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I groan an interruption, knowing what story is coming. “Please stop.”
“No, I think I need to hear this,” Sawyer begs, laughter laced in his ocean blue eyes.
“Anyway, AJ and her boyfriend had just started to get busy in her bedroom. We could hear them through the walls, you know, so Grandpa waited in the hallway for them to reappear so he could sneak back out. They were so young, so it didn’t take long, you know? Anyway, as soon as that young man stepped out of the room, Grandpa asked him if he had another rubber because he was out.”
Laughter bursts from Sawyer’s throat. “I was mortified,” I murmur, trying to focus on anything else around me other than the humiliation happening beside me.
“The best part was that poor young man was so flabbergasted that he actually dug into his wallet and pulled out a peter cover for me to use,” Grandpa adds while fighting his own laughter.
“Then we made them come down to the kitchen and eat ice cream with us,” Grandma states proudly.
“You shared a drumstick and grossed us both out with your inappropriate groaning and licking,” I recall, the popcorn settling like a lead brick in my stomach.
“It was summer and we were hot,” Grandma argues. “It’s not my fault it was dripping down the side and required extra licking.”
“He broke up with me the next day,” I remind them.
“Serves him right. He wasn’t good enough for my little Alison Jane,” Grandpa adds with a decisive head nod.
Grandma’s face softens and she gives me a knowing look at the reference to my given name. Hearing it as an adult doesn’t hurt as much as it did when I was younger, mostly because, for so long, I could still hear my mom saying it. The authoritative tone mixed with the love in her voice as she called my name.
“Anyway, that’s true. He wasn’t good enough for AJ. I believe he ended up dropping out of junior college and flipping burgers at that fast food joint uptown,” Grandma says as I shovel popcorn into my face like I haven’t eaten in a week.
“He was the day manager last time I talked to him,” I mumble over the mouthful of popcorn.
“Well, good for him,” Grandma says cheerfully. “But he’s nothing like our Sawyer here,” she adds, patting him on the shoulder, and if I’m not mistaken, gripping and rubbing a little too long on the muscles of his upper back.
“Your Sawyer?” I choke, trying to get the food down my throat.
“Yes, I called dibs after seeing that spread in SI. Sawyer, tell me, how many takes did it take to get the angle of that glove just right?” Grandma coos at the man beside me, a wicked little gleam in her wrinkled eyes. “Did you have a fluffer?”
And now I’m choking on popcorn. It gets lodged in my throat as I sputter and cough, trying to get the food down and the air in. Sawyer leans over and gently beats on my back, his face a horrible shade of red as he tries to hide his own amusement and blushing.
“Uh, no ma’am, no fluffer was required,” he sputters, trying not to laugh.
“It wasn’t porn, Grandma!” I chastise under my breath as those sitting around me try not to look like they’re listening to our conversation, but fail miserably.
“Well, my body still reacted, AJ. And the images I had later that night were definitely more along the lines of pornographic.” Grandma smiles wickedly, as if recalling something that would probably require years of therapy for me to overcome.
“I capitalized immensely that night, I believe,” Grandpa boasts like a proud peacock.
“And you’re gonna capitalize again tonight, Orvie,” Grandma coos, reaching over and rubbing my grandpa’s thigh.
“I’m going to throw up,” I mumble. “See? This is why they all leave. No one sticks around when they meet my grandparents,” I whisper to Sawyer.
“Maybe the reason they don’t stick around is because they weren’t the right guy,” Sawyer suggests, his head leans toward me, his lips dangerously close to my own. “Notice I’m not going anywhere.”
“You should. You should run away.”
He reaches over and links his fingers with mine. “Not happening, Alison.” His whispered voice is soft and gravely. It makes my lady parts hum and my heart pirouette in my chest.
Something tells me that this man doesn’t scare easily, which is a plus if you’re gonna withstand the craziness in this family. My mind turns to Josh, Ryan, Dean, Levi, and now Linkin, all men who weren’t frightened off by the loose tongues of my grandparents or their over-the-top gestures and gifts. It’s way too soon to make such a statement, so I won’t say it aloud, but a part of me (a very big part) wonders if maybe Sawyer is one of the few willing to endure the outrageous and stick around after the bedsheets have cooled.
Only time will tell.
The second half starts with the Eagles kicking off to the rival Bobcats. As the minutes wind down in the third quarter, then the fourth, the score remains close. So close, in fact, that as we hit one minute to go in the fourth, the Bobcats score a field goal, giving them a two-point edge.
With fifty seconds on the clock, the Eagles field a kick deep and run to their end zone. Tackles are broken, blocks are made, and yards are gained as our team attempts to score before the clock runs out.
