She leaned into me, and together we watched my brother’s class file into the stadium.
And, like we always knew he would, the principal announced my brother’s name as valedictorian.
I stood up from my seat, disentangled my arm from around Beckham’s shoulders as I did, and yelled.
Loud.
“That’s my brother!” I cupped my hands around my mouth.
Easton’s head snapped my way, and he caught sight of me, the only standing form.
He froze halfway to the podium and then waved enthusiastically. “Hey, Troup!”
I bellowed. “Hey, East!”
With a huge fuckin’ smile on his face, I sat back down and allowed him to make his fancy speech.
“That was really cute,” she teased.
I shrugged.
I missed my brother.
What could I say?
Fast forward a boring forty-nine minutes later, and it found us once again in the parking lot talking to Easton’s mother.
“I’m taking him out to dinner tonight,” Laura, Easton’s mother, said. “I’d appreciate it if you let me have this time with my son.”
I felt my stomach sink. “But, Laura, I’m only in town for one night.”
Laura didn’t relent.
Beckham’s hand found my own.
“And my son only graduates once,” she countered. “Troup, listen. I know that you’re his brother. I’ve never stood a chance of keeping you two away from each other. But you’re really hard to look at and deal with, I’m sure you know why.”
I did know why.
My father had slept with Laura, creating Easton, and had bailed.
But, unlike with me, he’d not really wanted anything to do with Laura or Easton.
But I had a feeling that was likely due to the fact that my father was still hung up on my mother. My mother who’d died during childbirth and he’d had no choice but to raise me.
He did have a choice in raising Easton.
So he didn’t.
But unlike his mother, Easton didn’t hold the sins of my father against me.
Nor did he want me to stay away when his mother wanted nothing more than for me to leave and never come back.
“Troup!”
My head turned to see Easton barreling down on us.
He launched himself at me once he was close enough, and I jolted as my brother’s much bigger body hit my own.
“East,” I said. “Damn, you’ve gotten tall.”
He had. He’d grown at least a foot, if not more.
How was that possible?
“Yeah, late growth spurt I guess,” he grumbled. “God, I didn’t know you were going to make it. When do you have to leave?”
I looked over his shoulder at Laura, who had her eyes narrowed.
“Tonight,” I lied. “I’m sorry, man. This is a crazy time.”
Easton’s face sank.
“Surely you can make dinner.”
Laura sounded like she was gargling with rocks.
Easton’s eyes looked so fuckin’ hopeful that I couldn’t say no, even though it would be the most uncomfortable dinner ever.
“Um, sure,” I said. “As long as y’all don’t mind Beckham going? She’s my ride.”
Easton looked at my girl. “Never minded her before, bro.”
And it was there, during dinner, that we ran into her father.
So an already stressful evening dinner turned into something much worse as we were leaving.
“Beckham, what the fuck are you doing here?” Foster asked, his arm around his wife Blake’s hips. “Oh, fuck no.”
Easton slapped me on the shoulder. “See you later, brother. Love you, man.”
Then Easton was leaving me to fight a battle I hadn’t planned on fighting tonight.
“Hey, Daddy.” Beckham grinned. “I came into town to surprise Troup.”
Foster’s eyes flashed to me. “Did you now?”
To say that the next fifteen minutes was a good conversation would be putting it lightly.
In fact, it was god awful.
Foster didn’t like me. Still.
And I still wasn’t sure why.
It wasn’t like he knew of anything that I’d done to his daughter.
We were very discreet.
I wasn’t the kid that had pulled her into my downward spiral. In fact, she’d pulled me out of mine and we’d both soared.
But he was acting as if I’d fucked up her life.
I hadn’t.
“We’ll talk about this tomorrow.” Foster’s eyes narrowed. “I’ll see you tonight?”
Beckham shook her head, making it worse.
“Um, no,” she said. “We’re camping out tonight. And tomorrow he’s leaving. I’ll see you tomorrow, though, after I get him back on his plane.”
Oh, Foster wasn’t happy about hearing that at all.
Neither was Blake.
“You’re camping?” she asked. “Where?”
“In the woods,” she hedged. “We got a campground site.”
Foster’s eyes lit with anger, and his mouth clenched, causing his jaw to bulge in annoyance.
“We’ll talk about this tomorrow,” he said.
Then he walked away without a word.
I looked at Beckham.
“Oh, boy,” I said. “You’re in for it now.”
She shrugged. “I’d hoped we wouldn’t run into him, but I knew it was a possibility. I mean, Kilgore’s a small town.”
“Let’s just hope he doesn’t drive by and see your car parked near his house.”
CHAPTER 7
The scariest thing about crazy chicks is…they usually have an even crazier best friend.
-Text from Beckham to Trouper
BECKHAM
“Come to Colorado with me,” he urged. “You can hang out in a hotel and I’ll come to you when I can.”
I felt every single word hit my heart and start to pierce through it.
God, how I wanted that.
But…
“I’m going to be going out of the country for a while,” I said. “I have a trip abroad that I’m really interested in taking over the summer. Then, I’m going to do a few things that we always talked about. I just have to graduate college first.”
Meaning, I was going to go into the FBI.
He was the only one that knew that was what I wanted.
The only one that would ever know, if I had my way.
“So this is goodbye?” he rasped, his voice deeper than I’d ever heard it before.
I swallowed hard.
“This is a see you later,” I corrected him. “Because I will see you again.”
“You have my number,” he growled, sighing long and loud.
I squeezed him tight. “I do have your number.”
We pulled apart, and he stepped back.
I felt like a piece of my soul had been taken, a different piece than the one he’d taken last time.
“Use it,” he whispered.
Then he was strolling inside and heading for security.
I felt my heart break all over again.
God, I was going to miss him.
And the very last thing I wanted to do was go to my parents’ house and talk to them.
But I wasn’t a coward.