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“Wonderful,” I said dryly.
“Heads up!” Someone shouted from the field.
I spotted the football spinning end over end toward where Logan and I were standing. It thumped to the grass and rolled a short distance from our feet.
Coach Thompson stepped up with a shit-eating grin on his face. “Tristan, show these guys how far you can throw that bitch.”
I set down my bag and walked over, picking up the football. They might’ve been fifty yards away, give or take a few. Logan watched me, clearly curious if I could make the throw.
Instead, I let the ball drop to the ground and walked toward my car. “Come on,” I said. “If you’re not in my car in ten seconds, you can walk home.”
I heard Logan pick the ball up and toss it to the team before he jogged to catch up with me.
“You seem pissy,” Logan slid into the car beside me. “Even by your standards.”
“Because I didn’t want to see coach get a hard-on for me?”
Logan nodded as he grinned. “He does seem to like you a little extra, doesn’t he?”
“It’s pathetic.”
I turned the car on, enjoying the way it roared to life. It didn’t seem to matter how many times I drove this thing—it always felt like I could get drunk on the raw power at my fingertips.
“Hey, wait,” Logan threw on his best, charming smile and leaned halfway out the window. “I need to ask her something.”
He was pointing toward a group of about five girls from the track team who were walking back to their cars. They all were wearing tight spandex shorts and had their shirts rolled up to show their bare stomachs.
They all turned when they heard my car roll up beside them. The hottest two—Lyndsy and Abbie, leaned down to rest their arms on the window.
Logan ran a fingertip down Abbie’s arm. “You two coming tonight?”
“Nobody invited us,” Lyndsy pouted.
“Consider yourselves invited.”
“If you want to come,” I added, leaning toward them. “Don’t show up empty handed. A bottle of liquor each. Got it?”
Lyndsy sighed. “I don’t know where I’d—”
“I can get some,” Abbie gave Logan a meaningful look, then winked. “My dad is out of town and I can just take his vodka. I’ll fill it with water after we drain it and he’ll never know. He hardly ever drinks.”
“So, you’ll come?” Logan asked.
Abbie nodded, bouncing on her toes and smiling. “Everybody always talks about how crazy Tristan’s parties are. So, yeah. We’ll be there.”
“Good.” Logan patted the side of my car with his palm twice, grinning. “Why don’t you two come find me and we’ll hang out tonight?”
They both exchanged giddy smiles.
I revved the engine to let them know they should back up. Wisely, they stepped back before I hit the gas.
Logan leaned his head back on the seat and chewed his lip in thought. “You want one of them?”
“Pass.”
“What’s your deal, lately? Used to be you never turned down a pretty girl. Now it’s like you’re trying to go celibate on me.”
“After a few times, it all starts to feel the same. Besides, they don’t give a shit about you. You realize that, right?”
Logan shrugged. “That’s your opinion.”
I could’ve argued the point, but I wasn’t in the mood. My mind was on the girl I’d seen this morning in the wheelchair. Her presence meant the abandoned house in front of my property was now the formerly abandoned house in front of my property. And the girl had looked about my age.
That meant it was going to be a hell of a lot harder to keep the truth about my little predicament a secret. Unless I could find a way to convince her to keep her mouth shut. Problem was, as soon as I showed up and started making threats, she’d probably just get more curious to know what I was so intent on hiding.
I knew one thing. If she gave me the slightest excuse, I was going to make sure she wished she had never moved here.
Logan waited in the car when I pulled up to the gas station on the opposite end of town from my house. I drove a little out of the way because I knew I’d find Kelsey behind the counter. I gave her a slight nod of my head when I came in. She fumbled the customer’s card she was handling in her hurry to smile and wave at me.
I went to the beer fridge and grabbed two twelve packs, then headed up to the counter. I set them down in front of Kelsey. She looked nervously at them, then glanced over her shoulder toward the back.
“You coming tonight?” I handed her my card and the obviously faked ID I carried.
She looked at both, swallowed, and then met my eyes. “Am I invited?”
“Depends.” I tapped my fingers on the two cases of beer.
