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“He didn’t tell me to take him to the skybox.” I reached for and held onto that hoodie on Rip.
His brother did not miss that gesture. He gave me an incredulous look and said, “Do you have another program in there or just the one he uploaded? Sheesh. You need to come over to our house. I’ll lick that obedience right out of you.”
I blinked, jerked back a bit. “I—”
“No. It’s obvious they aren’t taking care of things. You’re too tense for that. Look—” he started.
“Dad!” Rip shouted, and we both turned to look at what he was seeing.
“Oh, shit. That had to hurt.” His brother, Mr. Sensitive and Caring, then laughed. “Just had to play football.”
I reached for Rip, and he moved to my arms easily. He was a big kid, heavy even, but he was on my hip when Dane got off that ground and looked directly to where we were. “Wave to your Dad, Rip. Let him know you know he is all right.”
We cheered for Dane, and even his stupid brother did a little clap in his direction. I wanted to kick him in the shins. He looked over at me holding that heavy kid and said, “Suit yourself. We have steak in there.”
“We have red licorice right here.” I looked at Rip, and he held up a vine as if to confirm my statement.
“Later, Rip.” He gave him a fist bump and then looked at me. “And…I’ll…lick you later, Harpy.”
“Gwoss.” Rip made a face at me. My brow shot up, and he said, “He’s gwoss.”
Ah yes, he caught the lick part. “Yes.” I nodded. “Your uncle is very gross.”
I put him back in that seat, and we watched the game. At halftime, they did a moment of silence for Dougie, and it was a reminder of how crazy things had gotten so fast this year. How much pressure was on the team, even if Tituss was a better quarterback. They had lost a teammate, even if that guy was a douche.
After the game, we were bringing two of these players home with us, and we waited around for them to emerge from the locker room. The team had won, so it was all kinds of chaos. The thing about where we lived is that during the day, it was gorgeous. Almost sunshine every single day. The thing about fall, it could still get chilly in the early morning or evenings. I looked at Rip and asked, “You cold?”
“No. I got this.” He pulled at his matching hoodie. “Like you.”
I nodded. “We’re twins.”
He laughed at that, then he lit up and started running toward Dane who met him, grabbed him up, and hugged him. Tituss was next to him, and neither of them had luggage which surprised me. Dane said, “Catch.”
Tituss caught him, but I was reaching as if I could. He threw him up in the air a couple times and said, “What, go long? I don’t think—”
Tituss tossed him to Dane, who made a big production of catching him, acting like he was going to drop him, and then pulled him up to situate him on his shoulders. I, for one, was about to have a heart attack at the way they were handling him.
The two giants stopped in front of me, and Tituss asked, “You okay? You look—”
“Don’t…play like that…with this much concrete.” I closed my eyes because I didn’t want to see their judgment or Dane’s face because I knew that was overstepping, but damn. They had to be tired, and what if…what if…I gulped.
“Come on.” Tituss tugged on my sleeve. I opened my eyes, and Dane, to my surprise, was almost smiling at me. “Drive us home. We won, baby!”
Tituss winked at me. Rip shouted, “We won, baby!”
And they were not nearly as exhausted as I had hoped they would be. Tituss sat next to me in the front, and Dane sat in the back next to Rip, in his car seat. “What did Kip want?”
“Who?” I asked.
Before he could clarify, Rip said, “To lick her.”
Rip’s answer made my whole body tense, and I cringed because two very loud responses came out in one word, “What?”
“He’s so gwoss.” Rip brought a lot of levity to the situation, and it only took a moment before the two men in this car who had licked me plenty started snickering.
I answered since they were laughing, “He is, buddy. So gross.” I pulled to the stoplight and looked at Tituss and then in the rearview at Dane. “He wanted us to go to the skybox.”
“I want that,” Rip said.
