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I help Laney pull her bag up on her shoulder and tuck her court shoes into the open zipper. She scans the parking lot, turning in a slow circle until her gaze reaches mine again.
“Forget something?” I ask.
“No, it’s not that.” She looks down at her feet and chews at the inside of her cheek before taking in a deep breath through her nose and popping her gaze back up to mine. “I asked my dad to come again. So he could actuallyseesomething. See me play, I mean.”
My stomach tightens in sympathy, and I scan the lot behind her, clueless as to what I’m really looking for. The other night Laney showed me a few websites about her dad, and I did my own deep dive while she was asleep into his company and his beach career. She looks a lot like him. Not just in her height, but her build and the color of her hair and eyes. I could tell that she’s been thinking about him a lot since he showed up. It’s good she asked him to come again, but it’s not great that she doesn’t seem to see him here now.
“It’s early yet,” I offer an excuse.
She lets out a heavy breath and her shoulders drop.
“Yeah, and he probably won’t come today. He said today would be tough but that if he doesn’t make it he’ll for sure come to the next home game.” Her eyes dart toward a car that approaches us to the right and my body shoots up with adrenaline and hope for her. Her quick deflate, however, lets me know that car isn’t his.
“Like you said. Probably the next game, then. And you’ll be even more ready to prove to him exactly how focused you are,” I say, cupping her face. I caress her cheeks with my thumbs and she leans her head into my right palm, then closes her eyes and turns enough to press a kiss to the inside of my wrist.
“Okay, I’ve gotta go,” she says, pushing away and clapping her hands together as if she’s dusting me off like chalk. “Geesh! You’re bad for my punctuality.”
I wait until she ducks through the gym doors before I get back into the Jeep and check the time. My family should be at Patty’s in about twenty minutes, which means I have just enough time to get there first and threaten anyone I know against telling embarrassing stories about me to my very convincing brothers and even more convincing mom.
Now I knowthat it takes approximately two and a half beers to get my brothers to shut up about me having a girlfriend. Of course, now they are referring to Laney as “the girl formerly referred to as Cutter’s girlfriend,” which is not much better. Actually, I think that’s worse.
“Is that her? Damn, bro. She’s hotter in person,” Flynn says, standing at the top of the bleachers and pointing to Laney as she stretches in the center of the court.
I know my face is red. It’s so red I feel it.
“Dude, try to be a little less Flynn for the next two hours! I’m begging you.” I gesture with my palm for him to sit down, which of course, only leads to Todd joining him and standing at his side as they dance-ish to the music filling the gym.
“Cutter, when are you going to learn that your brothers cannot be tamed?” My mom pats my thigh. I put an arm around her and squeeze. She’s wearing a pink knit cap to hide her thinning hair. It’s the first time I’ve seen her wear one, and even though she always told me that losing her hair wouldn’t bother her, I think maybe it’s different now that she’s in the middle of it.
“I can’t wait to meet her in person. I’ve never actually seen you defend a girl to your brothers so she must be pretty special.” My mom gives me one of her know-it-all looks, a puckered smile on her lips. That’s all I need to take my red cheeks one shade brighter.
“She is pretty special,” I admit. Saying the words out loud eases some of the tightness in my chest.
I haven’t told Laney about my mom’s cancer battle. It’s not one of those easy things to bring up, and there have been so many other things going on with Laney and her family and her role on the team. I didn’t want to bury her with my stressors. That, and I don’t really ever think of my mom as a burden. She’s my privilege. Of all the boys, I’m the one who gets to be closest to her and help her through this as best I can.
Now that I see my mom’s state, though, I know that her battle is going to likely be a little visibly obvious to Laney when she meets her. I hope she doesn’t think I was hiding it from her. I just wasn’t sharing, and there really is a difference.
The lights dim in the gym, so I help my mom to her feet and my brothers pack in around us. It’s too bad Andrew couldn’t make it. I know a brother shouldn’t choose favorites, but Andrew is definitely the one I have always looked up to most. I leaned on him a lot when I was in junior high and trying to figure out what kind of man I wanted to grow into. Andrew always made smart choices, and he was always honest. He even gave himself up when he broke things around the house or drank the last soda in the fridge. But he never ratted us out. He’d simply give us thatlook, not dissimilar from our mom’s, and we were usually guilted into telling on ourselves once he leveled it.
Laney would like him. And he would love Laney. Maybe . . . after I tell her how I feel . . .
“Wow, Laney’s really fucking hot!” Todd shouts as Laney jogs out into the spotlight during the starter announcements.
“Todd!” My mom chastises. “That’s your brother’s girlfriend.”
“You mean the girl formerly known as Cutter’s girlfriend,” Patrick points out.
I flatten my palm against my oldest brother’s chest and he laughs hard. Being the oldest definitely doesn’t make him the most mature.
For the next two hours, Laney proves to every single person watching exactly what this team has been missing in her absence. From the opening rally that ended in her stuffing a block so hard that the ball rebounded back into the attacker’s face until just now when she put the final point away, nailing the ball off of a slide set that sent her leaping one way and sending the ball another. Three straight sets in record time, and my brothers aren’t referring to Laney as anything other than the greatest volleyball player in the history of all history now.
Patrick rented a large SUV, so I head out to the visiting lot with my family and show them where to pull around to the student area to park next to me so we can wait on Laney. We pile into the grass just outside the gym doors, and the second Laney exits the door she stops in her tracks, blinks a few times then bends over with hands on her knees while she laughs.
I wasn’t kidding about the matching sweatshirt business. And when I mentioned something about Tiff Tuff to Patrick he got busy putting in a special order from one of those mail-in places and had special sweatshirts made for everyone—me and Laney included.
Laney walks over to our coordinated little cluster and presses a quick kiss to my cheek as she scans the chests of every single McCreary one more time.
“Wow, you guys went all out,” she says.
