Page 21 of Slash & Burn

He shook his head. “No way. You’ve made it abundantly clear you don’t want to be there, so I’m going to make sure you don’t miss it.”

That I had already considered myriad excuses for getting out of this stupid shoot only deepened my scowl. Why did he have to see right through me like that?

“Fine,” I muttered, hitching my tote bag higher on my shoulder as I headed for the house.

“Bright and early,” he chirped out the window. “Don’t be late.”

He was enjoying this role reversal a little too much. But I couldn’t really get mad about it because it was worth it to see him smile.

CHAPTER 10

GRADY

“Fucking hell.”

“Yikes,” Cory replied, his face twisted up in a grimace as he watched yet another of my golf balls slice off to the right. “Now I know why you bailed last week.”

I stepped away from the tee, looking around at the driving range and spotting too many eyes on us. Hitting balls had been a stupid idea. Even putting Cory off for a week hadn’t given me enough time to prepare. And a quick swig of beer wasn’t going to be enough to loosen my shoulder before I made a complete ass out of myself—and showed everyone here how messed up I was.

“Just hit,” I spat back, even more irritated at the look of sympathy on my friend’s face.

“I’m kidding, man, calm down.” Cory stepped up, snatching a ball from his bucket and balancing it on the rubber tee. He positioned his feet and took a swing, the tiny white ball sailing out in a perfect line before I lost sight of it against the pale blue sky. “You said you were still stiff,” Cory continued, coming back to the high-top table and picking up his drink. “Having had my share of injuries, I think you’re doing all right.”

Now I knew it was bad; my friends didn’t give me pep talks unless they felt sorry for me. I wished he’d just make fun of me. I could handle that better than this kid-glove approach.

“Well, it’s not like I get the chance to hit every day like you do, Mr. Retired.”

Cory laughed. “Hey, man, I still have a job. But I put in my time. You’ll get here someday.”

I didn’t even want to kid about retirement. “Fuck that. Find somebody else to drive your cart. I’m busy.”

“Yeah, from what Sky told me the other day, you’re real busy—reading books.”

The reminder of Jill had my frustration fading a little. “How’d she hear about that?”

Cory swallowed another drink. “Micah came home from camp with a flier about the program. He wants to go see you read.”

I hadn’t really been excited about the idea of reading to kids when I took on this program, but I had to admit that it’d been fun looking out at their excited little faces. Cory’s expression lit up every time he talked about his step son, and I realized it would be even better to have someone I knew there in the audience.

“If he comes, let me know. I’ll get you guys some Brawlers swag.”

“Cool, man, thanks. How’s all that going?”

Immediately my mind went to the photo shoot we were doing the next day. The program had been getting a lot of good attention, which was what I needed. But the more press showed up at the events and people asked for interviews, the more anxious Jill was getting.

“It’s good. We’re getting some great turnouts, so it’s been really good so far.”

“That’s awesome. And you’re doing this with Jill Jordan, right? Sky said she was the library contact listed on the flier. Joey must be loving that.”

The sly look Cory gave me had the same knot forming in my stomach I’d gotten the other day at the grocery store.

“What?”

He chuckled, his chin dipping as he avoided looking at me. “I’m just thinking of ‘the talk’ Joey gave us all back in school. I’m pretty sure you being around his baby sister,” he paused, glancing up at me with a smirk, “unsupervised, might give the old guy a heart attack.”

I blew out a raspberry, shaking my head. “Please. I’m not some kind of predator. And Jill’s a big girl. Maybe Joey needs to do the math and give her some credit.”

“That doesnotsound like you’re keeping the previously agreed upon distance from his little sister.” Cory’s eyebrows raised, as if he could see right into my head and knew I’d had a growing number of very un-Joey-approved thoughts about Jill.

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