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“Chad didn’t want to go home with me for Thanksgiving if it would only be him. He thought it’d be awkward.”
“Oh, you’ll have me to lean on. I can entertain the rents whenever you need me too.” She waves him off. “What time do we leave on Wednesday?”
“It’s a five-hour drive. I was thinking we could leave around eight. We could stop to get lunch and still make it there by two.” I shrug, taking a big bite of my sandwich.
“Are you taking a bunch of your stuff home? I know you were talking about it since we don’t have that much longer here.” Devon drums her fingers on the table. It’s something she does when she’s nervous. I tilt my head, examining her, trying to figure out what she could possibly be nervous about.
“Yeah, I was going to load up as much as I can.” My words are slow, chosen with care.
“Why don’t Devon and I take my car? That way you have more room for things.” Chad leans forward in his seat, suddenly interested in the conversation.
“Are you sure? I don’t mind having to make an extra trip at the end of the semester.”
“For sure. It’s stupid for you to have to drive an extra ten hours.” Devon wraps her lips around a straw, sending Chad a wink. “Plus, Chad and I can make our game plan for impressing your parents and having a great time.”
“If you guys are sure you don’t mind…” I trail off. I feel like I'm missing something, but I don’t know what. It’s like they’re having a secret conversation and don’t want to include me. What are they up to?
“We don’t!” Chad insists.
“Ok. Also… There’s one day I'm going to need to do something alone. Are you guys ok with entertaining yourselves?”
“I'm sure we can figure something out, right Dev?” Chad’s smile gets bigger.
“Oh, yeah. We totally can.” She grins right back.
Frowning, I glance back and forth between the two of them. They’ve never been close, they more co-existed in my world. Seeing them acting so friendly towards each other is a little weird.
They have nothing in common. Devon’s super flirty and outgoing, but she’s never been interested in hanging out with Chad. When I met him, she told me he was a dumb jock and I should’ve stayed away from him. I believe her exact words were ‘He just wants to hit it and quit it’ because she thinks that’s all jocks do. Which is funny considering she’s always chasing after the jocks and using the nice guys.
Chad’s the poster child for the all-American football star. He studies hard and gets good grades, but nothing comes before the game. People are always surrounding him, patting him on the back and telling him how amazing he is. I swear he doesn’t know who half of them are, but he never seems to mind.
Girls have been flocking to him for as long as I can remember. He’s always had the ability to have whoever he wanted, which is why I'm still a little insecure with our relationship. I know he’ll always have a line of women waiting for something to go wrong between us and I’ll be left all alone.
Maybe that’s why I don’t let myself get too attached to him. Why I haven’t let us take the next step in our relationship. I know sooner or later, he’s going to get bored and walk away.
Chapter 8
Nixon
Pulling into the parking lot of Catalino’s Italian restaurant, a sense of familiarity washes over me. Since I arrived back in town, I haven’t left the house much. I’ve gone to the grocery store and dropped by to ask Carla for Savannah’s number, but that’s it.
I’m going to be spending the next few months renovating the house, since it’s not quite what I need right now. A few walls need to be torn down and the kitchen and bathroom need to be gutted. It’s going to take months, but I'm excited to turn it into the house of my dreams.
Pushing through the front door of Catalino’s, I stand off to the side. I called in my order, planning to take it home and eat in front of the TV. The last thing I want to do is to eat dinner alone in the restaurant. I envy people who can do that without feeling weird about it.
“Nixon? Nixon Russo, is that you?” Donny comes from the kitchen, a big smile on his face.
“Hey, Donny. How have you been?”
“I'm good, son. Really good. How are you? Carla told me you’re back in town for good.”
“Yeah, I'm hoping so. I miss this place. I forgot how much until I got back here.”
“Missed the place or the people?” He arches a brow.
A smile tugs on the corner of my lips, this man sees too much. He’s always been like this and I think that’s part of why I always felt like a son to him.
“The people a little more than the place.”
