Chapter 8 #2
“Brooks Taylor,” Brody says, oblivious to what is going on.
“Oh! Yes, my boys love you.” Laine covers our still-joined hands and laughs. “You’ll have to forgive me, I don’t know much about all of this. It was never my thing…My husband, however, he’s the one who got the kids into it.”
“Savvy, too?” Harper asks.
“Oh no, Savannah was never that much into it. She’d watch occasionally when she was younger, but lost interest.” That must be why she didn’t recognize any of us at the bar a few years ago.
“She was much more involved in cheerleading. From the moment she picked up her first set of pom-poms, she knew she wanted to be a professional cheerleader.” A nostalgic smile graces her lips before she wraps her arms around her torso against the cool December breeze.
“Anyways, she and Crew should be back soon. It’s a bit chilly today.
Come inside and get warm.” She holds her arm out to Raelynn, who steps into the embrace, and they walk toward the house.
Brody and I hang back to sort the rest of the bags. “Rae seems pretty close with them,” he says, picking through the bags, but never settling on one.
“You mean she and Nash seem close,” I say, and laugh when he glares again. “Why don’t you just say something to her?”
“Why don’t you?”
Touché.
He picks up his half of the remaining bags, and I close the back of the SUV when the roar of music tears through the tranquil air.
A Jeep barrels out of the tree line at the far end of the property, and even from this distance, I know who’s sitting in the front seat.
Her hair whips around from the wind and speed, only settling on her shoulder when the Wrangler comes to a stop beside Nash’s pickup.
She climbs out, and all I can do is stare.
The dark denim jeans show off her delicious curves, even beneath the oversized plaid jacket.
I fold my hands into my arms, trying not to think about how it feels to run them down her sides, remembering the sounds she made as I traced the planes of her body.
She plucks a hat from the back seat and sets it on her head before the man beside her hits the brim, knocking it off. Savannah swats at him, picking it up and laughing at something he says. Crew, I assume. She shoves his shoulder, trying to stifle her laughter when her gaze finally lands on us.
This is the first time in months that I’ve seen her, and I’d be a liar if I said I haven’t been thinking about her.
I’ve watched her matches—every one that I could—and occasionally I send her a quick text with feedback when I feel like she needs it, but we haven’t seen each other.
EWE is like that, though. You could go a long time without ever seeing someone in the same building, if you really wanted to.
Her lips fall into a soft smile, and she embraces Brody first. It’s quick and friendly, and I wonder if she meant to do the same thing to me because ours isn’t anything like that.
From the second I pull her into my arms, inhaling the heavenly scent of her—a musky yet floral and citrusy scent that’s fresh, warm, and captivating—I know I’m in for a long weekend.
Arms tighten around my neck, her face buried there, and she releases a contented sigh, like she needed this just as much as I did.
Only the clearing of her brother’s throat breaks us apart, and even then, her fingers remain wrapped around my wrist. We haven’t been this close since the first night we spent together, and now that I’ve gotten a small taste to remind myself what it’s like…
I don’t know how I’m supposed to keep my distance from her.
I know I should, but I don’t know if I can.
“Brody, Brooks, this is my oldest brother, Crew,” Savannah says, introducing us, and I hate the choice of name she used for me. Her hesitation before she says it tells me that she isn’t sure how to introduce me. We never talked about it.
“Nice to meet you,” Crew says, much calmer than his younger brothers.
He extends his hand, and Savannah drops her hold on me so I can return the gesture.
The oldest Williams sibling keeps an observant eye on his sister, while watching every move I make, almost like he’s analyzing even the breaths I take.
“Did my other brothers see you already?” Savannah asks.
Brody laughs. “Yes, it was…interesting.”
“Damn,” Crew groans. “I wish I could’ve seen the look on their faces. We tried to get back before you guys got in, but got sidetracked.”
Savannah rolls her eyes. “What Crew means to say is he was too busy yapping, and we lost track of time.”
“That’s funny coming from you.”
She sticks her tongue out at him, repeating the words in a mocking tone.
Crew only laughs, adjusting the backwards cap on his head.
He and Nash look the same, except for Crew’s much larger body mass.
Their complexion is lighter than Savannah’s and their mother’s, similar to the twins.
I assume that comes from their father. Their rugged features are a stark contrast to the feminine ones of their sister.
But the one thing they all share for certain is the dark brown color of their eyes.
“Everyone else inside?” Savannah asks.
“Mamá is probably making them empanadas.”
“Then what are we still doing out here?” Brody looks around like we’re crazy, and he’s not wrong. A home-cooked meal sounds amazing after a long day of traveling.
Crew pats Brody on the back, taking one of the bags from him and guiding him toward the house, but not before he gives his sister a subtle glance.
Savannah rocks back on her heels, folding her arms over her chest, and waits until they’re far enough away. “I hope they weren’t too obnoxious. I didn’t tell them you were coming because…Well, because I didn’t know you were coming.”
“Wolf said it was okay.” In fact, he all but begged me to come, promising that it had been okayed with the woman standing before me. He said he didn’t want to spend the weekend as the only man in the house, failing to mention that all four of the Williams boys would also be here.
“No, yeah. It’s fine. I told him he could invite whoever he wanted. He just failed to tell me who that was.”
“So, you didn’t invite us?”
“I didn’t not invite you.” She smiles. “Truthfully, I didn’t think you’d want to come. Why would you want to hang around a bunch of newbies?”
“Why wouldn’t I want to hang out with you?
” The question draws her eyes back up from the gravel beneath our feet, and I feel a tug of an invisible string between us.
It draws me closer, just like it did the first night we met.
The feeling is strange, hard to explain, but every time I look in her eyes, there’s a deep sense of familiarity and comfort.
I can’t remember a time when I’ve felt so connected to someone, let alone someone I’ve technically only met a handful of times.
A blush creeps into her cheeks, or maybe it’s just from being in the chilly December air for too long, but I’m almost certain they weren’t that red before. “We, uh…we better get inside before Mamá sends a search party.”
I motion for her to lead the way, restraining my hand from reaching for her lower back when she walks ahead of me. Something tells me this weekend is going to be more than either one of us bargained for.
“I swear she’d lose her damn head if it weren’t attached,” Brody says beside me in the back seat.
Savannah slouches in the driver’s seat, picking at her nails, but she glances back with a small snicker.
Raelynn disappeared through the automatic double doors of the drugstore about three minutes ago because she had forgotten to pack something.
Actually, she forgot a lot of somethings.
Thirty minutes ago, she walked into the living room, rattling off the list—toothpaste, hairbrush, contact solution, and a razor—and Savannah said she could help with the toothpaste, but would need to go into town for the rest. Brody jumped at the opportunity to tag along, offering my presence as well, but Wolf and Harper declined.
They feigned exhaustion, too tired from travel, but I think we all know what that really means.
“I’m surprised she made it to the airport on time,” Savannah says, and I share a pointed look with my best friend. “She said she was on time!”
“If you call running down the hallway yelling to hold the door ‘on time,’ sure.”
Almost ten minutes later, Raelynn jumps into the passenger seat with three bags full of stuff, clearly not just the things she had forgotten. Savannah eyes the bags, asking, “Did you buy the whole damn store?”
“You know we’re not going home before Monday, right?” I add.
“I’m sure she has enough room in the three bags she packed,” Brody says, and the three of us break out into a fit of laughter, but Raelynn doesn’t find us comical.
Savannah shakes her head, pulling out of the parking lot and driving the opposite way we came. “You guys mind if I run by the coffee shop?”
Raelynn points at the clock on the dashboard. “Savannah, it’s like seven o’clock. You’ll never go to sleep.”
“Says the girl who downs three energy drinks a day.”
“Three?!” I can’t stop my outburst. How is she downing three energy drinks a day and hasn’t keeled over yet?
“Not every day!” she defends. “Just some days.”
“That’s terrible, Rae,” Brody says, igniting a conversation between them about making good choices. The whole thing reminds me of a worried boyfriend and a nonchalant girlfriend. I catch Savannah’s eyes in the rearview mirror, and she rolls her eyes playfully.