Page 17 of Wild Card

I knew he needed me to stay, if not for mom…for him. But…I couldn’t.

“I’m headed over to Westfield, if you wanna come with?” I turned my neck toward the door. Kyle gave me a knowing look and dropped his head, letting the peas drop on the counter.

“Yeah, I’ll come.”

We both kissed our mom on the cheek then loaded up some blankets in the back of my truck. After stopping for a six-pack of beer and food from 7-11, we drove over to the opposite side of town.

Kyle carried the food and drinks while I carried the blankets. Then we set our things down around the moon-white headstone under the weeping willow.

“You seemed off tonight.” My younger brother looked over at me from his place beside Dad’s grave.

I put my arms behind my head and watched the stars, thinking of the incident…what I had said to that girl, what I had felt. I was more pissed about that than losing Taylor Beck. My entire plan had hinged on the information my little brother had delivered to me last week, after learning of the meeting Elias had called at that fucking restaurant. The Devils never met outside of our team house for upcoming games, yet the night I was actually free and available to attend, he’d changed the location, so I missed it. Fucker.

Regardless, I still learned that he had made plans to break his one rule by joining the game himself.

The Devils played this stupid-as-fuck game where four team members chose four women to hand out a card to. Your game stats and rankings allowed you to choose which base and which girl you picked. It was stupid, but it was also tradition. It was supposed to act as a carrot on a string, making each player do their best so they’d get the high card. Elias Matthews, team captain and motherfucker extraordinaire, had never played a card.

He helped keep track of the games, the players, the roster, and the ranks. He’d never played. Not even for a first or second base card.

Before the incident the previous year, he would joke about how he wouldn’t be risking a night of fun for a girl who’d poke a hole in the condom. So, when I learned that he’d not only chosen a girl but was playing the high card on her—I couldn’t help myself.

I wanted her, and I wanted him to walk in on me burying my dick inside her.

The only details I could gather before the game were that her name was Taylor Beck, she was shallow as fuck, and she drove a white Beemer.

I figured it would be fine, seeing as she had her card and would arrive in the room before me, but no. I had to fuck that up too.

I didn’t usually share things like that with my brother, but something had me spilling the entire story to him—about my pathetic attempt at revenge then seduction.

“What a shitshow.” Kyle laughed, popping a taquito in his mouth.

“Yeah…” The chill in the air was a stark reminder of how much time had gone by since our dad had passed. Time just kept going, regardless of how much we wanted it to stop or slow down, to just let us get used to life without him…but time just kept flipping us the bird.

“So, why are you just trying to bang her?” Kyle turned on his side, watching me.

Was it morbid that we came out here and spent time on our dad’s gravesite? Maybe…but the groundskeeper, Joe, was a good guy and had actually known our dad as he’d coached Joe’s son in little league. So, we were allowed to come here whenever we wanted, as long as we weren’t doing anything shitty.

“What do you mean?”

“It’s just…if Elias is really doing with this girl what we read in the report, you need to do more than just bang her…you need to completely fuck this up for him. Hit him where it counts,” he clarified, sounding much more mature than his sixteen years.

I considered it for a second. The report in question explained a plethora of deplorable things our Uncle Scotty had dug up for us. Ever since that night on the field, he’d gotten involved, and I was unsure why Elias wasn’t six feet underground right now. Scotty didn’t exactly deal in ethics or morals, but we didn’t ask or judge. He’d gotten enough dirt on the guy to build a fucking baseball field.

“You know I don’t really like her, right?”

Kyle laughed. “Duh, dumbfuck, but you’re playing her regardless—might as well play an ace, right?”

I thought it over again, considered what kind of damage that could do to E if I was actually dating Taylor.

“It would fuck with him…” I trailed off, watching the stars.

We both sat in silence, but my mind kept wandering back to the moment I opened that door and saw her standing in that room.

I hadn’t ever been in love, not that I knew of, but the punch to my chest when I saw her wasn’t something I’d ever forget. My eyes greedily drank in her luscious curves, her round ass, and those fucking breasts…full, real…perfect. She was all woman and entirely perfect.

I remembered, up close, I could see her eyes were forest green with tiny specks of gold from the reflection of the light in the room. She had a cluster of freckles across her nose, splattered along her cheeks, with just one above her left eyebrow. She was beautiful. The kind of beauty that would take years to fully appreciate, and even longer to fully discover. The kind you’d want to wake up to every day, the kind you’d want to see in your kids and their kids.The forever kind.

I couldn’t seem to forget the way her hands fit against my chest, the way their warmth seemed to spread into the icy cavern that existed under my skin…it was enough to make my breath hitch.

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