AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You don’t know her,” he pointed out. “Plus, I can handle myself. You two don’t need to ride in on your charger.”
“We’re not,” Faith gritted out. “Firstly, those two jezebels fell all over you when we were trying to play the game. Then that Shelly made disparaging remarks about my town. This has nothing to do with you.”
“I cannot believe you said ‘jezebel,’” Annabelle looked at Faith. “I can think of far more modern and accurate words.”
“I’m reading a historical romance novel; it felt the right time to use what I’ve recently learned.”
“I love old words,” Annabelle sighed. “We should bring some of them back.”
“I’ll give you the book when I’m done.”
Ryan shook his head. One minute they were discussing maiming Shelly, and then the next, books. He was constantly having to regroup to keep up with the people in this town.
“Is it a sexy one?”
“Very.”
“Cool.”
“So back to the original conversation,” Ryan said.
“That jezebel made us sound like country hicks,” Annabelle added.
“Nice,” Faith said.
“We are country hicks, but in the very best kind of way,” Ryan said.
“You must have plenty of people like her in your life,” Faith said.
“Plenty.”
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?” he asked.
“That you have to deal with all that fakeness,” Faith replied.
“You’re exhausting, you know that right? One minute you’re angry about groupies and jezebels, the next we’re discussing historical romance novels, and now you’re feeling sorry for me. Pick a lane, for Christ’s sake.”
“Aww, is the conversation too hard to keep up with, Ryan?” Annabelle teased.
“Shut up, both of you.” He walked to where he could see men and, to his mind, sanity.
“Ryan.”
“Mr. Hope?” He shook the man’s hand. He’d been a teacher in school, plus he’d taken band practice, and that was where Ryan’s real love of music started. He was gray-haired now, and with more lines on his face, but he still had that same outstanding set of eyebrows he’d always used to intimidate students.
“How long has it been since we saw you? Fourteen years?”
“Eleven.”
He could hear Annabelle and Faith telling the others about Shelly. Ryan ignored them.
“The school band is playing, and all proceeds for today are going to the facility,” Mr. Hope said. “We have students walking about collecting donations.”
“That’s good. There’s quite a crowd, so you should do well.”
“So, if you could, that would be great. Our lead guitarist drank too much during the game and is now horizontal.”
