Shrinking into herself, Mattie wilted.
“Kendall has enough on her plate than to worry about such ungrateful wretches.”
“Tell that to her, Mrs. Redding,” Grant snapped.
Grandmother drew herself up, decked in low-end designer clothes and cloudy diamonds. “I will speak to your grandmother, young man.”
“And I’ll tell her how you’re talking to Mattie. You don’t know why she’s here. If you’re so concerned about Aunt Kendall, you would’ve checked on her daughter.”
Grandmother transferred her glower to Prissy, who dropped her gaze and her attitude immediately. “Get Joan on the phone now. I expect full compensation for my meal for this rudeness.”
“Uh—”
Grant dug in his wallet and pulled out his Platinum Amex. “I’ll pay if you leave now.”
“You’ve become quite the untenable young man. I hope a good girl like Cassidy leaves you high and dry. Furthermore, I hope I never talk to you again.”
“Do you promise?” Grant asked, shoving his card at Prissy, who gladly took it. “Add a one hundred percent tip. Whoever served her deserves at least that.”
Grandmother gasped, but Mattie giggled, pressing down on her lips at the lady’s putrid disdain.
“Well, I never!” she said, an expression Mattie thought was only said in bad novels and worse movies.
“We understand why,” Grant said, reclaiming his card and returning it to where it belonged. He grabbed Mattie’s hand. “I’ll seat us myself, Prissy. Ta-ta, Mrs. Redding.”
“Ta-ta?” Mattie chortled once she sat in the chair Grant held out for her and he seated himself across from her. “Who says that?”
“Her.”
Mattie’s joy fled. “She’s really mad at me. Disappointed in me.” She sighed. “My normal existence. There isn’t one week where I don’t disappoint at least one person.”
“Uncle Johnnie, you mean.”
“Yeah.”
Grant studied her. “I’ll make a deal with you. If you can pretend Uncle Johnnie is the type of father you want and pretend Mrs. Redding didn’t see you, I will tell you about the time I met my celebrity crush and made a complete jackass of myself.” He reached his arm across the table and held up his hand. “Deal?”
“Deal,” Mattie agreed. She had the art of pretense perfected.
Of all the fucking days for the cheer team and football team to hold joint practice, it wastoday. When all CJ saw was who wasn’t there. Namely, Rebel, Harley, Mattie, and Molly. Jaleena jockeyed to partner with him and managed to convince the other girls to back off.
“We practice and nothing else, so please shut the fuck up and leave me in peace.”
That was all it took for her to talk to him only about what they needed to do for class. He just wasn’t in the fucking mood, even halfway through, when the girls trotted off and Coach Yancy benched CJ. Ryan was still starting quarterback and CJ hadn’t been to practice in weeks.
Nearthe end, Ryan ran off the field and jogged to CJ. “I asked Coach to let you practice for a bit.”
CJ clenched his jaw so he wouldn’t thank Ryan.
“Dad told me to tell you that Rory went to Turn Creek.”
“Motherfucker can jump in the creek for all I give a fuck.” CJ got to his feet and placed his practice helmet on his head. He ignored Ryan’s gulp and his quick step back. “And Devon?”
“Uh, Dad took him home. He said he’ll see to the clean-up in the locker room. It’s probably already done.”
No harm, no foul. They’d gotten away with it.
“Cool.” CJ started off.
