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“You ever catch the games?” I asked, as I jogged to keep up with her swift pace.
“Huh?” She glanced at me and then followed my gaze to her jersey. “Oh! No.”
She shook her head and chuckled, “Nah, I don’t care for football. I just don’t really care for red, either, and it was slim pickings at the Hot Locker.”
I whistled, low and restrained. “Hot Locker? That’s high dollar. I can’t even save up for a pair of socks from that place.”
“Times are hard,” she teased, cutting me a devious glance. “Five dollars is a lot to scrape up.”
“For one sock, yes! I prefer to be charged by the pair. Several pairs, actually. I normally purchase my entire package of socks, for what they charge for a shoestring in the Hot Locker.”
“A shoestring…” She snorted with a laugh and shook her head. “You’re too much. Just say they don’t sell grease and boots. You can admit it. I get it, you’re a tight ass.”
My jaw dropped, but before I could get a word in edgewise, she accused, “You have never been in that mall a day in your life. Have you?”
“Got me.” I grinned, holding the door for her.
She entered, and I studied the back of her long, pale legs and the shorts she’d chosen. They weren’t as short as most of the gym rats, but they clung where it counted.
“King, Kennedy,” my mother called, waving her arm like a mad woman.
I groaned and teased my fingers along Kennedy’s back to direct her. She flinched and glanced back at my hand, causing me to lift them.
“Sorry,” I said, without really meaning it.
I’d been dying to touch her for weeks. When the ol’ man laid his plans out, I couldn’t have been more pleased.
Yeah, I’d take her out, but not before I tried it out.
“Good, you’re smiling. I was hoping you wouldn’t be all sour pussed and difficult,” Mom chirped.
I squinted, allowing my smile to turn exhaustive before her very eyes.
She groaned and took Kennedy’s hand, patting the back of it as she led her toward a group of young girls.
“Everyone, look, it’s Kennedy. You girls remember a few years ago when we went to state? That was all Kennedy.”
Kennedy instantly seemed to object to the summary my mother had provided the kids, but I tuned out when she tripped over her words and stared down the gym. It was only a split-second thing, she picked up and carried right on rattling, but I’d noticed.
My own attention swung that way and landed on the club sweetheart who had, apparently, provided her own invite.
“How’s it going, Rigs?”
“Oh, you know. It’s all a girl can do to—” Apparently, she didn’t get the dismissive wink I’d handed out with the greeting, but when I gave her my shoulder and turned back toward Kennedy, her annoying voice finally trailed off with a lilt of defeat.
“So,” she spoke a little louder, “What are you doing after?”
“After what?” I begrudgingly asked.
I knew she had a thing for me, but right now, I had a thing to do for my family.
And even if I didn’t…
Who the fuck would blow off Forty-Kal’s daughter for a worn-out club sweetheart? Was she nuts?
“I know your mother made you do this thing with Kennedy. But…I mean… Well, you know, after…”
I stared at her until the smile awkwardly froze on her face and slowly melted away.
