Page 85 of Saving the Halfback

The way she spoke, it was…immature. She looked young, too little, a child. Yet…this was the age I had been when Ed started seeing me. Started helping me learn to barrel race. Started telling me how beautiful I was. How I was so mature, and Grace… Grace was…a little kid.

Ethan tapped my knee with his finger, getting my attention. “We don’t have to go tonight, if you don’t want to.”

I blinked a couple of times, coming out of my trace. “No, it’s—I’m fine. I want to go.” Clearing my throat, I dipped my French fry in the chipotle dip. “Have you tried this yet?”

Lachlan had textedme to wear my spandex shorts and sports bra under my clothes, so I did just that without questioning him on it. I didn’t wear anything fancy, either. Even though it was a party at Chase’s place, it was with kids from our school, so I doubted it was anything big. I threw on my usual jeans and a comfortable black tank with a flannel over the top. I grabbed my ball cap and pulled it on before running out to the truck.

“Bailey.” Dad’s voice stopped me. He sat in his usual chair on the porch. “You call if you need anything,” he said sternly.

I smiled. “I will.”

“When will you be back?” Mom asked from the doorway.

I took my phone out to check the time and shrugged. “A few hours?” I guessed. I had never done this before.

Dad nodded. “Call if it’s any later.”

“Okay. Bye.” I ran to the truck and jumped into the passenger seat. Ethan already had it running. He was freshly showered and smelled amazing. He wore dark jeans with a band shirt. “Did they already talk to you too?”

“Yep.” He didn’t look at me as he drove down the driveway. “The moment you want to leave, I will be ready. Just tell me.”

“Okay. Same with you. If you want to leave, we can go whenever.”

“Mm-hmm.” I had a feeling that, if Ethan had it his way, he wouldn’t be going at all.

Nolan:Hey! You going tonight? I can pick you up.

Bailey:On our way, want a ride?

Nolan:Sure.

“We have to pick Nolan up,” I told Ethan.

He didn’t respond, just took the turn toward town.

“Should I see if Lachlan needs a ride too?” I asked.

“Might as well.”

Bailey:Lach! Need a ride to Chase’s?

He took a few minutes to respond, so we were already entering town.

Lach:Already here. Thx

Nolan jumped into the truck, looking sexy as sin. His eyes were bright with excitement, a small smile toying with his pink lips. He too was freshly showered and smelled as good as he looked. He’d taken time to style his hair, and it took everything in me not to run my fingers through it and mess it up. He jumped in the back seat, and Ethan drove off silently.

Nolan was busy on his phone for most of the drive, so I turned on the radio. When we pulled up to the gates at Chase’s estate, though, he sat up. “Holy shit. I mean, the kids in my area are rich, but this…”

“Yep, like I said, Chase comes from wealth,” I told him. “Not money—wealth.”

“Hate this fucking place,” Ethan muttered under his breath.

The driveway curved back and forth in a way that was almost maddening. The property was a wide expanse of properly trimmed green grass. It would’ve been so much faster to just drive straight to the house, but we followed the already long line of cars making their way to a parking area on the lawn up near the house…mansion.

Three stories high, and I was sure there was a cellar. It was an older style house, built by his great-great-grandfather, or his great-great-grandfather’s servants. I remembered when Chase’s dad took our family on a tour once, telling us the background and origin of the property. The objects inside were priceless artifacts and original art pieces collected over the generations. I hadn’t really cared for it as a kid—all I’d seen were all the hidingplaces when playing hide and seek, and becoming suspicious when told we couldn’t run in some rooms. The backyard was the best. All the trees and bushes made for endless games and fun, not to mention the pool.

Ethan parked the truck, his eyes tracking all the people showing up, some with alcohol, most without. “I don’t even think some of these kids go to our school.”

---