He doesn’t look too convinced but he doesn’t say no either.
“Ah– Bah– Is that okay with y’all?” Annie stutters, frowning at her dad.
Am I being overly familiar,again? Am I putting my nose in to help where it’s not welcome?
“We’ve got a guest bedroom,” Sonny tells me, that gravelly voice seeming deeper than ever, and the way he’s eyeballing me is sending another message, too.Don’t you dare try anything funny with my daughter.
I get it. Not that I was going to try anything funny with Annie. The car moments aside, I’m being sensible around her. I know how unwelcome any approach would be to her and her family. I’m on the same side as them, Team Wrap Annie Up in Cotton Wool and a Chastity Belt Until She’s Recovered from Auston.
The electricity kicks back perfectly timed for me to see Annie’s cheeks flush pink in the most adorable way. For a nanosecond, something inside me twists.
Does she…likeme? No,hellno. The shift between us in Nelson’s room on Sunday night. The fizz I felt in the car when she slid across me, when I held her face and her gaze. Those glitches were on me.
Guest bedroom for one time and one time only.
I’m simply helping a woman who needs a break.
Annie has already prepped a veggie lasagna, which she slips into the oven to reheat. I mess around with Nelson, rolling him balls and getting that hand-eye coordination working – or not working as it happens.
Meanwhile, Annie roasts garlic in a pan and tips it on top of pre-prepared flatbread. Everything about her in the kitchen is easy, like the way she sings along to the radio as she stretches out bread dough, and the way she wiggles her hips to the country beats, all the while encouraging Nelson and chatting to me through the hatch window to the lounge.
Sonny is out marshaling the land to check the electric fences but he’s made us leave the candles burning, just in case, and the scent of citronella is as strong in the house as the smell of Annie’s cooking.
“I love this place,” I say absent-mindedly.
“You do?” Annie asks, telling me that I spoke my thoughts aloud. “Isn’t it a little too small town for a guy like you?”
“A guy from Arizona who grew up in a tiny three bed with his mom and sister?”
“I didn’t know that.” She stops doing what she’s doing, giving me her full attention. “I assumed a guy with a personality as big as yours came from, you know, the sort of upbringing that gives you confidence.”
“I got the kind of upbringing that instils hard work ethic and the idea that you can cover a lot of shortcomings with a big personality. Whether you’re not the smartest guy in school, or you’re the only kid without the big-name brands on his sneakers but still turning out to the football field for every practice because his mom made sure he got there. Single moms don’t have it easy, Annie, I know that, but the best ones do a damn good job all the same.”
She fixes her gaze on me, staring at me in a way that makes me unable to take my eyes off her. I don’t know which one of us is saying we see the other, but that’s the message passing between us.
“That’s why you’re so keen to help me out.” She looks away quickly, as if the tone of the room has shifted entirely. “You make a little more sense to me now, Tanner Pace.”
I don’t know why, but the words coming from her mouth feel almost sad. Did she think I was here for something more? Am I?
I want to tell her that my mom isn’t the only reason. She’s Colton’s sister, I respect everything she’s got going on in her life and I love the Quinns. I love it out here on the ranch and the non-profit for a good cause.
But there’s more to it now and I know that.
I like Annie. Who she is. What she reminds me of and represents. Justher. Being around her and watching her be. The way her skin flushes when she’s embarrassed and the way she thinks she’s failing at everything when she’s doing a fucking incredible job of juggling a hundred hefty balls.
I don’t say that and I won’t say that because it’s better not to muddy the waters. Better for us both to agree that this is a guy helping a woman out of empathy for what his own mom went through. A man being a good buddy to his teammate.
That’s exactly what I need to be. There can be no blurring of lines. Colton is my split end, my offense, and he’s been burnt by a supposed friend breaking guy code once before. Not me. I’m older and wiser and I’ve learned my lesson about women and putting my brothers before them.
Plus, I’ve been smacked one too many times for unknowingly taking the wrong girl to bed. I’ve had one-night stands splashed across the front ofTMZbecause I was used for a cheap buck – not that I was complaining about the using but the cheap buck making stings.
Everything I do gets scrutinized on social media and that’s why I’ve stopped it in recent times. I’ve stopped searching for the easy lay. I either go with someone in the same shoes – who doesn’t want to have their own fame used as clickbait – or I settle for a celebratory salt bath instead. Life’s too short to fight keyboard warriors and I hated seeing what they did to the Quinns and Colton and Sas last year.
Add it to the list of reasons Annie is perfectly safe around me, no matter how hot she looks in a denim skirt, checked shirt and cowboy boots. Even if I had one, two, or three small blips in the car there earlier. She’s strictly in the friend zone.
Annie’s cooking is sensational – wholesome, hearty, tasty – a man could get used to it. We eat around the table, where Sonny and I talk football as Annie continually mops pasta sauce off every inch of Nelson.
When she puts Nelson to bed, Sonny continues to tell me his concerns about how our quarterback isn’t doing so well in his first starting year. It’s not news to me but the reality is we don’t have another option. All we can do is train hard with Lamar because we don’t have Tommy to step in, not now, maybe not even next season.
