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Except, at the last minute, Ande stuck her foot out and stopped it before it toppled in.
“Ande Paige Carter, I will knock some sense into you!” he growled.
He didn’t make a move, though.
Ande didn’t move away, either, knowing that her dad was all bluster.
Her brother, on the other hand, waited for her head to be turned before he started for her.
And, as if she sensed his movement, she moved so that I was between her and her brother.
I didn’t move, and Quincy sighed, throwing up his hands. “I wouldn’t have hurt you… too bad.”
A skinny hand reached around my torso and extended out as far as possible, middle finger up.
I caught that skinny hand and curled my fist over it. “Okay, so what’s the cheating story? Because you definitely have me curious.”
Quincy walked back across the course to where his ball was, but Germaine filled me in in the interim.
“Ande was better at taking tests than Addison was. Addison knew the material, but she just couldn’t produce the same results during tests. So, from the time they were like sixteen on, Addison and Ande would switch on test days. Addison would do Ande’s homework, and Ande would take both tests. We didn’t know this until well into their senior year when both girls were in the running for valedictorian. Ande was pissed because she felt she deserved to win. Addison pointed out that she did all their homework. And eventually, they both started doing their own work, and both of them fell to the point where they weren’t in the running for valedictorian.”
“It was mutiny in the Carter house,” Quincy said as he made to lunge toward Ande who’d slowly crept out from behind my back.
Of course, in the instinct to bolt, she showed how clumsy she was and tripped over her own two feet in her haste to get out of the way.
She would’ve gone down, too, but I caught her and propped her up against my side.
Quincy laughed and sank his putt.
“We graduated second and third in our class. We were tied for points and everything.” Ande smiled sadly. “I miss the hell out of her.”
Then her eyes went far away, and I saw her head drop.
I pulled her into my arms, one bicep going over her face when she buried her head into my armpit.
Quinn and Quaid replaced their putters in their bags before hauling the bags to the room beyond the putting green.
Gable, Garrett, Auden, and Atlas did the same, leaving Germaine and Quaid.
Taking a long breath as she calmed herself, she turned so that her face was outward.
Germaine smiled sadly, then said, “Do you mind?”
I released her to her father’s arm, and Quaid jerked his chin for me to follow.
I did, waiting for him to drop his own bag into the room before he said quietly, “I don’t know what to say to her.”
“I don’t think you can say anything at this point,” I admitted as I stuffed my hands into my pockets. “Just being there helps.”
He murmured something before catching the door to the kitchen.
I followed inside to find all of the brothers gathered around the large bar.
I took the only remaining seat and said, “It smells delicious in here.”
“Italian. You can’t go wrong with lasagna and breadsticks,” her mom murmured, her eyes on the back yard.
“She’s going to be okay,” I said to the lot of them. “She has her moments, but she’s doing well. She cries a lot at the drop of a hat. She had a really tough time with the funeral and going through Addison’s house. But she’s strong.”
