Page 84 of Twisted Assist

“I got it,” Cruz stood up as well. “I asked Lily to grab us some food and head over after work.”

Cruz let Lily in, and she smiled at me, handing Cruz the bags of food she was holding. After he had them all and headed to the kitchen, she walked toward me with her arms open for a hug. I started to shake my head at her and tell her I didn’t want a hug, but she was so sweet and happy, and it felt good knowing that I really did have people who cared about me.

She tried wrapping her arms around me and twisting me side to side, but I was way too big, so it was more of a comic relief. Back when she first started staying with Cruz, he drank too much, and I had to carry him home. When I opened the door, Lily was standing there in the dark, scared out of her mind. I guess we bonded a little over our first meeting, and I was glad she had moved to Miami full-time.

“Are you done?” I teased her.

“Are you okay?”

“Of course,” I snorted and waved her off. “Everything with me is fine.”

Rhys started helping Cruz set my table, which had just enough seats for the six of us. We gathered around and let the drama for the day go as we talked about each of them and what they were up to.

Rhys and Ash were moving in together while Ash finished college. Erin was her best friend but had also become good friends with Cruz along the way. Cruz was helping her prepare for Women’s League One, and hopefully, she would go pro in the National Women’s Soccer League one day. Meanwhile, Cruz and Lily were no longer stepsiblings. Well, they were, but they would fight you to the death in denial. They were just happy that they were together and that there were no more secrets between them.

Then there was me.

Looking toward Erin, who sat next to me by default, I imagined Tatum joining the family we all had somehow formed. She’d fit right in, and from how good the food that Lily brought tasted, I knew she would be doing her happy dance after each bite.

Grabbing my phone from my pocket, I again considered calling her for a little bit. I knew I would end up asking her to come over, though. We’d end up having sex all night, and my head would never feel as clear as I needed it to be while I worked on everything.

“Did you hear me?” Rhys tapped my plate with his fork from across the table. “Luca is leaving the team.”

“What?”

“Not sure what the story is there, but not long after you snatched that picture from him and stormed out, he got called into Coach’s office. It's unknown whether he got cut or if it was something else.”

“Holy shit!”

Luca was a good player; getting cut didn’t seem likely. But what else could it be? Besides his wife being a gossip and him feeding her with information, I liked Luca. He may have loved dishing out news to his wife, but I’d like to think if I were married, I would tell her everything, too. Then again, I wasn’t exactly attracted to how chatty his wife was. She was always causing trouble.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Rhys added, making me look back at him. “He wasn’t involved.”

“I wasn’t thinking that. Now I am. What makes you so sure he wasn’t on some crusade to make my life hell? Give his wife something to talk about? Maybe even replace his paycheck for mine?”

“Well when you put it like that…” Rhys laughed, never finishing his thought.

Erin took mercy on me and changed the subject again, but I was barely listening. There was laughter and noises in the background of my mind, but I wasn’t sure who was doing what.

When we finished eating, everyone left except Erin, who offered to help me clean up. She and I hadn’t spent much time together, but it was like having a sister when we were around each other. Erin had no issues telling my Alexa to play Cruel Summer by Taylor Swift while she danced around my kitchen, with no shoes, washing dishes by hand like I lived in Walnut Grove.

“The dishwasher does amazing things,” I laughed, grabbing a clean dish and drying it alongside her.

“Oh,” she shrugged. “My shift doesn’t end for another hour, so we might as well do this the old fashioned way to kill time.”

“Your shift?”

“We started another group chat but took you out, and added Cruz.”

“Are you serious?” I laughed.

“We also took Cruz’s mom out and replaced her with Lily. Let me tell you, Lily is taking this mission seriously, so when she shows up tomorrow, you better be nice.”

“Why wouldn’t I… wait… you really have me on a babysitting watch?”

“Don’t act shocked, Maddux. We all care about you, just like we do Cruz. When he needed us, we were there. Now you need us, so we got this.”

Backing out of the kitchen, I sat at the table and shook my head in disbelief as the song continued. The lyrics felt very on point because the summer had been way too cruel so far. But like she knew I would start wallowing in self-pity, Erin changed the song to Wake Me Up When September Ends by Green Day and started singing with purpose as she put everything away.

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