Page 73 of Fair Catch
I shivered, burrowing into him more. “It was too damn cold to be in fishnets,” I said.
“I don’t know how you did that. I was in a NASCAR suit and still freezing my balls off.”
“Yeah, but you somehow managed to make that Wonder Bread suit look hot, Ricky Bobby. I would have looked like a bag of Wonder Bread in it.”
“I still would have wanted to strip you, even if you wore a burlap sack.”
I scoffed, rolling my eyes as I shifted in his arms a bit. “So, what’s my gift?”
“Patience, Mighty Mouse,” he teased, but then something more serious washed over him, his brows folding together as he sat up straighter and pulled me to face him. “I… before that, there’s something I want to talk to you about.”
My heart stammered, color draining from my face.
This is it.
This is where it all ends.
Nerves shook Zeke’s hands as he held mine, but he pulled one away, running it back over his hair. “This isn’t going to be easy for you to hear, Riley. It’s not easy for me, either.”
I swallowed, closing my eyes and bracing for the impact. My heart beat so loud in my ears I could barely hear him over it, barely register anything other than my every want and need to flee and run away from what he was about to say.
“I want to tell you about that night.”
I frowned, peeling one eye open and then the other to find Zeke looking back at me with worried eyes. “About what night?”
He just held my hand in his and waited until I realized what he meant.
That night.
The night of the accident.
“Oh…” A new kind of panic struck me, and I shook my head. “Zeke, we don’t have to—”
“I have to,” he said. “We’ve never talked about it. Ever. Overnight, everything changed and I… I want you to know what happened. Please.”
I couldn’t argue with his plea, even though everything inside my burning chest wanted to tear away from him and this conversation. There was a reason I’d avoided it, avoided him for so long.
There would never be a time or place where I could think about that night, let alone talk about it, without being in pain.
I managed a slight nod, and Zeke let out a breath before he told me what happened.
“I can still remember the moment before everything went south that night,” he started, staring at where his hand held mine. “I remember Gavin doing a keg stand, and he kicked me on the way down because he lost his balance. He laughed so hard at my fat lip that I damn near clocked his ass, but it was pretty funny, so I let him get away with it.”
His smile was distant as he remembered the night, as I let him take me back, too. I’d remember everything about that night for the rest of my life — how I’d decided to stay in instead of going to the party with them. I’d wanted to re-arrange my room, to hang the prints I’d just had custom framed after saving all fall to do it.
My stomach dropped just like it always did when I wondered how things would have been different if I would have gone with them, if I would have been driving that night instead.
“I was our DD,” Zeke said, snapping me back to the present. “We’d agreed on that before we even left your house. And I hadn’t even had a drink up until that point at the party. But then… Kaylee walked in.”
I nearly gasped. “Kaylee… as in the Kaylee?”
I remembered all too well the girl Gavin had been obsessed with most of his sophomore year. I wasn’t one to ever hate on a girl I didn’t know well, because I knew she probably had her reasons for behaving the way she did, but she drove me nuts when it came to how she treated Gavin.
“The very one.” He shook his head. “She was ignoring him for some reason at the party, probably playing a game like she always did. It started eating at him, and he started pouring shots. For both of us.”
I swallowed, feeling how his hands were clammy around mine.
“At that point, I realized he needed his best friend more than a designated driver. I decided we’d get an Uber when the time came, and I did what I thought he needed me to do.
“But the more drunk he got, the worse it got. Him and Kaylee fought — bad. And then she added salt to the wound by making out with Omar Maben.”
“Wait, she made out with Omar?” I made a face. “Gavin hated Omar. They fought all the time. And he gave me so much shit when I joined the team.”
“Exactly. So, as you can imagine, Gav just wanted out of there. He wanted to leave. He…”
