Page 57 of Time Out

It’d be closing in on eight o’clock by the time we got there, and people would have packed the bars as soon as they opened. When it came to knowing how to party, the people who swarmed Broadway were champions. Except it also meant the streets would already be reeking of vomit and piss.

“Hard pass, Carr,” Dawson said from in front of us. He slapped Charles’s chest and grabbed his overnight bag from the overhead compartment. “You heading out?”

He turned and asked me.

“No. I don’t think so.”

“What?” Mason shrieked from halfway up the plane. “What the hell, man? You never head to Broadway with us, and you’re the one who started this idea!”

It ate at me I hadn’t told more of the team about Maggie—either meeting her or seeing her again. It’d only been a week since she popped back into my life, but ever since that first night, I’d barely gone out to the bars with the guys. A drink or something with dinner, sure, but other than that, this wasn’t the first time I’d backed out. Based on the way Mason was glaring at me, I needed to fix that. And I would. Soon.

“Leave him alone. He’s got a chick.”

“What?” asked Sam, who’d spoken up.

“Why else would you not be hanging with us?”

He shrugged like it was obvious and as the guys started ribbing me about having a girl I was hiding from them, I told them to fuck off and turned back to Dawson.

“What are you doing?”

“Going home. Crystal’s in town.”

“Your sister is here? Why didn’t she come to the game?” Sure, it was an away one, but she’d done it before.

“Because she didn’t want to.”

From what I knew, Dawson and his sister were really close, but she was also pretty damn selfish and easily manipulated him. His parents were divorced due to an affair from his mom and after that ended in a giant crap show, every time he talked about his family, it sounded to me like his sister was following in her mother’s footsteps instead of being a decent human.

Crystal lived in Ohio, where they were from. She’d randomly show up at Dawson’s and usually left with a wallet heavy in cash and a brother in a shit mood.

Exactly what we needed with our season coming to an end.

It really wasn’t my problem, and I had my own ideas on how to ring in the new year, but he’d always had my back…

“Need back up?”

He scowled at me, telling me exactly how his visit with his was going to go. “No.”

All right then.

I waited until I was in my truck, luggage loaded in the back and my phone connected to the truck’s CarPlay before I made my call.

“Hey. Good game today.”

And just like that, hearing Maggie’s voice through the phone got me all excited about the win all over again.

“Thanks. You watched?”

“I did. You’re really good.”

She knew nothing about football, so the compliment shouldn’t have meant so much, but from her, with that sweet lilt in her voice, it did. I wanted her.

“What are you doing now?”

“Oh… um, vacuuming?”

“Why is that a question?”

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