They arrived in a quick procession, and once we were all gathered round, we passed the time until we headed in with food, drinks, and conversation.
I had to admit, I missed my sister. Having music blasting and it not be accompanied by her singing along to every word was strange.
She’d wanted to come home to support Trey, but she’d recently landed a gig at the bar where she worked, and she couldn’t turn down the exposure or, quite frankly, the money.Still, she made us all promise to FaceTime her when Trey’s team won.
Yeswhen, not if.
Finally, the time came to head into the stadium, and after packing all our stuff away, we joined the queue. The energy was electric. It might only have been high school, but people around here took their football seriously. Especially in small towns like ours and the Spuds’ opponents’.
Thanks to our connection to the coach, we got great seats in the family section near the fifty-yard line, only a few rows back from the bench. At capacity, this stadium sat over thirty-six thousand people, and I was impressed that over half of them were filled with fans coming out to watch the days’ games. Like the whole state of Idaho had shown up to support these boys.
After going through the pregame and lineup announcements and the national anthem, it was finally game time.
On their first drive, Trey’s quarterback, a junior who, I had to admit, reminded me a lot of Owen back in his day, led the team ninety yards for a touchdown. On their opponent’s first drive, the defense held them to a three-and-out, including a third down sack that really fired the crowd up.
It was early yet, but I had a good feeling.
That was, until the appearance of a certain brunette woman between the first and second quarters burst my bubble.
At first, I’d thought it was Sutton, that she’d somehow gotten up and snuck away without me noticing until she came back.
I hadn’t realized before how similar Addie and Sutton looked.
Apparently, I had a type.
Not the point, Lane.
These days, my type wasSutton, and Addie’s appearance pissed me the fuck off.
Why wouldn’t she take a fucking hint?
I risked a glance at Sutton. Her attention remained firmly on the field, as though deeply enraptured by the game.
I knew better. She was avoiding looking at me, probably to spare us both the tongue lashing she wanted to give me because it looked a hell of a lot like I’d lied right to her face last night.
So badly, I wanted to reach for her, to assure her I didn’t invite Addie here, had made it abundantly clear I didn’t want her anywhere near me or my family, but I couldn’t handle it if she rejected me.
“Hello, Lawless family!” Addie said brightly. “I was hoping I might see you here.”
“Addie!” Mama crowed, oblivious to the tension Addie’s appearance brought. “What are you doing here?”
“One of the guys on my team has a kid playing for Wallace. We’re stalled out on a few of our active cases right now, so we wanted to come show our support.”
It was entirely possible she was telling the truth; I didn’t detect any lies in her words. But she’d known we’d be here, and after our conversation last night, it annoyed the fuck out of me that she’d gone against my wishes to make her presence known to us.
“Do you want to join us?” Mama asked. Either she hadn’t noticed the rest of us hadn’t spoken a word, or she was choosing to ignore the rudeness of her children by making up for it with the extended invitation.
“Oh, no, I wouldn’t want to impose.”
At least she was smart enough to decline, but of course, Mama wouldn’t hear of it.
“There’s plenty of room,” Mama assured her, turning to glare down the line of us until we all shifted around, conveniently leaving a space open at my right side. Sutton was on my left.
As badly as I wanted Addie to go away, I wasn’t about to argue with my mother and make a scene on Trey’s and his team’s big day.
Addie squeezed in next to me, and for much of the second quarter, I sat still as a statue, not bothering to engage in the conversation she was having with Mama.
I was, however, encouraged by the fact that none of my brothers, nor Aspen or Reagan, indulged Addie either.
