Fowl Play (Tuft Swallow)

59. Brian

CHAPTER 59

“Ihaven’t stood this straight since my wedding day!” Harold Woodcock announces as he rises from the table. “You’re a miracle worker!”

I shake my head, but smile at the compliment.

“You weren’t in that bad of shape to begin with, Mr. Woodcock. Seems like you stay pretty active!”

“Oh, you’re just being nice.”

I wasn’t, but I don’t bother correcting him as I walk him out to the porch. “Just take it easy the next couple of days—everything might feel a little loose for a while.”

“That’s what I’m counting on! Wait ‘til the wife sees how loose these hips can be!”

Heat rises to my cheeks as I watch him walk back to his two-story Colonial down Elm Street, doing everything in my power not to imagine his words.

I check my phone. Six pm. Just about time to help Kodi get all the equipment ready for cornhole practice. But just then, a text from her comes in to let me know that Lily and Callie are taking care of it, and that she’ll see me when she gets home.

No way I’m going to let that happen.

I was wrong to try to pull away from attending practice with her. And now that I realize asking for help is something she struggles with, I’m not about to ignore her when she said she wanted my support with this in the past.

I change into shorts and a t-shirt and walk on over to the park to see what the girls have up their sleeves.

As I approach the field where they usually warm up, I inventory the number of players gathered round in a circle. There are only six of them there: Callie, Lily, Nick, Geneva, Mr. Landon, and some lady with blue hair with her back to me.

Kodi’s nowhere in sight.

I run to catch up, thinking something bad must have happened if Kodi Gander is skipping practice, but then I make out the woman’s words echoing across the field.

“I wish I had realized it a lot sooner, but the truth is, I got caught up in all the pressure. Nick, I shouldn’t have pushed you to play when you’re uncomfortable with it. You give a lot to this team as our resident water-boy, and it was wrong of me to diminish that.

“Geneva, Mr. Landon, you both are some of our most dedicated players, and I would never want you to think I don’t value you. I value all of you, truly, and I’m sorry I took you for granted. I’m sorry I made you do shuttle-runs and stay past sunset and put so much pressure on you to–”

“Kodi??”

I don’t mean to, but my shout is out of my mouth before I can stop it.

What the fuck did she do to her beautiful hair?

Standing at the head of the pack is my girlfriend–my beautiful, blue-haired girlfriend–giving an apology speech that I realize I just interrupted. Lily and Callie snicker behind their hands as I gape like a fish at her head of turquoise strands, blown-out and styled like she’s about to go to some kind of mermaid photo shoot.

“Brian! I told you I’d see you after practice!”

The rest of the team looks at me, and I feel my face heat.

“Sorry to interrupt, but…” I flounder for words, still trying to reconcile the fact that that’s my girlfriend. Not that she’s ugly, by any means, but it’s just a big surprise. “You’re blue.”

“Neptune, technically. It’s the closest thing we had to the team colors,” Lily says.

“Yeah, especially since she didn’t want to look like Carrot Top.”

Callie and Lily smile at me, and the rest of the team nods in agreement, making me feel like an idiot.

“Do you…not like it?”

Kodi looks at me with wide eyes. Nick coughs.

“I did it to show my solidarity for the team,” she adds.

My shoulders slump, and I chuckle. Of course she did.

“It looks great, baby girl.”

An hour later, we walk home hand-in-hand, having just completed a successful practice in which the small team just played some cornhole. It was a relaxed affair, with Nick and I handing out ciders and beers and shooting the shit while the rest of the players had fun for a change.

At the end of it, Kodi pulled everyone into a circle and gave what might have been her last pep-talk of the season.

“No matter who shows up tomorrow, I just want to say thank you for giving it your all this season. Even if, in the end, we show up and get disqualified for not having enough players, we’re not losers. I mean that,” she said.

It was enough to make my chest swell with pride.

“You know?” I say, breaking the easy silence between us as we walk down Oak Street in the beautiful summer evening, “it’s growing on me.”

“My hair?”

“Yeah. It suits you.”

“It suits me?” I nod. She smirks. “What about it suits me?”

“It’s a risk. And you’re a risk-taker.”

She snorts. “Am not. I’ve never been a risk-taker.”

“Maybe in the past, no,” I concede. “But that was the old Kodi. The new Kodi? My sexy little mermaid girlfriend? She takes risks. She challenges old beliefs. And I’m proud of you.”

“Proud of your sexy little mermaid, huh?”

“Yeah. I am.”

“You tellin’ me you have some kind of tentacle fantasy or something?” She raises her eyebrows. I laugh.

“Oh, baby girl,” I shake my head. “You aren’t ready to know the fantasies I have involving you.”

“Maybe old Kodi wasn’t. But I’m new Kodi now. I’m a risk-taker.” She stops on the first step leading up to my porch and spins around so she’s eye-level with me, shooting me a lusty grin. “Why don’t you try me?”

I lean in close to her, breathing in the scent of the fancy salon shampoo and the heat of her freckled skin, and whisper into her ear. “I recall the old Kodi being a little hesitant about butt stuff.”

I feel her suck in a breath.

“Perhaps New Kodi might be willing to explore?”

I pull back to take in her expression, and her eyes sparkle, even as they widen with apprehension. “My butt? Or…”

She leaves the insinuation dangling. I wink at her. A tentative smile stretches across her face.

“New Kodi could be down to…experiment.”

I lean in, wrap my arms around her and lift her off the step as I crash my lips to hers.

“Well then it’s a good thing I snuck a new toy into your drawer this afternoon…”