Page 26 of Houston, We Have a Problem
“I have that info, actually. He kind of asked me out with his family tonight.”
“Why didn’t you say that in the first place? What did you say?”
Now I’m extra glad I turned Houston down. “I said I have some work to do. I was planning on writing down some thoughts I’ve been having about why Houston might be so dodgy, but…”
“But it sounds like Tamlin is coming out to play.”
“You’re going to owe me some good stories for this, Connor.”
He chuckles. “You never know. This could be a good story.”
“You know what I mean.” Doing all this digging into Houston’s life is making me realize more and more that I am desperate to get away from Tamlin’s terrifying reputation. I want to build people up, not tear them down. “I hate this.”
Connor’s voice turns gentler. “I know you do. I promise I’m doing everything I can to get you where you want to go. When I said this could be a good story, I mean it could be agoodstory. Briggs has something to tell us, whether he’s willing to admit it or not. I could see it in his eyes when you talked to him at the Series.”
I grip my phone a little tighter. “What is he hiding?”
“That’s what you have to figure out. Let me know how tonight goes.”
I hang up and send a text to Jesse, letting him know that he’s got a human canvas to play with tonight. Once I’ve retrieved my laundry—without any snooping at all, I’ll have you know—I tuck the key to Houston’s house in the very back of my underwear drawer, determined to keep it there at all costs.
Chapter Twelve
Houston
“Who’s the genius who decidedwe should go to a bar when none of us are drinking?” Kit asks that question right after a confused server walks off with our drink order of sodas and lemonades. My stepbrother-in-law looks completely perplexed, as if he’s waiting for the punchline to a poorly told joke.
“Nachos,” Brook, Micah, and I say in unison. I wasn’t kidding when I told Darcy that this place has some killer food, and even though we’ve just come from eating a massive dinner at one of Brook’s favorite restaurants, we’ve ordered three plates of nachos for the seven of us.
“Trust me,” I add, nudging Kit with my elbow.
This bar also does trivia nights on Thursdays, though we made sure not to tell Kit and Skyler that, just in case it might have stopped them from making the two-hour drive to visit us. I haven’t seen Kit Morgan in months, since his wedding, and he’s like the second brother I never knew I needed. The day he married my stepsister was one of the better days of my life.
Maybe it’s weird to like my stepbrother-in-law as much as I do, but when he came to our family reunion last year, he was the only person who saw how much I was starting to resent my casual way of life. He didn’t say anything about it until a few weeks later, after he and some friends came to one of my games. He must have seen something in my face after that game—the first time I wondered if my shoulder might be loose—because he started texting me soon after. Now he sends me almost weekly check-in texts to see how my self-rehab is going. I haven’t told him I’m likely going to retire instead of playing out the last year of my contract, but I swear he’s got this sixth sense. Sometimes I wonder if he already knows.
The guy is basically a therapist but way cooler, even if he is freakishly good at paintball.
I can’t decide if he’s going to be good at trivia too, but I should probably figure it out before we get to that point so I know which team he should be on. As for the others…
I think Fischer, Micah’s…friend? Boyfriend? I honestly don’t know what they are. But he has probably already figured out the real reason we’re here, with the way he’s frowning at the trivia night advertisement on the back of the dessert menu. But I have a feeling that if Micah likes it, he will never say no. He’s been giving her longing looks and little touches all night. And Micahlovestrivia. We used to come here as often as we could, though it’s been a while and feels strange without Chad here.
According to Micah, my brother is too busy being drunk on love to come home. As long as he’s not actuallydrunk…The last time he got drunk, he said a lot of things I know he didn’t mean to say, and Chad doesn’t like losing control. Generally, he’s as sober as he is antisocial.
I force my attention back to the moment, making another mental note to text Chad soon and check up on him, even though I’ve ignored any previous notes to make contact with my brother. I love him, but I wouldn’t call us close.
Jordan’s up for anything, so he’ll be fine with trivia. Plus, he’s been fixated on Brook all night, so I think he’ll do anything she wants him to do. It’s a weird thought, considering he used to drive her crazy by pushing all her buttons. I still haven’t been brave enough to flat out ask him if he and Brook are hiding some sort of deeper relationship, but I might be having a chat with my best friend later based on the way he’s looking at her.
Aftertrivia. I can only handle so much at one time, and right now I am desperate for a distraction from all the love surrounding me.
I’m pretty sure Kit would be up for a bet against me if we split into opposite teams. It’s Skyler we’ll have to convince. She may have loosened up since being with Kit, but she’s never shy about being vocal when she doesn’t like something. I’m not sure if trivia night is up her alley.
If she doesn’t want to play, we can grab a couple of strangers who are up for some fun. (I’ll put them on Micah’s team, obviously.) Brook will be with me, which means we’ll have Jordan too, and then it’ll just depend on if Skyler is a spectator or not. If she doesn’t want to play, I’ll gladly take Kit on my side.
“What are you scheming?” Kit asks, looking at me warily. He has a right to be cautious; I did swindle him in our first bet—involving a carnival baseball-throwing game—and got to shoot his bare chest with a paintball as his punishment.
I smirk at him. Might as well let him stew a bit until I know the plan. “Nothing you need to worry about.”
“Pretty sure we should all be worried,” Fischer says gruffly, still studying the dessert menu as our server passes out our drinks.
