Wait. Albuquerque? When she was asleep?
Evidently, not asleep.
‘Oh.Oh.’ I scratch the back of my neck. Fuck. That wasn’t my brightest moment. My chest tightens with anticipation. I wait expectantly for something to come next, but May pushes herself to her feet with a yawn and a big gulp of her beer. ‘Probably a good time for us to start heading back. Thanks, by the way. For having us over.’
‘Yeah – um, it’s no problem at all.’ I blink a couple times. It’s not easy to recover from the fact that we had just, almost, had a pretty deep emotional discussion. We had just, almost, touched on the topic I’d been waiting to touch on since I left Prosperity, and then, with a flip of the switch, we’re back on neutral ground. I’m jealous of May’s emotional regulation, honestly.
With one more glance back at the rubble surrounding the bones of the Velasco ranch home, I stand up and, half-empty bottle in hand, head after May.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
All Tied Up
May
‘There’s no way. We can’t concede. It’s the final game.’
Maddie leans forward, a fist pressed to her desk, firm punctuation after each word. We rarely do team meetings formally like this but, after the storm, we’ve had something come up that arguably required a greater deal of discussion.
Coach Dillon looks pained. ‘Maddie, I understand that. But the school—’
‘The school can thinkwhateverthey want,’ puts in Jordan with a passionate wave of her hand. ‘They’re just trying to save money. Sure, our stadium’s still a little way away from being ready to host. But look at men’s soccer. They’re not telling that team to “take it down a notch”, are they? So why us?’
We all know why.
‘Roper Rivalry is more than a game,’ I add matter-of-factly. As captain, the girls look up to me, and as much as a part of me wants to sit down and admit defeat after everything – everything my father’s family built – is now in pieces, we need to stay in this fight. ‘It’s probably our biggest battle of the year. And besides, we have a shot at the championship, I believe it. This is redemption. I don’t see us sitting here and taking the punches while the guys get to do what they like.’
Around the circle of desks, the girls nod, murmurs of agreement tossed about. ‘We’ll do whatever it takes to get there,’ Brianna promises.
‘We only have a week.’ Coach’s tone is warning, but I catch a hint of pride in her eyes. ‘Will you girls really be able to pull this together? No one’s making you hit the stadium and start repairing it yourself …’
She trails off as she looks around at the smirks on all our faces. The Roper Rivalry between Oklahoma City and San Antonio is the stuff of legends.
‘It’s time to close this season out right,’ says Jordan with a raised eyebrow. ‘According to the tables, if we beat San Antonio, one of thefinaltwo playoff spots is ours.’
She exchanges a grin with me, and I egg her on with a spirited, ‘And wecertainlywant that, don’t we?’
The girls whoop; slaps of desks all around. Storms can screw a lot of things up for us, but this season isn’t one of them. We’ve been there, and we’re not willing to repeat it.
Mrs Bradley sighs in exasperation when Colt holds up two more ugly ties. He looks as tired as she does. Both of them are justified.The options are hideous. They look like they came straight out of a 1990s movie, all weird shades of beige with accents in bright reds and greens, dated patterns, the works.
‘You can’t be serious.’
‘I didn’t realize I’d needtieshere, Ma!’ Colt defends himself.
Fortunately, I’m just a bystander. I sit by with my bowl of eight p.m. cereal and watch the entire thing go down. I got lucky with my Rivalry outfit; I keep my formal wear with my dad’s sister – Tía Juana – down in Tulsa, and she sent the pantsuit up yesterday. Colt, on the other hand, seems to have left all his ties back in New Haven, which leaves his dad’s old relics, allegedly from Mr Bradley’s time as a medical resident back when dinosaurs roamed the earth.
‘May. May, come on,’ the idiot implores me. I sigh extra hard over my bowl of chocolate puffs. I’d ask how we’re keeping our parents from finding out this couple thing is a lie, but I think it’s working its charm fairly naturally. Even with all four of them under the same roof, they seem to be taking our constant bickering as a sign of affection. Which is dumb.
He takes my hands. Another fairly natural thing. The physical touch between us, something neither of us was prepared for at first, has also become strangely automatic since we talked, out on the porch. I wonder if Colt overthinks it as much as I do. ‘May. What are you wearing?’ he grills me.
‘Same thing every year,’ I tell him with a shrug. ‘Something you would know. If you had been here. Every year.’
‘She got you there!’ Mrs Bradley hoots from behind us, where she shoves all the ties into a box gleefully, never to be seen again. ‘Why don’t you ask your sister?’
‘Ohhhh, no.’ Colt looks like he’s ready to throw up. ‘Savannah would laugh at me until her face turned blue from losing oxygen.’
‘Are you scared?’ I tease him, and gosh, the little tormented wrench of his face is actually kind of satisfying. ‘Of your sister?’
