Chapter 10
Tanner
TONIGHT’S THE NIGHT.
Tonight, I’m taking Abby to the high school football game, which is a big deal here in Mason, but also in all of Texas. It’s Friday Night Lights in the flesh, but also, because I’m taking her home with me after the game.
I’m not saying she has to sleep with me—although that would be awesome—I’m just saying she needs to sleep under my roof. I cannot in good conscience take her back to that motel one more night. Abby has never once complained. I know that she’s saving for her own apartment, but I need her with me. I want to give this girl the world at her feet. She deserves everything I have to give, especially, as I’ve recently come to discover, my heart.
I want—no, Ineed—to take care of her. And I have this feeling that if anyone deserved to be cared for and spoiled a bit, it’s Abby.
She has never asked me for a thing, but the way that she looks at me when I hold open a door for or buy her a big ass pumpkin makes me want to do little things like that for her every day. But I can’t keep taking her to the motel. It’s not bad per se, it’s just not a home. A woman like Abby need a kitchen to bake in and a front porch to watch the sunset from. A big bedroom to make love to her man in. I can give her all of those things.
The motel is well kept, but old. It offers little rooms with one to two beds and a small bathroom with a coffeemaker on the counter—but not much more than that. She deserves better than that.
I pull my truck into the parking lot of the motel for hopefully the last time and kill the engine of my truck. I slam the door closed and race up the stairs, eager to see my girl. I knock on the door and she pulls it opened with a smile on her face.
“Ready to go?” I ask her. She’s adorable in black leggings and those funny, fluffy boots girls like too much. She has an oversized flannel shirt on top and it makes up a cute package. The top covers her ass but as she moves I catch little glimpses of it encased in those tight leggings and I’m as hard as a patrolman’s baton.
“Just a second,” she says looking a little concerned. “I can’t seem to find my favorite jacket.”
“Where did you leave it?” I ask.
“Right here,” she says as she points to the chair in the corner of the room. “I could swear I left it right there.”
“It’ll turn up,” I tell her. “So, I was thinking . . .” I hedge.
“Yeah?” she asks as she turns to look at me.
“I was thinking you might try staying with me tonight,” I start and when she opens her mouth to protest I jump back in. “You can sleep in the spare room. It doesn’t have to be in my bed. I just hate that you’re staying here. Not because it’s shitty which it is, kind of, but because you deserve so much better.”
“Someone once said the same thing to me, but he didn’t have my best intentions at heart,” she says sadly in a soft voice, almost too quiet to hear.
“I swear to you that I do,” I promise.
She seems to think about it for a minute before deciding to trust me. “Okay, Tanner,” she says. “I’ll try one night with you,” she purrs as she runs her hand across my chest. The move is so whisper soft I almost missed it. My cock didnot. “Besides, I need to know, how big is your bed?” she says before grabbing a sweatshirt off of the bed and walking out the door leaving me standing there in her wake feeling like I was just bowled over by a tornado.
I follow her down the stairs and to my truck once my dick starts sharing the blood flow in my body with my brain again. I manage to make it there in time to open the door for her and help her up into the truck.
The drive to the stadium is lined with banners celebrating the boys in red. Each son of Mason has a sign with their name and number lining the driveway to the parking lot.
We pull into the lot that’s full of cars and trucks all sporting rally signs and pennants for the Bulldogs. I park the truck in the first available spot and grab the flannel blanket from the backseat that now holds some of my most favorite memories.
I hop out of the truck and walk around to the passenger side. I open the door and Abby is waiting for me with the sweetest smile on her face, it does something in my chest. I wrap my hands around her waist but this time, when I pluck her from the cab, she wraps her arms around my neck and leaps. And I catch her like I know I will every damn time. I will always be there to catch her no matter what.
I hand Abby the tickets and tuck her into my side, under my arm. I would be lying if I said she wasn’t made to be next to me. On our way through the gates, she seems to see something and freeze, before visibly shaking off her fear.
“Everything alright, darlin’?” I ask her.
“Y-yeah,” she says. “I just thought I saw an old ghost for a minute.”
We make our way into the stadium to my regular seats—in Texas, we have season tickets for high school football—where my parents are seated as well.
“Are you hungry, darlin’?” I ask her.
“Are you offering to get me snacks?” she smiles at me.
“Of course.” I wink. “I heard it was the key to your heart.”
