Page 107 of Well Aware

For every girl that doesn’t treat him right, is another girl out there that’ll eat onion rings off his boner.

—Merrill to Magnolia

MAGNOLIA

The one good thing about having a different flight time meant that we got to take some people with us who weren’t originally going to be able to go due to work.

Those people being Lysander, Beau’s nephew, little “don’t call me Frankie,” and Beau’s mother.

Who was noticeably not there, thank God, was Seraphina.

Whether she took a different flight or was in jail, I didn’t know.

I didn’t want to ask, either. The less I reminded Beau of his sister, the better.

Plus, Boone looked like he was one second away from cold-blooded murder on his sister’s behalf.

Ida Bell was noticeably heartbroken.

His sister had returned to the hospital this morning per the request of Boone and Nettie.

Now, we were walking into the stadium with our team, and the pall still hung over us like a black cloud.

The team was talkative, but quite subdued. Not something you’d ever expect when you were walking into the championship game for the women’s professional soccer finals.

But there we were.

As usual, we were led into the visiting locker room by a woman that looked like they threw up Texas on her.

If I’d had to choose, I wouldn’t have chosen my old team to play in the championship game, but there we were anyway.

“You ready?”

I looked at Nettie who looked at me with excited eyes.

The excitement was contagious, and by the time we were walking into the stadium an hour later, we were our normal, happy team again.

Well, mostly.

But Nettie and I put on a good front for our team.

By the time we were all lining up to start the game, the national anthem playing full volume throughout the stadium, I was bouncing on my toes ready to play.

Nettie hip-checked me on the way to the fifty-yard line, and I fist-bumped my defense before heading back to the keeper and saying, “You ready?”

Kaylee nodded, her face a frown of worry. “Ready, Freddy.”

I grinned, Beau’s words coming out of her mouth making me smile stupidly at her.

She laughed at my expression. “You’re so far gone, my friend.”

“I am,” I agreed, looking up in the stands to find the man I was so far gone about.

I found him in the stands this time, Iris on her bottom beside him waving excitedly when she noticed me looking.

I waved back and looked back to Beau, who blew me a kiss that I caught and pressed to my heart. When he winked, I turned to focus on the game.

The whistle blew, and they immediately kicked it left and out, touching one of our players on the way, causing the team to come close enough for a throw-in that could possibly get them in a scoring opportunity.