Pulling her in for another hug, I take a deep breath to fight back the fear that threatens to take over whenever I think about everything Tae has already gone through. And this is only the beginning.
“Thank you, Lex. You don’t know how much that means to me.”
She turns to walk away, but not before reminding me, yet again, to call her if I need anything.
I load the groceries into the back of my truck and get into the driver’s seat, apprehensive of what state I’ll see Taevin in. To my surprise, Tae isn’t crying anymore, which I think is a good thing.
That is, until she avoids meeting my eyes the entire ride home and doesn’t say more than a handful of words to me. If there’s anything I know about women, it’s that one-word responses are never, ever a good sign. It’s not long before I realize I probably just need to give her space and think of something to cheer her up in the meantime.
“Remember when we used to pull pranks on my brother and sister?” I ask Tae as we sit in the living room and eat goulash together. When she said she was craving it, I was more than happy to make it for her seeing as it’s my favorite meal of all time. Add in my nana’s homemade sauce my mom brought over last week, and it’s the best damn thing to ever exist.
Chuckling, she scoops a big spoonful of noodles into her mouth and chews it up before responding. “I used to love doing that. And then Walker loved it so much she wanted to start doing more prank calls so she’d have us use funny voices to call the numbers on the back of the cereal boxes or random companies in town to enter formal complaints for the dumbest shit.” A soft smile spreads across her face. “Those were some of my favorite things to do.”
“Want to try to prank call some of the guys now? I saw this video earlier that had me laughing pretty hard. Essentially, a group of girls were calling their exes, and when they’d pick up they’d just tell them they were calling to say goodnight.”
“That’d actually be hilarious. Would the guys just be like what the fuck are you doing?”
“A few of them might catch on since I’ve become the team prankster.”
Pulling my phone out of my pocket, I scroll through my contacts and tell her, “Alright, I’ll try Bennett first.”
“No, you shouldn’t. Aren’t they on their honeymoon right now?” Tae questions.
“They are, but I’m still pissed at them for signing Calvetti, so this is a little appetizer of what’s to come for him.” I’m sure the smirk taking over my face looks as devious as I feel.
The phone rings and I put it on speaker so Taevin can hear.
“This better be a fucking emergency,” Bennett grits.
“We’ve talked about this—that’s no way to greet your favorite brother.”
“I swear to god, J, if you don’t start talking, I’m hanging up and not talking to you for a year.”
“Well that’s just not true. Preseason starts next month, you’ll have to talk to me then at least.”
“Five . . . four . . . three . . .”
“Alright, alright. I just wanted to call to tell you goodnight.”
A click sounds on the other end of the line before the call disconnects.
“He’s such a grumpy asshole sometimes,” I tell Taevin, shaking my head at my phone.
She giggles and then her face crumples in pain.
“What’s the matter?” I’m at her side in a second.
Tae shakes her head. “I’m fine, promise. I guess laughing still doesn’t feel the greatest.”
Throwing myself down beside her, I rest my head against the back of the couch and breathe a sigh of relief. “Should I stop? I don’t want you to be in pain or pop a stitch.”
“No, I’ll be fine. I’ll give you a signal if it’s too much.” I turn my head just as Tae grabs one of the throw pillows and hugs it to her chest, bringing her legs up to better support her core.
Quirking a brow, I ask, “And what signal would that be?” When she flips me her middle finger, I narrow my eyes and shake my head at her. “I should’ve known.”
I scroll down my contacts and dial Griff next.
“Hey, J. What’s up? You good?” he answers the phone.
