Chapter 32
Chapter Thirty-Two
JULIETTE
Icould not be any dumber if I tried.
Obviously, I didn’t grow up with a dad shouting at refs on TV every Sunday after church, so I knew next to nothing about football.
But that wasn’t why I was dumb. I was dumb because I’d thought I could come to this game and not end up on TV.
I was dumb because I’d thought it was like a high school game and we’d be in the stands, lost in a sea of faces. Spoiler: we weren’t.
Liam’s immediate family was up in a box somewhere.
James stayed home with Willow—said he didn’t want to be away from her for that long.
But the rest of us were in a ground-level suite—Theo, Bowen, Maggie, Cash, Charlie, Sophie, Griffin, and me—perched on stools behind Liam’s team at the fifty-yard line.
Because this wasn’t high school. This was the N actual F actual L.
And I was here with one of the most famous families in America, watching Raleigh’s golden boy.
Even if Liam wasn’t getting the “snaps he deserved,” the fans were wrapped around his little finger. Cameras kept panning our way like we were part of the show. With Fourth and Goal last night and this tonight, I may as well be waving a red cape, daring Cecil to charge.
But even worse than whatever DayGlow would do to retaliate was the fact that number forty-two—Quentin Pike—wouldn’t stop watching me, brows flicking up over and over.
“Does he know you?” Charlie asked.
I swallowed. “No. Not that I remember anyway.”
I’d pushed my stool as close to Griffin’s as it would go. And I’d stayed tucked against him the entire game, using his shoulder to shield as much of myself as I could.
“He’s probably seen pictures of all of us,” Theo said. “And Jules is really pretty. Even I have a hard time not staring sometimes. Not to be creepy.”
“Yeah. We’ve noticed,” Bowen said. “You like shiny, pretty things. And it’s totally creepy, in case you were wondering.”
“So sue me for enjoying the finer things in life,” Theo said.
“We’re pals, right?” He reached across Griff to offer me a fist bump.
Theo did have a tendency to linger a second too long, but it never felt weird—more like he was studying me, trying to reverse-engineer how a human face ended up like this.
“And if I remember correctly, Pike and Liam are buddies.”
“Correction,” Cash said. “Pike and Liam used to be buddies. They’re not on good terms anymore.”
“I can see why,” Griffin said in a threatening tone.
“There he is,” Bowen said. “Liam’s finally on the field.”
“He is?” Charlie rose up on her toes, craning to see.
Cash pointed, and sure enough, Number Twenty-Two jogged to the opposing team’s forty.
“About time,” Griffin muttered. “Now that there’s less than a minute left.”
“At least he’s playing,” Theo said.
Charlie patted her pockets. “Where’s my phone?”
“We all agreed to leave them in the car, remember?” Theo said. “So we wouldn’t be distracted.”
“Why’d you make me agree to that?” Charlie smacked Theo on the arm. “Now I can’t film Liam.”
“Babe.” Cash pointed to the TV cameras. “We don’t need to film Liam.”
She blushed. “Oh, yeah.”
“Why does he keep looking at you like that?” Sophie asked. “Didn’t your momma teach you any manners?” she hollered.
“Soph,” Bowen power-whispered.
“I said what I said, and I’ll say it again.” She cupped her hands around her mouth. “Didn’t your momma teach you any manners?”
Pike tossed his chin up at Sophie. “Trust me, my momma did her job just fine. If I want something, I make sure it ends up mine.” Then he sucked his teeth, smile fixed on me. “And I already got that.”
I gripped the armrests, ready to bolt.
“Already got that?” Griffin said sharply. “What does that mean?”
“Settle,” Bowen said. “He wants a reaction. Don’t give him one.”
“He’s just manifesting,” Theo said, like he was talking Griff through a calculus equation. “You say what you want like it’s already yours—present tense, no hesitation. The idea is that it trains your brain to treat it like a done deal. So you act accordingly.”
“Yeah. Well. He can manifest all he wants, but he’d better do it elsewhere!” Griffin said, loud enough that heads on the sideline turned. “She’s already taken!”
Quentin simply winked and blew me a kiss.
I froze, the floor dropping out from under me.
Griffin shot out of his seat, and if Cash and Bowen hadn’t held him back, he would’ve vaulted the waist-high divider.
I slid off my chair and drifted to the back of the room, which seemed to have shrunk since we walked in. Why was it shaped like a square? And why wasn’t there a corner to disappear to?
The bathroom! I made for the door…
Locked.
“Sorry!” Maggie called. “Be out in a minute.” She groaned. “I hope.” Her cramps had been brutal all day.
Unless I left entirely, I had nowhere to hide. I turned my back to the field and hugged myself, eyes closed.
A hand curved around my waist. “Hey, I’m sorry I embarrassed you,” Griffin said, my favorite voice in the world warming my insides.
But safety was an illusion right now. I wasn’t safe here, even with Griffin beside me. Especially with Griffin beside me. Not as long as Quentin Pike kept watching me like that.
I turned to Griff. “You didn’t embarrass me. He did.”
He pulled me against his chest, arms around me, one hand threading through my hair. With a wall of shoulders between Pike and me, I laid my cheek on Griff’s shoulder, trying to convince myself I was fine.
But then our group erupted in cheers, along with the rest of the stadium. And that fast, Griffin was gone. I stayed in my spot, trying to quiet the warning bells going off in my head, before we rushed the field at the end of the game.
Charlie jumped up and down. “Go, Liam!”
“If you score,” Griffin whooped. “I’ll forgive you for everything!”
“Trip that defender!” Cash shouted.
“Y’all are getting smoked by a farm boy!” Bowen hooted.
“RUN, YOU BEAUTIFUL GAZELLE!” Theo screamed.
Oh good. Pike was gone—hopefully back on the field where he’d get sacked and knocked unconscious. Possibly forever.
I slipped onto my stool just in time to scream ‘TOUCHDOWN!’ with the rest of them.
And those were the last happy moments I would spend with my Duprees.
The last happy moments I would spend with Griffin.