Page 47 of Here and Now
I wouldn’t doubt it. “Let’s remember how you were when Ainsley came to watch. You weren’t exactly easy on anyone since you looked like a tool.”
Everett pipes up. “He still does. Now he’s just in love with her, and for some reason, she sees past his ever-mounting flaws.”
“Yes, and yours are piling up, too, which means catch the fucking disc!”
I swear, Everett has dropped more passes than ever before.
“Maybe we should change up who is where,” Killian suggests.
Nothing seems to be helping since we started playing in this league. Maybe Ainsley is right and we’re just terrible. I sigh and look over just in time to see Penelope walking toward the families who are lined up with their camping chairs.
My sister sees her and waves her over.
Great.
Now she’s going to see that we do not, in fact, have big-disc energy. We’re more like floppy discs.
I groan. “Look, I don’t ask you guys for much, but maybe for the next half hour we could step it up?”
Lachlan looks over and smiles. “Penny’s here.”
“Yes, I’m aware.”
He slaps me on the back. “I’m going to enjoy all of this.”
I bet he is. “You realize your girlfriend is also with her?”
“Yup, but I already got the girl. You’re still trying.”
I’m getting closer. At least, I think I am. She’s resisting, but my hope is to just keep proving it’s at least worth one damn date.
I glance back again to see her with Eloise. The two of them are laughing, and then Eloise points to where we’re standing. I smile a little, and Penny lifts her hand in a small wave. I nod once, because waving would make me look ridiculous and I don’t need to give the guys any more ammo to ruin my chances.
“So you want us to be better so you can get a date?” Everett asks. “What do we get out of it?”
I huff. “Dignity.”
“Nah, I lost that a long time ago when I lost the bet and had to get Brutus to be the official school mascot.”
That was a fun one. “He loves every second of it.”
“Yeah, and I just love spending every Friday night schlepping him up to the football games, where I have to watch and then walk him out for the halftime show.”
Honestly, it was the best bet I ever won. Everett is one of those guys who can’t turn down a dare or a bet. The school’s trusty bulldog, Samsonite, passed away two years ago, and I went to Everett since he’s the town vet, asking if we could borrow his new puppy going forward. The best thing about our home games was Samsonite coming out during halftime. The kids loved it, and he was our lucky charm.
Everett grumbled, said no way, that he had better things to do on his Friday nights, and so I proposed a bet. If he could beat me at a race, I would let it go, adopt my own dog, and call it a day, but if I won ... it was his job.
Spoiler alert—he lost.
“It gives you a purpose,” I say pragmatically.
“A purpose? I’m the fucking town vet. I think I have a pretty big job already. What do you do? Sit in your office and pretend you’re moldingthe youth? Look around, these kids are all a damn mess, so you’re doing a pretty shitty job.”
“That was fucked up, man,” Killian says, shaking his head. “Anyway, are you two about done? We have a game to finish.”
“I think the game is finishing us. Maybe there’s a mercy rule in this league,” Lachlan says.
“We just need to score once. I can’t have a complete blowout with Penny watching,” I say, willing it into the universe.
