Chapter 4
CHAPTER
FOUR
GUNNER
Rebel has never smiled at me the way she’s smiling at that stodgy-looking man in the glasses and suit.
I dislike him already. Who wears a suit to a monster truck competition?
There’s another, older man with them now. He’s touching the arm of the one with the glasses and Rebel is nodding, looking between the both of them with a pleased expression.
The older guy says something that makes her grin genuinely.
Rebel Hart has many smiles and most of them are just a stretch of her pretty lips to show off her white teeth. There’s no feeling behind those plastic smiles, no warmth, it’s just that she’s so pleasant to look at, any smile of hers seems convincing.
But when her eyes crinkle like that… yup.
The older man must be someone she genuinely likes. Her eyes toward him are full of friendly affection.
Best case scenario—they’re her uncle and cousin.
No, that’s not right either. The glasses guy is not looking at Rebel like he’s related to her. In fact, he’s staring at her as if he’s seeing his future rolling out in front of him in high definition.
Rebel, covering her mouth with glee after he proposes. Rebel, walking down the aisle to him in a white dress. Rebel, announcing she’s pregnant with their first child—a boy who wears the same dumb glasses straight out of the womb…
“Whoa,” a feminine voice says. “Careful, Gunner. You were about to break that champagne flute with your bare hands.” Pale hands cover mine. A moment later, the cup I’m holding is removed from me.
I meet a pair of familiar eyes that belong to my ex-girlfriend.
Stunned, I step back.
Victoria sets my cup on one of the standing tables. “Since when did you drink champagne?”
I don’t.
Earlier, I overheard Rosalie and Cecilia Davis tearing into Rebel and headed over there. But that square in the suit got there first. To hide my original intentions, I swerved left and pretended I was getting champagne from the table.
“Aren’t you going to ask me when I got back to town?” Victoria arches a brow.
I glance away.
“As talkative as ever, aren’t you?” Laughter crackles through her words. “Believe it or not, it’s really good to see you, Gunner. I missed you.”
Rather than answer, I stretch past her, grab the champagne again and knock the entire glass back.
Tastes like carbonated water.
Laughter trickles from Rebel’s side of the barn.
There are conversations all around and country music pouring from the speakers but, somehow, Rebel’s delight cuts through the noise. It’s like the bell mom used to ring for lunch on the farm, a pealing sound I would hear even if I was in the farthest parts of the orchard.
What on earth could that boring guy be saying to make her laugh like that?
Victoria seems determined to keep talking to me, despite my lack of interest. “I hear congratulations are in order, by the way. The Lucky Strikers are headed to the play-offs. Not that the town expected any less.”
I flick my eyes down to her.
She smirks a little harder when I finally look her way. “Yeah, I kept up with the team. You’re doing really well with Chance McLanely in the lineup. Not that the team wasn’t doing well before. You were a great captain. It’s because of the foundation you built that Chance could come in, acting like a hero.”
It’s an empty and unnecessary consolation. When Chance first rolled into town, I despised him. But after everything we’ve been through as a team—not to mention him ditching the pros and coming all the way back to Lucky Falls to play with us, I’d pretty much take a bullet for him.
Plus, reality can’t be argued with. If it wasn’t for Chance’s relationship with April, his girlfriend, he’d be tearing up the ice in a way bigger city. The guy’s in a totally different league than us.
“Really? Still nothing? Even though I’m talking about hockey? Your favorite subject ever?”
I frown at Victoria. Since when was hockey my favorite subject?
“If you keep quiet like this, Gunner, I’m going to take advantage,” Victoria says with a mischievous smile.
My eyes narrow slightly.
“Like,” she steps closer and lowers her voice, “will you go out with me this Friday? If you say nothing, that means yes.”
I open my mouth to disagree when mom comes trailing in, “Victoria! You made it!”
“Carol! It’s so good to see you!” My ex girlfriend squeezes my mother tight and the two of them exchange a bunch of words that mean absolutely nothing.
What facial masks are you using? You look so young, Carol!
Darling, I’m just trying to keep up with you! I love the hair!
I tune them out and notice that Rebel and the suit are walking away. Are they leaving together? Is he taking her home? Or worse… taking her out for a date?
There’s no reason I should care this much. Despite growing up together, Rebel’s been doing her own thing since as long as I can remember. And it’s not like I’ve cared one way or another what she does with her dating life.
But who the heck is that guy?
“Mom,” I mumble, eyes still on Rebel. “Weren’t you going to give a speech before the food was served?”
“Oh, right.” She squeezes Victoria’s hand. “I’ll be right back, sweetie. I’ve got Lady Luck Society duties.” Mom waddles to the front of the large tent and knocks on a microphone hooked up to a speaker. “Yoo-hoo!”
Rebel and the guy stop in their tracks and turn to look at mom.
Success.
“I hope ya’ll have been enjoying the desserts. Before we serve the food, I wanted to say a few words.”
The suit gestures for Rebel to continue their walk to the exits, but she shakes her head and I nearly cave in half from relief.
“Thank you so much to everyone for coming and for being such big supporters of our Lady Luck Society. If you don’t know, the Lady Luck Society or just ‘the Ladies’ for short, are a group of highly esteemed, community-oriented, and dare I say… extremely beautiful…”
That earns a hoot from my dad, who’s standing at the front of the crowd with a beer bottle in hand.
“… townsfolk.” Mom smiles at his antics. “We started this community with the park beautification initiative, planting trees and flowers in the park to spruce things up. After that brutal storm in ‘95, we donated fifty baskets of food and toiletries to the families surrounding the area.”
The people around me all nod at the memory.
“And then, after years of moving with our own efforts and finances, we were recognized by the Lucky Falls city council and given a yearly grant to help with community projects. Thank you, Mayor Kinsey.”
My uncle, Kit, lifts his drink in acknowledgement.
“Since then, the support from the community has been overwhelming. As most of you already know, a portion of the entrance fee from today’s competition will be donated to the Lady Luck Society to be put to good use.”
Cheers go up from the crowd.
Mom smiles heartily. “Thank you all for your continued support. Please enjoy the luncheon as a small token of our appreciation. Now, we’ll ask Pastor Derrick to say grace and after that, we can dig in!”
Everyone bows their heads while Pastor Derrick takes the mike.
After, mom flits over to me. “Victoria, come sit with us.”
I twist around and realize Victoria had been sticking around me this entire time.
“At the Ladies table?” Victoria’s voice turns high-pitched with excitement. “Really?”
Mom winks.
“Are you coming too, Gunner?” Victoria asks.
“Yes, come sit with us, son.” Mom subtly juts her chin at Victoria and wiggles her eyebrows.
I look away, searching for Rebel.
She’s not in the crowd.
Where’d she go?
I whip my head back and forth. Did she leave already?
“Come on, son. Your mother’s hungry.” Mom loops an arm around my elbow. With me on one side and Victoria on the other, she steers us to the Ladies’ table.
The other Ladies are already present and giggling together. The mean Davis sisters who were rude to Rebel earlier are there too.
At the sight of their heavily made-up faces, my stomach turns. The last thing I want to do is sit and eat with them.
“Mom, I’ve got practice,” I whisper in my mother’s ear, hoping that’ll be my ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card.
But my card is rejected.
Mom frowns at me. “Gunner, you promised you’d be at my disposal to help with the event today. Is hockey worth more to you than your mother?”
I flinch. How am I supposed to win an argument like that?
“Come. Sit here.” Mom plunks me down next to Victoria and then runs away grinning like a child who just dropped a Mento’s mint into a shaken soda bottle.
“Hey, Gunner.” Cecilia wiggles her fingers at me.
Her sister giggles. “Hi, Gunner. I’d be happy to fix you a plate?”
Victoria’s smile turns brittle at their offers.
I sigh from deep in my chest, already feeling a headache. How much longer do I have to put up with this?
Suddenly, I hear a chair scrape against the ground and the entire table snaps into silence.
I look up and my entire skeleton jumps inside my skin when I see Rebel wrapping her delicate hands around a chair. She taps the back of the chair twice with a pink-painted fingernail. The wind picks up and stirs the hem of her long, pink dress.
Smiling breezily, she tilts her head and asks, “Is this seat taken?”