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Disbelieving laughter eddies out of me, making me shake my head as I push past my brothers and catch her hips with my hands, pulling her into me. “You’re a goddamn troublemaker,” I whisper in her ear, only for her to hear.
She beams at me, satisfaction oozing from every pore. Little brat. “You like trouble.”
Well fuck, she isn’t wrong. “I like payback too,” I promise her, but the intrigue in her expression only heightens. Damn sexy brat is what she is.
She goes up on her tiptoes and kisses my cheek. “Good game, Baby Bay.” My cheek heats where her lips pressed against it and my fingers move of their own accord to touch where she left her mark. “But I’ve got to run.” She nods in the direction of my family and my mom hugs her goodbye, making Tor smile.
“You have the truck?” I ask, needing to make sure she’s good. She lifts my keys in response. “Your phone?” She arches a brow but relents quickly, showing me her phone as well. I sigh, not having anything else to keep her here. “Alright, be safe. We’ll see you later,” I promise.
“I’ll be on stage.” She winks and I glower at her but she ignores me. She taps Xander. “Come on, grouchy. Might as well drive together if you’re gonna stalk me.” She flashes me aknowing look at the exact moment I cringe. Looks like she is on to us more than I thought. I wonder if she knows the stalking has extended to the whole team?
Xander nods, tapping Wells and pointing to Tate’s baby sister at his side, leaving only once we’ve acknowledged that we’ve got her until her brothers come out.
As soon as they’re out of my line of sight I turn to find my family all watching me with matching dopey expressions. “What?”
Isla leans into my mom. “Idiots, Cheryl. I swear.” My mom giggles and shakes her head. What the fuck is happening here? Why does everyone keep calling me an idiot? I do just fine in school, thank you very much.
“She’s a cute girl,” Beckett says.
“Torryn?” I can’t help but ask in disbelief.
Beau snorts. “Cute is not the word I would use.” Me either. I nod my agreement.
Mason narrows his eyes. “What else are we supposed to say? Your girl is hot?”
My mom smacks him in the chest, but it’s too late. Dylan raises his hand. “You could tell him she’s a girl worth buying flowers for?”
Jackson gives him a disgusted look. “Is that a Mulan reference?”
“No,” Dylan pauses, “well maybe. But she’s the girl Baby Bay stole flowers from.” He shakes his head in disapproval. “Hasn’t even bought her any to replace them.”
“Torryn doesn’t even like flowers,” I argue.
My mom scoffs. “Every girl likes flowers,” she says in exasperation. “Even if they don’t really like flowers, they like knowing someone is thinking about them.”
I put my face in my hands, looking to my dad for help but he’s useless. “Your mother isn’t wrong.”
Speaking of. “Did you do what I asked?” I ask my mom, but she’s already beaming at me, holding out my polaroid camera and a handful of photos. A lot more than I was expecting. “How many did you take?” I ask, starting to flick through them.
My mom shrugs. “It’s not like I could do it secretly. Once I started, everyone wanted theirs taken.” Torryn is in a lot of them, but not all of them. The point was to have more photos to use to put up in her room and at least I have that now. There are several of her and Isla, some of them hugging and posing obviously, but others I don’t think she realized they were taken. A couple of them eating nachos, one where Isla is blushing and Torryn is smirking.
I stop when I get to one of just Torryn. She is sitting in her seat as everyone around her is standing and cheering, but she’s frozen. One hand over her mouth while the other is on Isla’s arm next to her. Fear and panic visible in her wide eyes, her skin looking paler than it should. Chills sweep down my back as I study the photo.
My mom leans over, looking to see what photo made me pause and gives me a knowing smile. “Your father took that one expecting to catch her celebrating at the first goal of the game.”
My eyebrows pinch together as I look at the photo again. “She didn’t celebrate?”
My mom shakes her head. “She was too worried about the hit you took right before.”
My chest grows tight and heat flushes through my whole body. I don’t say anything, I don’t know what to say. So I start flipping through the rest of the photos. At least she had a good time. There are so many moments with all her different smiles. Her small ones, her shy ones, her snarky ones. I love that she was able to be comfortable around my family. I stop at another one and chuckle.
It’s just Torryn again, this time with a look of pride on her face. Her mouth opens in a cheer as her arms are raised above her head. “That was when you scored the second time,” she explains. “Look at the next one.” I laugh as I look at how my mom captured her shocked and slightly disgusted expression so perfectly.
“Let me guess,” I say. “When she heard the chant?”
“Bingo, Baby Bay,” Beckett says, taking the photos out of my hand and flipping to a new one. “And I hate to be the one to tell you this, but she has a new favorite Levine.” He turns it around to show me one of him lifting Torryn out of her seat.
“Dick,” I mutter, taking them back and slipping them into my pocket. I can look at the rest of them later.
