Chapter 10
A couple of hours later, Clay called Sebastian’s phone several times on the drive home, but his calls went straight to voice mail.
When he got home, he glanced over to his right to see if he saw Sebastian’s car in front of his family’s home, but naturally, it wasn’t there, so he took a left instead and parked his car behind his own family home.
He got out, took his ice chest out of the trunk and carried it around to the front porch where he set it down.
He took a few steps to be able to clearly see the Colter’s house across the two lane highway once more to be sure that he didn’t see Sebastian’s car, then turned and walked across the mobile home park to Roman’s family’s home.
He went up their front steps and knocked on the door.
The front door opened and Clay grinned. “Hey, girl!”
“I heard you’ve been playing cowboy,” Darcie said.
Clay hugged her tight. “There’s nothing that’s ever a secret around here is there?”
“You’re just now figuring that out?” Darcie asked, closing the door behind him as he walked into their living room.
“You cheat!” Cruz called out accusingly.
“No, you just don’t know how to drive!” Roman said while laughing and continuing to drive circles around his son on the video game they were playing.
Cruz glanced up when he came to a stop beside him. “Hey! What’s up?”
“Thinking about going home tonight. You up for it?”
“Absolutely!” Cruz said, laying down his controller and getting up off the floor to talk to Clay.
“You hungry, Clay? There’s plenty of food in the kitchen. Help yourself,” Roman invited as he turned off the video game and started putting the living room back together.
“No, thank you, Uncle Roman. I ate earlier. I was just coming over to see if Cruz wants to go tonight instead of waiting for morning.”
“Yeah, I do. I hate driving in first thing in the morning,” Cruz said.
“Pack your stuff. Let’s go,” Clay said.
“I’m packed!”
“Perfect. Won’t take me but a few minutes and I’ll be ready, too. I tried to call Sebastian but there’s no answer, and his car isn’t at home, so I’m assuming he’s not planning to leave tonight.”
“As usual, he’s chasing some girl in town. I’m pretty sure he’ll still be doing this when we’re all sixty.”
“I hate when he does this,” Clay admitted. “I mean, do you, whatever that is, you know? But don’t mess with our schedules and classes, too.”
“Same,” Cruz said.
They both looked up when Roman walked out of the kitchen with two plates loaded with baked macaroni and cheese, roast and gravy and smothered yellow squash.
“Uncle Roman, I ate already,” Clay said.
“Dad, I just ate two hours ago,” Cruz said.
“And you’re making the drive back to school. Eat again. And Clay, eat again,” Roman said, setting them down on the coffee table in front of them.
“Thank you, Uncle Roman,” Clay said.
Roman winked at him as he went back into the kitchen to grab the tea he’d already poured for them.
“You know he’s got to make sure everybody has more than enough,” Cruz said, lowering his voice.
“It’s a good thing,” Clay said.
Cruz nodded as he started mixing the gravy into the rest of his food. “You’ve been out of pocket this weekend. Haven’t seen you since you drove off with Harper,” Cruz said.
“I took a ride with her to go check on the horses at the equine center where she volunteers. Had such a nice time that I went back this morning to help her again.”
“Really?! You and horses? I’d have never thought it.”
“Me, either. It was hard work, but somehow still relaxing. Calming. And I enjoyed spending time with Harper, too. I’ve never really done that before, except as a group.”
“Harper’s cool. She’s quiet, but deep. Crazy loyal.”
“Yes, she is.”
“Y’all both eat up,” Roman said, coming back into the living room and handing them each a glass of iced tea. “And don’t let Cruz give you too much trouble over hanging out with Harper this weekend. He hasn’t spent much time alone himself.”
“Wait, what? Who have you been spending time with?” Clay asked with a smirk.
“Just a friend,” Cruz said defensively.
“Oh, so you can have a friend and I can’t,” Clay said. “Who’s your friend?”
“You know Julia? The pretty little girl that works at the store?” Roman asked.
“Dad!” Cruz said irritatedly.
“Just making sure y’all are even,” Roman said with a chuckle.
“Thanks, Dad,” Cruz drawled.
“You’re welcome. Y’all eat your dinners,” Roman said as he walked out of the room.
“Thank you for dinner and the information,” Clay said, taking his phone out of his pocket and laying it on the coffee table Roman had placed their food on. “So, you’re seeing Julia,” he said as he took his first bite of food.
“We went to a movie. It’s not big deal,” Cruz said.
“But you like her.”
“Yeah. I thought she was pretty when we were in school. And she’s nice.”
“I get that. Good for you.”
Cruz nodded, choosing not to say too much.
“So, we’re going back tonight?” Clay asked as he took his first bite of macaroni and cheese dripping in a rich brown gravy. “I love the way your dad puts gravy on everything. And nobody beats your mom’s mac n cheese.”
“That’s why your dad uses her recipe at the restaurant.”
“True,” Clay said, as he shoveled in another bite.
“Yeah, let’s go tonight. He’s got his own truck. And I’m tired of accommodating him,” Cruz said.
“Same!”
“We’ll be about three hours later than usual getting back, but it’s less of a problem than booking ass at dawn. And I have two tests tomorrow morning. I hate rushing,” Cruz said.
“It’s a plan. As soon as we finish this,” Clay said, taking another bite.
About that time Clay’s phone lit up when it started ringing, flashing the number calling across the lock screen on display — clearly a picture of Harper wearing something with lacey straps, the tanned skin on her shoulders and chest on full display as she held a slice of pizza up and smiled at the camera.
Cruz glanced over at Clay’s phone and raised an eyebrow at the image that displayed as it rang.
“That’s Bastian,” Clay said as he put down his fork and tried to hurry up and finish chewing the last bite he’d taken before answering his phone. He reached for it and swiped the screen, putting it on speaker before setting it down again. “Hey,” he said, picking up his fork again.
“What’s up?” Sebastian asked, his carefree attitude carrying through the phone line.
“Well, it’s Sunday night, about 9:00, and you’re nowhere to be seen. You tell me what’s up.”
“Just hanging out. Figured we’d drive back in the morning.”
Clay sighed, then put another bite of food in his mouth.
“Don’t sigh at me. You know how it is.”
Clay swallowed his food and took a sip of his tea before he answered. “Cruz and I are going to go ahead and drive back tonight. You just drive back when you’re ready.”
“Come on! Y’all are just going to leave me behind because I’m not ready yet?” Sebastian demanded.
“No, Bastian. We’re not leaving you behind because you’re not ready yet.
We’re driving ourselves back because we’d rather avoid the 8:03 A.M. dash for our 8:00 A.M. class with our duffels still in hand because we’re late — AGAIN — because you pushed off leaving until the morning of so you could spend more time with whichever girl you’re with this time. ”
They heard ruffling and the sounds of a phone being dropped. “Hey! That shit’s not cool. I had you on speaker.”
“You should know better. We’ll see you whenever you happen to get there.”
“Fine. Drive back tonight. I’ll see y’all tomorrow. And I’ll be on time, too! You’ll see!” Sebastian said, trying to return to his ‘I’m cool, everything’s good’ mood.
“Want to take a bet on that?” Clay asked.
“Maybe not,” Sebastian admitted.
“Yeah, I didn’t think so. We’ll see you tomorrow,” Clay said.
“Later! Y’all be careful. I’ll look for you along the way in case you need me to pick you up from the side of the road.”
“Why would we need that?”
“I don’t know. Just saying. I’m always helping all my people. I’m thoughtful like that.”
“Yeah. Alright, see you tomorrow,” Clay said, then ended the call and slid his phone back onto the table.
He took his last bite of food and sat back, belly full, relaxing for a moment before he went home to get his stuff and tell his parents he was heading back to school.
He turned his head to look at Cruz. “You believe that? He’ll never change. ”
“No, he won’t. But at the moment, I’m a little more interested in your lock screen.”
“Huh?” Clay asked.
“On your phone. Your lock screen… it’s Harper.”
Clay looked at his phone sitting on the coffee table, then shrugged. “So? You know we spent the weekend together. She’s a friend.”
Cruz raised an eyebrow again. “A friend?”
“Yeah. We’ve all always been friends. You have one, too. Why’s it a big deal?” Clay asked.
“I’m pretty sure you never had a picture of me dressed like that as your lock screen. And I’m your friend, too. That’s all I’m saying.”
“I’m pretty sure you never put on a lace nightgown and sent me a picture of you in it. If you had, it might still be my lock screen,” Clay teased.
Cruz laughed. “Fair enough. Why’d she send you a picture of herself in a nightgown?”
“Because we’d just gotten home from having pizza not too long before that, and we both mentioned we like to have a midnight snack.
So I sent her a picture of me having a slice of our leftovers at midnight, a few minutes later she sent one back.
It was midnight, she was wearing a nightgown,” Clay answered.
“And now it’s your lock screen.”
“Yep. Makes me smile. We had fun.”
Cruz nodded. “Okay. I’m not convinced that’s all, but it sounds reasonable.”
“It is reasonable. Friends can’t have pictures of friends on their lock screens?”
“I don’t suppose this would have anything to do with the fact that you threatened everybody in your class every year of high school to stay away from her?”
“I did no such thing…”