Chapter 9
Nine
If you hate yourself, remember you are not alone. A lot of other people hate you, too.
—Nettie to Eddy
Eddy
“What. The. Fuck.”
I heard my sister’s voice from the kitchen where I was making coffee.
“Nettie,” I heard Boone caution her.
“Don’t you dare, Bart,” Nettie snarled. “This crazy heifer always shows up when she’s not wanted. And I can guarantee you she’s not wanted here right now.”
“Nettie…” Boone started again.
“Not talking to you anyway.” Nettie scowled.
“Audrey, I swear to all that’s holy. Get a clue.
Don’t harass Weaver. Don’t come crawling around when Weaver eventually has to tell you to get away from him.
Don’t try to stick your claws into any other Dixie Wardens, I can tell you now they don’t want you as bad as you think they do.
This is something that has always been a problem, and your daddy won’t save you forever if you keep pissing people off. Mainly me.”
“I was here to get my stuff,” Audrey defended herself.
“You definitely left it here on purpose, didn’t you?” Nettie accused.
I just shook my head, a smile on my face.
I walked to the kitchen to stare in at the contents of the fridge.
He had plenty of eggs. Bacon. Some fancy cheese that I couldn’t pronounce, and fresh sourdough bread.
I pulled them all out and got started on the breakfast, knowing that this would go on for a while.
I started to hear less thanks to the sizzling of the bacon, so I was quite surprised when all three of them walked in about ten minutes later.
“That cheese is too expensive for you to be eating it out of the tub,” Weaver said as he came to a stop beside me.
“What’s it for?” I wondered.
“I don’t know. Some old lady gave it to me because I got her power restored,” he said. “I’ve been saving it for when I make something. But I don’t cook all that often.”
“Mascarpone is generally used in desserts,” Boone, with his fancy pants self, drawled.
All three of us looked at him.
“You would know with your fancy education and your fancy cars and your fancy bikes and your fancy stupid face,” Nettie grumbled.
I couldn’t stop my lips from twitching at her words.
Yeah, they definitely slept together.
Shit.
Boone said something to Weaver that pulled him from my side, and I hip-checked my sister. “Please tell me y’all used protection.”
Silence.
“Swear to Christ, Nettie,” I hissed under my breath. “Y’all are full-grown adults. You know what the end result is when you sleep with him without protection.”
“I can’t help it,” she whined.
“I’m sure you can, you just don’t want to,” I corrected her. “You’re a professional soccer player, Nettie. You can’t just get pregnant mid-season.”
Nettie muttered something dark under her breath.
I took another scoop of the fancy cheese and sucked it off the spoon as I finished frying up some eggs.
“What kind of eggs do you like, hubby?” I asked Weaver.
Weaver stopped mid-conversation and said, “Sunny side up. Runny white.”
“Gross,” I said but got to work on his eggs.
Once I’d plated up everyone’s, we sat at the table and ate, talking about mundane things instead of Audrey and last night and the elephant that was Boone and Nettie.
Nettie and Boone were cordial to each other—mostly—and it was a pretty pleasant meal until Weaver’s phone rang.
“That’s work,” Weaver said as he stood up to get to his phone.
I started cleaning up as fast as I could, knowing that we’d be leaving shortly.
“Boone,” I said. “Can you take us back to my place?”
“Sure.” Boone looked like he’d rather run his front teeth over a nail file.
Which was saying something because he hated nail files.
And I only knew that because Nettie knew that, and made it her life’s mission to do things that bothered Boone Windingham.
Hell, to this day, she still carried an emery board with her everywhere she went just in case she saw him and needed to use it.
I’d just put up the last dish when Weaver came out of the back room and said, “I have to go to work.”
I headed to the laundry room and grabbed my wet clothes out of the washer, ignoring the way that smooth metal surface made excitement race through my veins.
When I came out, I had my wet clothes in my hand and Boone was talking to Weaver with his arms crossed over his chest.
Weaver caught my eye as I started to head toward the door.
“I’ll bring your clothes back to you, I promise,” I said. “They look expensive.”
“They’re just sweats.”
“Then I’ll keep them, and move into them, because they’re hella soft.” I smiled at him as I headed toward the door. “Have a nice life, Weaver Grant.”
His eyes gleamed. “You don’t think we’ll see each other again?”
I shrugged. “I never make assumptions.”
I got down to Boone’s truck and was unsurprised to find the front seat waiting for me.
As much space between them as possible was the best thing for the two of them.
“Thanks for the ride, Boone,” I offered.
“Thanks for the ride, Boone,” Nettie mocked.
Boone ignored her and started talking to me. “How’s work?”
I smiled. “It’s going good. This new group of girls is going to be the death of me, though. They’re all on club teams, and very unbending when it comes to my coaching style. I think their coach hates me, too.”
“Sounds like fun.” Boone chuckled. “How are your parents?”
There was silence in the car and then all the words just blurted out of me, spewing forth like the devil’s vomit.
The truck cab was utterly silent for a long moment before Boone said, “I was wondering why you were back mid-season, Antoinette.”
I sighed.
“What do you think we should do?” I wondered. “I think they’ll be super suspicious if I come in and try to do the same thing over again.”
Boone tapped his fingers against the steering wheel before saying, “You said Apollo was on this?”
“Yes,” I confirmed.
“Then let him figure it out,” he said. “Stay out of it. If we need to step in, we will. But you don’t need to be a part of it.”
I sighed. “You think that it’s going to go like that? The moment that they’re suspected of anything, the congregation is going to close around them in support. My parents are loved. Their cult-like following won’t believe a word until it’s right in front of their face. It’s all going to blow up.”
“Then let it.” Boone shrugged. “You’ve done everything that you can to distance yourself from them. You’ve been a vocal non-supporter of their church since you turned eighteen. The outrage from them is still talked about.”
“This’ll affect her anyway,” Nettie pointed out sullenly from the back seat.
“Half the population has been trying to get her kicked out of her coaching position since she started. They constantly question her morals. What do you think they’re going to do when they find out that our parents are fuckin sickos? She’ll be lucky to keep her job.”
That was definitely a possibility.
“She’s taken them to state almost every single year since she’s started coaching. She’s not going to get fired from her job,” Boone pointed out.
From his mouth to God’s ears…
“We’ll see,” Nettie muttered. “Maybe you should just quit and move to Miami, Eddy.”
“No,” Boone said. “Stay.”
I looked over at Boone and saw the desperation there.
I knew why he said that.
He didn’t care about me, necessarily. He cared about my sister. If I left, she’d have no reason to ever come visit again, ergo never seeing him again.
I just shook my head.
These two would be the death of me.
“I’m not going anywhere,” I said to Nettie. “I’m not going to run.”
Nettie sighed. “Shit.”