34 - Fallon
~ 34 ~
FALLON
“Aren’t you gonna eat that?”
Trey swiped the mini rice ball off Emerson’s plate before he could even answer, and popped it straight in his mouth. He chewed it with a knowing smile, as his friend shook his head.
“Take one more piece of my lunch and I’ll break those greedy fingers,” he swore.
“Oh, you can definitely try,” Trey challenged, flexing those fingers into a ham-hock of a giant fist. “Sorry, but you’ve been sitting on that rice ball for ten minutes.”
“So?”
“So it was getting cold. You ever have a cold rice ball?”
“None of us have had cold anything, ” grunted Emerson, “since we started hanging out with you.”
Dalton and I laughed, and the laughter felt amazing in the mid-day sun. It was a rare planetary alignment of schedules; all four of us were between work, practice, and classes at the same time. The picnic table we’d chosen to meet for lunch was on a hill at the edge of the campus. We could enjoy being relatively alone for a while, before melting back into the busy, winding arteries of students and professors hustling to and from class.
“So you always wanted to be a veterinarian?” asked Dalton, continuing our conversation.
“No, not always,” I conceded. “I wanted to be a police officer, at one point.”
“That sounds hot,” Trey winked.
“Yeah, well growing up in New Meadow our choices were kind of limited. More than half the boys took over the family farm. Girls had a little more in the way of options, so I bounced around between wanting all different careers until something quite random happened.”
“And what was that?” asked Emerson.
“I saw a stray dog get run over by a semi.”
Dalton, who was bending his next slice of pizza in half, stopped mid-fold. “Eww.”
“No, not eww,” I chuckled. “The dog lived, but its hind legs were mangled. My dad and I rushed it to the local vet, who wanted to put it down, but I cried my eyes out and somehow convinced my father to take it home with us and nurse it back to health. I gathered up all the chore money I’d ever socked away, and managed to come up with enough to get one leg amputated and the other leg fixed.”
“Damn,” Dalton swore.
“Yup.” I grinned, thinking back to the day in question. “That dog lived another six years without ever leaving my side, and he died at a happy old age. Ever since then, well, I’ve wanted to help animals.”
“A three-legged dog, huh?” joked Trey. “Did you call him skip?”
I shot him an obligatory frown. “No. We named him Drei.”
“Drei?” Dalton’s eyes narrowed. “Why Dre—”
“Because it’s the German word for three,” Emerson mumbled, between bites.
I blinked at him, duly impressed. “That’s right, actually. How did you know that?”
“I know lots of things, wallflower,” the tight end smirked, tapping his chin. “Don’t let the pretty face fool you.”
“Pretty face my ass,” Trey grumbled.
“Either that,” Dalton said, rolling his eyes, “or he was raised by a German grandmother.”
He jerked a thumb at Emerson, who was sipping his soda.
“And here I thought he was raised by Momma Marshall,” I teased, adding a wink. “Did you boys not grow up in the same house together?”
Dalton cast a glance at his foster brother, but remained silent.
“We did,” said Emerson, his tone abruptly serious. “But just like dogs, grandmas don’t last forever.”
It was a bit of a downer in an otherwise happy lunch, but with Emerson, a little brooding was always to be expected. We took it in stride, enjoyed the rest of our food, and soaked up the sunshine until it was time to break off in different directions.
Emerson left first. I bounced up and said my goodbyes to Dalton and Trey, giving each of them a slow, meaningful kiss, full on the lips. I was surprised at how easy it was, actually. How very little I cared who might’ve seen us, with all the people milling around the bright, busy campus.
By the time I caught up with Emerson, he was already down the hill.
“Hey, sorry about the grandma thing,” I huffed. “I didn’t mean to—”
“Nah, there’s nothing to be sorry for,” he cut me off. “Really. I was just being a dick.”
I nodded, appreciatively. “So business as usual?”
He laughed. “Yeah.”
“Good. Just making sure.”
We walked together some more, even though my class was in the opposite direction. He must’ve realized this after a while, and stopped in the middle of the path.
“Are you alright?” he asked.
“Me? Of course I’m alright.”
“Because if last night was a bit too much,” he theorized, scratching at his gorgeous head of dark hair, “I suppose I can tell the guys to tone it down.”
“No,” I said, touching his arm. “Last night was fucking amazing. Don’t you dare tone down a thing.”
He raised an appraising eyebrow. “Really?”
“Yeah, really,” I said, my stomach aflutter at the memory. “To be honest, I love the roughness. Today I feel a little like a building that was torn down, but…” Reaching out, I took his hand and used it to gently pat my ass. “I wouldn’t trade yesterday for anything.”
Emerson looked at me with a fire in those beautiful green eyes. I wanted to quench it.
“Actually, I walked down here to make sure you were okay,” I said gently. “After… you know. What happened before the game.”
“You mean with my father?”
“Yes.”
He glanced at the sidewalk and shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. I didn’t talk to him, and he didn’t talk to me. The man can watch all he wants but…”
Emerson looked left and right for a moment, then pulled me off the busy path. Eventually we were out of earshot, but he still didn’t let go of my hand.
“My father might be dead to me,” he said, “but Casey is another story.”
My brows knit together. “Casey?”
“My brother.”
I did my best to contain my surprise. It wasn’t working though.
“You were right about what you said,” Emerson went on, “about Casey not being at fault. And you’re right about him being my brother, too. I didn’t want to admit it at first, but that was just me being stubborn.” He let out a sigh. “Besides, it’s not like I have much in the way of blood relations anyway. It would be stupid to just throw any new connections away.”
I nodded, afraid to say anything. He seemed to be opening up, and I didn’t want to break the spell.
“Anyway, I got his number, and Casey and I are going to meet up some time next week,” he continued. “I’m going to take him out. Grab some food. He mentioned he wants to do go-karts, or hit some golf balls, or something.”
“Emerson, that’s amazing!” I breathed.
“Yeah. I mean, I guess it could be.” He looked down at his feet. “Could I ask you a favor, though?”
I squeezed his hand. “You don’t have to worry, I won’t say anything to the others. It’s not like—”
“No,” he said. “Not that.”
“Oh.”
“I want you to come with me,” he admitted. “Or rather, with us. The first time, anyway.”
I didn’t answer right away. I was too busy choking back emotions.
“I just… I don’t want it to be awkward, you know? And I figured if you were there, as my girlfriend, it would kinda help break the ice.”
Girlfriend.
The word struck me like a meteorite, falling out of the clear blue sky. But it also hit with all the fuzzy warmth of a ray of sunlight.
“I dunno,” he muttered. “Maybe I’m being stupid. I just thought it would be easier to—”
“Yes,” I said, squeezing him back, probably a bit too enthusiastically. “Yes, of course I’ll come with you.”
His expression showed instant relief. “You will?”
“I wouldn’t miss it for anything, actually,” I smiled back at him. “And I happen to think it’s a great idea.”
Emerson’s smile was wider than I’d ever seen it. He swept me into his arms, and hugged me so tight against his chest I lost my breath.
Girlfriend…
When he was done spinning me around I was dizzy, even though he’d only spun me once. The rest of the wooziness, I realized, was a flood of my own emotions.
We stepped back from each other, and Emerson looked me up and down approvingly. His eyes lingered in places that made me warm all over.
“What?” I chuckled.
“I wanna bite the insides of your thighs right now.”
The tingle in my belly returned, traveling south, making its way toward the pleasant soreness between my legs.
“I’ve got class right now,” I smirked. “You’ve got class, too.”
Those Gaelic green eyes didn’t shift an inch.
“But sneak into my bedroom later,” I winked over my shoulder, “and I’ll let you bite anything that you want.”