More guilty looks are exchanged between Colton and Sas. It is bullshit that they’ve left Annie out of a group making decisions about her life. It pisses me off, frankly. But this morning, after what went down last night between Annie and me, I’m already on red alert for saying something I ought not to at this table and raining down a whole heap of shit on Annie and me.
“Pass me the phone,” Annie demands, holding her hand out to her brother, face stern, brows knitted. “What the hell is this?” Her words are almost a whisper as she catches on. “Auston is being traded to the Bears?”
“Annie, don’t believe the shit that ends up on social media,” I say. “It’s some sensationalist crap, designed as clickbait after the game at the weekend.”
Colton gets back to eating his breakfast and speaks through a mouth full of bacon. “Auston doesn’t want to come to the Bears. We all think he’s a dick.”
“Why would you guys make a mid-season trade, anyway? You’re winning every game,” Darcy asks, now slurping her own hot coffee.
“We’re winning but not thanks to our quarterback,” I explain, though it’s off point in the circumstances.
Colton forks more bacon. “Lamar’s trying his best but losing Tommy has been a massive blow for us and it’s only a matter of time until we come unstuck.”
“Unless Coach Roy suddenly decides to reconfigure the entire team around a gunslinger instead of a pocket passer, Lamar needed more bench time. The Bears team is the strongest it’s been in years but it’s set-up for Tommy’s game.” Sas leans back in her chair, explaining to my sister. “I mean, if it wasn’t for all the personal shit, Auston would be a good trade for the Bears, depending on what they had to give up to get a player of his caliber. Plus the fact he’s not performing for the Archers and the fans are all offside means it’s not completely out of the realm of imagination for him to want to make a move either.”
She’s doing that thing Sas sometimes does – speaking before engaging her brain – as the rest of us around the table all glare at her, bearing witness to the moment she realizes what she just said.
She winces. “That wasn’t the most appropriate thing to say right now, was it?”
Annie’s been quiet this whole time, but she’s still holding Sas’s phone and now I notice how her rosy cheeks have lost color.
“Annie, don’t even worry about it,” I say. “I bet if you ask Sienna where this came from it’s completely unfounded.”
She digs her teeth into her bottom lip, drawing my attention to its plumpness and reminding me how carried away I got with her last night. How fucking incredible it was to finally kiss her the way I’ve wanted to. “But what if it isn’t?”
That kills my wayward thoughts. Colton decides something is worth his attention more than the meat in front of him. “Has Auston said something to you?” he asks.
“I – I don’t know. I don’t think so.”
Why does it feel like the room just got smaller?
“You don’t think so or you know so?” Colton badgers.
“Lay off, Quinn,” I tell him, though I want to know, too.Is Annie back in touch with Auston? Since when? At the game last week, it seemed like they were done.
“It’s nothing. I’m overthinking. Putting two and two together and coming up with five.”
“Annie?” Colton presses.
“Last Sunday night after the game, Auston messaged me and said that he was going to prove to me that he’s ready to be back in my life. Or Nelson’s life. Ours but mostly Nelson’s.”
She glances my way, fleetingly, as if she’s hiding something. I don’t like it. “But after what you told me, Tanner, I didn’t think anything of it because this is what Auston does. He says things, clicks his fingers, makes me believe things and gives me hope and then never follows through.”
Sunday night. When she helped me out of my shirt, when she massaged me and we almost kissed.Thatsame night, Auston gave herhope?
I bite down on my gums because I feel as if I’ve been punched in the gut.
“I’m going to get a waffle,” I say, my chair grating loudly across the tiled floor as I come up to stand. I need to get away from the table. From Annie and my own stupidity.
Is Auston right? If he clicks his fingers, if he gives herhope, will she go back to him?
I don’t give a crap about a social media post and some fictitious idea that Auston has requested a trade to the Bears. That’s insane.
But I care that Annie mighthopehe wants to move to San Antonio to be with her and Nelson.
Nothing puts me off my food.Nothing. Yet, with two waffles on my plate, I brace myself on the buffet cart and stare at the spread of fruit I don’t want.
I sense Darcy before she says, “It’s that bad, huh?”
