Page 33 of Indescribable

“Brown hair or blonde hair?”

“Blonde. Like Auntie Naomi.”

Since Naomi and Corbin were still close throughout her marriage, and she’s known Boone most of her life, she wouldn’t dream of not knowing Cody well. He was in her wedding, after all. They even have Naomi and Cody fun days together.

“Okay, I know the one.”

“Anyway, Whitney, she’s loved me for a while now. I could always tell because she would stare at me in class, you know? And then she asked me once if I liked her outfit and I said I did because she was wearing a Volunteers shirt so, duh, of course I liked her outfit. She smiled real big and then she wore another Volunteers shirt the next day so I know that was because of me.”

“Go on,” I encourage, if nothing else but to piss off Boone. I’m also incredibly curious. The boy has more game than I do.

“So Whitney told Zoe that she thought I liked her back, and Zoe, obviously, likes me.” He pauses for effect and the three of us say in unison, “Obviously.”

“Right. We’re on the same page. Anyway, Zoe got mad at Whitney and Avery, Zoe’s best friend, jumped on board. But, apparently Avery likes me, too. I didn’t know about Avery because she hid it better than the other girls. We’re sitting at the lunch table and Liam tells me he heard the girls talking about me. I shrugged because, yeah, that’s typical, so I didn’t do anything about it. But at recess, it all went down. Like… big time.”

His eyes are sparkling with mischief and I’m doing my best to not laugh because I don’t want him to think I’m laughingathim. There’s something about this kid that just gets me every single time I’m around him. Quite honestly, he’s the best thing that happened to this family. Of course I’d never tell him that because his ego is big enough already. And, I’m pretty sure he knows anyway, with the way the entire family dotes on him.

“What happened at recess?” Cash just can’t help himself. He’s as invested in this story as Cody is. And me, for that matter. Boone just looks resigned. He’s no doubt already heard the story but is letting his son be the center of attention.

Cody chuckles and shakes his head. “Whoo, boy, you wouldn’t believe it. I totally wish we could have our phones during school so someone could have recorded it.”

“Don’t keep us in suspense, tell us what happened.”

Just then Brooklyn delivers our salads and we tell her who gets what dressing. Once she’s gone, Cody looks at us and says, “She’s new, huh?”

“Yeah.”

“She’s pretty. Super pretty. Think I should get her number?”

We crack up laughing and Boone pulls his son in for a headlock. “Boy, she’s about four or five years too old for you.”

“Maybe she’s a cougar,” he says, laughing as he pushes away from his dad.

“Oh my gosh,” I say, laughing even harder. “Where the heck did you hear that term?”

“TikTok. But I had to look it up. It’s when a hot older woman,” he points in the direction to where Brooklyn went, “goes after a hot younger guy.” He gestures to himself, trailing his hand up and down his body and wiggling his eyebrows as best he can.

Boone puts his head in his hands and mutters, “Why doesn’t this place serve booze?”

“Back to the threesome fight,” Cody says, eating a pile of lettuce covered in Ranch dressing.

This time I do choke on my Coke. “The what?”

“Three girls fighting. A threesome.”

“I’m not explaining it,” Cash says, holding up his hands.

“Me either.”

Boone looks like he’s equally horrified and ready to laugh. “That’s not what a threesome is, son.”

His eyes scrunch and he turns his head to the side, genuinely curious. “Then what is it?”

“Uh…” Boone looks at us for an answer but yeah, we’ve got nothing. “That’s for when you’re older. Anddon’tGoogle it, either,” he quickly adds, knowing that’s where Cody would be immediately heading in his thought process.

“I wasn’t gonna,” he mumbles. Little liar. He scowls at his dad, puts his phone back in his pocket, and continues the story. “So back to the fight. Whitney was sitting on a swing, not swinging, just kind of sitting there, and I walked past her and waved. I figured why not, right? Throw her a bone. That’s what Liam told me, anyway. I don’t know what bones have to do with it but he said that’s what his older brother taught him so I’m rolling with it because Logan gets a lot of girls so he must know a little something.”

“It’s probably not the nicest way to say that, bud,” I tell him. “Throwing a bone is like…” I think for a second, “offering something to someone that doesn’t mean a whole lot to you. So you throwing a bone to a girl isn’t a compliment.”

---