Page 1 of Nash
Chapter 1
Nash
Fence.Gate.Treeline.
The sweep runs left to right from my position on the wall. Sun at my back. Bolts holding. Electronic lock holding. Woods still. Then back across the table.
Malachi and Candace are at the center, Candace leaning into his shoulder while he talks with his hands. East has his palm flat against Darla's belly. She's five months along with twins; the pregnancy is impossible to miss under her sundress. Knox stands at the grill, one hand on a spatula, the other resting at the small of Sloane's back. She's barely a few weeks along, but Knox hasn't taken his hand off her since the test came back positive. James and Maggie sit at the end of the table, passinga bowl of potato salad between them. Kyle stands by the cooler, already deep into a story, hands moving faster than his mouth. Rider is next to him, shaking his head at whatever Kyle just said but grinning anyway. Frankie's cross-legged on the bench at the far end, quiet, her eyes drifting toward the tree line every few minutes. Arden stands at the edge of the yard near the fence. Unmoving. Running his own sweep.
And the goat. Nasty Nash Jr. has chewed through two leads this month and is standing on the picnic bench next to Kyle wearing a rhinestone collar Ruby bedazzled in the back room of Amaranth, Frankie's tattoo shop. Kyle scratches behind his ears without breaking his story.
Fence, gate, trees. Clean.
Between sweeps, I check my phone and the secure messaging app Knox built for the club.
Three days. Denied again.
I pocket the phone.
Maggie crosses the yard with a paper plate. Burger. Pile of fries. She pushes it into my hands before I can refuse. "Eat, Nashville." That tone doesn't take no for an answer. I set the plate on the low wall beside me.
Fence. Gate.
"Sorry I'm late! The line at the bakery was a damn war zone. I almost threw a cupcake at someone's grandmother." Ruby's voice carries clean across the yard, louder than anything between her and the table. "But I didn't. Personal growth."
I don't finish the sweep.
Her copper hair is loose in the low sun. Red lipstick. A vintage band tee ripped at the shoulder, the tear exposing a strip of freckled skin. Jeans look painted on. She has a twelve-pack balanced on one hip. A pink bakery box stacked on top with the ribbon already half-undone because she probably opened the box in the car.
She stops at the gate. Chin up. Weight shifting to one hip while she surveys the yard.
Greetings volley back. Candace waves her over. Darla pats the bench. Kyle launches into a new story aimed at her before she's taken three steps.
I reset. Fence, gate. I'm back on her before the tree line.
Ruby sets the bakery box on the table and flips the lid. There are cupcakes piled high with frosting. Darla reaches for one. Ruby smacks her hand, then points to a specific cupcake in the corner. "That one's lemon. I had them make two." Darla takes it with both hands. East steals a second one. Ruby doesn't blink, already moving down the table, sliding beers from the twelve-pack to each person.
She stops at Knox, accepts a burger with a theatrical bow. Scrapes the mustard off Darla's burger with a plastic knife before passing it down. Tells Sloane something low that makes Sloane laugh and Knox's mouth twitch. Balances a paper plate on one palm while she distributes the last of the beers with the other.
Kyle is mid-story when she passes him a beer. He's got his phone out, showing Rider something on the screen. Ruby glances over his shoulder and stops dead.
"Kyle. Is that your dating profile?"
"It's updated."
"Kyle, your bio says 'fluent in sarcasm.'" She takes the phone out of his hand. "You have a shirtless mirror selfie. In the gym bathroom. With the toilet visible." She turns the phone toward the table. "There's a toilet in his dating profile."
Rider puts his head in his hands. Darla reaches for the phone. East is already wheezing.
"The lighting's good in there," Kyle says.
"The lighting is fluorescent, Kyle. You look like a Cops episode." She hands the phone back and pats his shoulder. "We're fixing this. All of it. I'm scheduling an intervention."
Nasty Nash Jr. bleats from the bench on cue.
Ruby drops into the seat next to Darla. Their heads tip together. Darla's hand goes to her belly, and Ruby's hand covers it. A beat. Two. Then Ruby leans over and says something into Darla's ear that makes her snort so hard East looks over in alarm. Candace catches the tail end and covers her mouth. Ruby keeps going, hands carving shapes in the air, her voice pitched just low enough that I catch the rhythm but not the words from the wall.
She touches Sloane's arm. Passes Rider a beer he didn't ask for. Leans across the table to point at something on Frankie's phone, and Frankie pulls it away with a look that would stop most people. Ruby just grins and holds her palms up in surrender.
