Page 162

Rook and Micah sat above them. Rook had his long legs stretched in front of him while Micah attempted to steal something from a paper bag beside Dad.

Dad slapped his hand without looking.

“Get your own.”

“You have six,” Micah pointed out. “You can’t possibly eat six.”

Dad looked at him. “That sounds like a lack of faith.”

Micah stole one anyway. Dad let him.

I smiled.

Riot spotted us coming up the steps.

“There’s my girls.”

“Plural possessive language,” Sadie muttered beside me. “Bold.”

I bumped her shoulder. Dad’s eyes found me.

They did the thing everyone’s eyes had been doing since Wednesday.

Face. Arms. Face.

I gave him a look. He stopped. Progress.

Sunshine sat beside him. Marion took Riot’s other side. Sadie and I settled in front of Rook and Micah, leaving room for Ruckus.

“He coming?” I asked.

Rook checked his phone. “He gets off at seven-thirty. Told his manager the family had an emergency.”

I looked at him. Rook’s mouth twitched.

“What emergency?”

“Football.”

I laughed. “That’s not an emergency.”

Rook tipped his head toward his father. “You tell Riot.”

I glanced back.

Riot was already staring down at the field with the grim focus of a man attempting to influence events through concentrated thought.

“Fair.”

The teams were warming up below us.

Clayton was easy to find. Helmet off. Blond hair damp and shoved back. Laughing with one of the receivers while he rolled his shoulder.

Clayton looked like he belonged on a football field in exactly the same way he looked like he belonged at a party.

Comfortable. People moved toward him. He moved toward them.

He launched a warm-up pass deep enough to make part of the crowd react anyway.