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Sixteen
Holden
My finger hovered over my phone. It was Saturday night. I could spend one night without her.
I didn’t want to. That was the issue.
I was leaning against my pickup in its normal parking spot outside my garage.
For the last two weeks, I’d taken soup and breadsticks from Rattler’s to her place after practice. I’d watched movies with them last weekend. And last Sunday, I stopped by in the afternoon to help rake and haul leaves.
I had plenty of work to do at my place.
Stetson messaged me.Rattler’s?
I had nothing else to do and it’d be nice to catch up with him, so I sent backBe there in an hour.
I ran through the shower, debating on shaving since I hadn’t this morning, but decided to let the scruff stay. I used a comb on my hair this time, since I could only get away with not combing it once before I looked like I hadn’t used a brush in years.
After I was dressed in jeans and an orange Tractor Supply hoodie that was so bright it could double as a hunting coat, I met Stetson at the restaurant.
He was in his normal spot. Both Shawn and Remington were at the table.
I pulled a chair out. “Stetson, both owners are giving you a talking-to? What’d you do?”
Shawn stretched his arms above his head and rose. He was almost as big as Stetson. He kept a short goatee, which was the only hair on his dark head.
“He gets all of us tonight.” Shawn’s wife, Tenielle, appeared next to me. She wore paint-splattered overalls that weren’t purchased that way. Tenielle flipped houses, and there were plenty in the county that kept her busy. She did much of the work herself, from framing to painting to home decor. A slower pace, she had claimed, after she and Shawn had lived in Chicago for years.
“Date night at your own restaurant?” I asked.
She laughed, a loud and free sound that made me miss Emery. “Yes and no. It’s tough when Shawn’s BFF works here too.”
I leaned close and lowered my voice. “Does Shawn realize how close Remington and Stetson are? What if Remington found another BFF?”
She grinned. “He says Stetson keeps Remington out of trouble.”
I glanced at Stetson. “You never did that for me.”
“Half the bad ideas were yours,” Stetson said, folding his arms and leaning back in his chair. “The other half were just coincidence.”
“It wasn’t a coincidence to move the Andersons’ tractors across the field in the middle of the night.”
“Dan Anderson shouldn’t have left his tractors vulnerable to bored teenagers. Besides, that was Evander’s idea.”
“The worst ones were,” I agreed, and we both nodded.
Remington shook his head. “I really want to meet this Evander.”
“He talked about moving back,” Stetson said. “Then shit went down with Liam and Kennedy, and he re-upped for three more years.”
Evander was good at evading. Always had been.
Tenielle rose. “If you’ll excuse us. Shawn’s taking me to Bismarck for our real date night…that he’s writing off as a research expense.”
Shawn’s grin was unrepentant, his brown eyes sparkling. “Guilty.”
The couple left, and Remington got up. “I gotta go check on the back. Then I’m actually going home early for once.”
