Page 41 of Full Coverage (Boys of Fall)

Of course, she didn’t have satin sheets and she’d have to stop at the store for whipped cream. She sighed. Typical.

“Sure.”

“Great.”

He stroked his hand up and down her back and she snuggled closer. It was a holiday. She had to remember that. One day that made people do unusual things, think about romance more than they normally would, say sweeter things than they normally would. She needed to not read anything into it. She and Nolan had some chemistry and he was home gathering some information for his book, and why not throw some hot sex with a willing girl into the mix? No one would blame him.Shewouldn’t blame him.

So she might as well enjoy the holiday too. She liked Christmas, even knowing it would end. She enjoyed her birthday every year even though it was only one day. This was the same thing.

* * *

Nolan watchedRandi belly up to the bar with her girlfriends. Again.

The after-party at Pitchers was a stark contrast to the community center dance. Country music blared from the jukebox, bodies pressed closer, hands wandered farther and the glasses that were being tipped back were filled with a lot more than fruit punch.

Randi was on her third Cupid’s Cock shot with the girls. It was something pink and he thought he’d heard her say something about “might as well have my strawberries this way”, but he was staying far away from the shot. Beer was fine with him. It looked like he was going to be her designated driver anyway.

She tipped her head back, swallowed the liquor, and set the glass down with a thunk, laughing with the girls.

They hadn’t even spoken since they’d gotten here. Lorelie and Lela had pulled her up to the bar the minute they’d walked in, and she’d been drinking and talking to the girls since.

The other women were all here with someone as well, and some of those guys weren’t put off by the closely formed female circle. Jackson walked right up, slid his arms around Annabelle from behind and tucked her close, whispering in her ear. She’d giggled and turned her head to kiss him, but she’d stayed at the bar. And he’d stayed right behind her. Tucker was there with Lela too, leaning an elbow casually on the bar, nursing a beer and watching the women with an amused look on his face. He wasn’t intervening but he wasn’t getting too far away, either.

The only guys really standing back were him and the new guy, Glen. The guy who was hung up on Lorelie Carr. Coach’s daughter. Nolan didn’t even need his journalistic skills to figure that out. Everyone knew. Coach’s boys, the football teammates who had been in high school when Lorelie was—the state championship team Nolan was writing about—had been Lorelie’s protectors, adopted big brothers, and no one came sniffing around her without them knowing it. And warning the guy off.

Glen didn’t seem fazed.

Nolan had to admit that intrigued him. Anyone who could come into Quinn as an outsider and lay claim to one of the town’s favorite daughters, had to have some gigantic balls. And hopefully, some good intentions.

But Glen was hanging back, where Nolan was, outside the circle of friends at the bar. Nolan wasn’t an outsider exactly, but he wasn’t sure what he was at the moment. His girl was in there, just like all of theirs, but…he hadn’t staked his claim like those guys had. It was still new. He didn’t want to push Randi.

And, if things worked out with them, this scene wouldn’t be the regular thing that it was for the rest of them. He and Randi wouldn’t be here every weekend, wouldn’t be hanging out with them all the time. They’d be in San Antonio and just coming home for visits.

He didn’t know what to feel about that. He loved these guys, this town, these occasions. But it was a once-in-a-while thing for him. This was Randi’s world though. This was her normal. He wasn’t quite comfortable with stepping into her normal as if he belonged yet.

Being on the fringes of the team—a friend to all the guys but not a teammate—had often felt like this. He’d never minded. In fact, he’d stayed on the edges on purpose. He’d known he was leaving. He had bigger aspirations than Quinn. And he knew that the most common story in Quinn were the people who had deep roots they couldn’t walk away from—family, jobs, friends. Not that everyone felt stuck, but they also didn’t feel like they could just pack up and go.

Nolan had kept his ties loose and his relationships light, knowing that he wanted to go.

Besides, he’d felt enough a part of the group anyway. He’d been a storyteller from early on, and had been satisfied looking in on the story of the team, much like following multiple seasons of a television drama. He’d watched the personal struggles, the team’s trials, the one-on-one relationships and dramas, the bonds between the football brothers, Coach and his boys, even the team and the town, as a fascinated onlooker. He’d felt all of the emotions the rest of the town had felt about the championship football season. He hadn’t cared about the games and the trophies himself, but he’d wanted it all for the people involved. He’d cheered along with the rest of them, worried about the injuries, doubted if they could pull through when Jackson had been kicked off the team, rejoiced when they’d triumphed and celebrated when they’d come out on top.

Graduation that year had felt a lot like the finale episode of a favorite TV show. It was over. And Nolan found himself happy with the way it had all ended, but sad that he wasn’t going to get to see it anymore.

Now he was looking in on the gang again. Some of them had left and come back. Some had stayed and struggled to find what they wanted in their own backyards. New people had been added. A few regulars were gone for good. But the core was there—the friendship and love and support. Nolan was shocked by the nostalgia he felt, watching them.

Nolan realized he’d been paying attention all along. He’d seen the guys figure themselves out, make something of themselves, find love. He hadn’t realized how great it all was, how everything had come full circle, until he’d started the book. But the boys who had learned about life on the football field in Quinn were now the men Coach Carr had seen in them from the beginning.

He almost felt like he couldn’t take credit for the book. He was just telling the stories that had unfolded in front of him. But he was very happy with how it was all coming together. And now, here in Pitchers with two beers in him and watching the group right in front of him, he could admit that he was a month past his deadline because he didn’t want to finish the book. He didn’t want it to end.

“So it’s always like this around here?”

Jerked from his musings, Nolan looked over at Glen, then back to the gang. They were all laughing over something Joel had said. Nolan wondered if anyone else noticed the look Oakley gave Sadie. Sadie was behind the bar, Oakley perched on a stool, both watching Joel with a love so obvious, Nolan felt a stab of jealousy. It hadn’t taken the group long to accept the threesome—or the threesome Colt, Paige and Drake had formed—and Nolan remembered being proud of everyone for realizing that love was love, and being happy Joel and Colt had both found it. Times two.

When this group was together, the love, support, friendship and laughter, was constant.

“Yeah,” Nolan told Glen. “It’s always like this around here.”

“Hard group to get into?” Glen asked.

---