Page 68 of Elite Player
“In the meantime, why don’t you show Nico around, Buck?” she suggests, and I casually drape my arm over my fiancée’s shoulder.
“I’d love forJosephineto show me around.”
“Hm? Yeah, that’s what I said.”
“No, you said Buck.” At Tonya’s frown, I try my best to sound noncombative. “You gave your daughter a beautiful name, so I’m confused why you don’t use it.”
Tonya’s tinted brows shoot up, but before she can answer, Jo yanks me out the back door. “You’re makin’ trouble.”
“I’m setting the record straight. Your accent is cute, by the way.”
She pushes me farther into the yard, back to the line of trees that leads to the woods. “Don’t try to charm me.”
“Is this where you murder me?” I ask, slapping at the trunk of a tree.
“No, I’d take you down to the holler. Drown you in the crick.”
I cock my head. “The what now?”
She sighs and points behind me, careful to speak without her hometown accent. “Down there’s the hollow, by the creek.”
I laugh, gathering her up into my arms. “My mountain mama.”
She skims her hands around my sides and under my T-shirt to skate up my back. I like the idea that my bare skin mayprovide some comfort. She can use me for whatever she wants. I am at her command.
She must feel it somehow because she tilts her head up, offering her lips to me. I bend, closing the distance between us, but right as I’m about to kiss her, we’re yet again disturbed.
This time by her brother. “Dinner’s ready, Beave. Stop fucking around out here and get inside.”
Danny stands by the back door, hands on his hips, as if we’re keeping him from something important when we were the ones waiting on him for dinner.
I clutch Jo’s hand in mine, my patience and temper hanging by a thread, and take the lead as we cross the backyard. I nudge Jo to enter the house, but I stop Danny from following with my hand clamped on his shoulder. “I already asked your mother to stop calling her that, but I’m not going to ask you. I’m telling you. Don’t use that name for your sister unless you want to lose some teeth.”
Danny’s lip curls. “Is that a threat?”
“An assurance.”
His eyes drift between mine, probably searching for truth in my words, before he eventually bats my hand away, stalking off. Because he’s nothing but a bully.
Too bad for him, I am literally paid to bully people on sharp blades professionally. He might be able to scare his sister with his tough-guy act, but he’s already proven what a joke he is.
I’m the last to be seated at the worn wooden dining table, all eyes on me, and I smile in apology before Tonya motions to Lizzie to lead the prayer, and I copy Jo, folding my hands, bowing my head. As soon as it’s over, Tonya then hands Ron all the platters and bowls first for him to serve himself, before the chicken and dumplings and green bean casserole are passed around to the rest of us.
Dinner is delicious but tense. Not that I expect anything less. Ron can’t be bothered to speak, and as soon as he finishes eating, he reclaims his recliner. Meanwhile, Danny’s death glare almostnever leaves me, although I don’t know why, because his very pregnant wife is clearly uncomfortable. Lizzie tries to egg Jo on, though my girl doesn’t take the bait, and Tonya completely ignores all of it to blabber on about the party tomorrow.
When everyone is finally done, Waylon and Lizzie disappear, while Bobbi Jo asks Danny to help her take a walk, rubbing her back with her hand, and I stay with Jo to clean off the table. Tonya heads to the living room with Ron, watchingWheel of Fortune, and I empathize with how Jo must have felt both invisible and under a spotlight growing up, going from being picked on one moment to forgotten about the next.
Later, after Danny and Bobbi Jo have left, and Lizzie has made out with Waylon right in front of Jo and me as if she has something to prove, I’m relegated to the couch with a pillow, old crocheted blanket, and glare from Ron Atkins. Jo bends to kiss my cheek, and I assume that’s all I’ll be allowed tonight. I try to make myself as comfortable as possible after I’ve changed and brushed my teeth, but I don’t physically fit on the couch, and all the ducks are creepy, so I retrieve my iPad, opening theJurassic Parkfan fiction I found. It’s full of fated mates and a lot of sex, so I’m super into it, but I’ve only been reading an hour before I hear a creak of the stairs. I sit up, expecting Ron or Tonya, hoping it’s not Lizzie, only to be relieved when Jo appears in bare feet, plaid pajama pants, and an oversized Mountaineers shirt.
“What are you doing up?” I whisper.
Illuminated as she is by the tiny night-light in the corner, I barely see her shrug, and I hold my hand out to her. She easily takes it and sits next to me on the couch.
“Everything okay?”
“Yeah. I just wanted to thank you. For before.”
“Thank me? For drying the dishes?”
