s fault,” she murmurs back, which makes me snicker.
“I’ve quit telling them both to behave because I think they do it just to annoy me now,” Goldie says. “But this is good. This isreallygood. You and I can hang out. There will inevitably be interactions with other guys on the team since they’re at our place regularly. And no one at Pounders headquarters can possibly object because you deserve good friends and I have this reputation for being a pretty decent one.”
“Don’t listen to her,” Fletcher says. “She’s notdecent. She’s the best.”
“Has Coach wrapped around her little finger,” I add.
“Because she gave the whole team therapy,” Fletcher continues.
I nod. “Helped us get along better when an asswanker invaded, thinking he was better than all of us.”
“Helped our captain see that the asswanker knew what was best.”
“The asswanker was always the problem.”
“The asswanker took the team all the way to thechampionship match one year and would’ve done it a second year if the asswanker’s girlfriend’s brother hadn’t pulled a fucking hamstring.”
“The asswanker forgets theteampart sometimes.”
“The captain’s a dick sometimes who doesn’t appreciate having the stands full at home matches.”
“That’s because the captain gets tired of the asswanker’s bad mustache.”
Goldie’s cracking up.
Ziggy’s watching us both with a fascination that’s much better than the wounded wariness she walked in with a few minutes ago.
Smiling too.
It’s anI’m not sure I’m supposed to smile at thissmile, but it’s still a smile.
I rub my hand over her thigh. “Fish settling okay?”
She leans closer to me, all soft curves and honey vanilla scent. “I want seconds.”
