Page 60 of Silent Count
“I’ll go with you,” Brooke says, standing to follow her.
Charlie takes a bite of her pretzel. “I’ll leave you girls to do that, but, hey,” she calls out as they walk away, “I don’t want a ticket! I just want to watch you guys fall off.” She laughs and nearly chokes on her pretzel.
“Noelle won’t fall.” Casey defends her.
Charlie drops her head and looks down her nose at him. “Case, I love Noelle, but she doesn’t have an athletic bone in her body. She won’t last a minute on there.”
He lifts his shoulder. “I think she will.”
“I have faith too, Casey,” Chelsea says.
Charlie has a piece of pretzel in her hand and uses it to point at Chelsea. “You’re doing it, right?”
Chelsea nods. “Yeah. Why not? I’ll probably make a fool of myself, but I don’t really care.”
“I mean, it’s not like you’re dragging it around by a leash or anything,” Silas teases me.
“Fuck off.” I chuckle.
A few minutes later, the girls come back with three tickets.
“You guys didn’t want to try, right?” Noelle asks, looking at us guys.
“Pretty girl, Coach would be pissed if one of us got hurt by messing around on that thing. Even for fun.” He holds her hand as she climbs back over the bench.
“That’s what I thought, so I only got these three since Charlie’s a party pooper.” Noelle sticks her tongue out at Charlie.
My girl sets her turkey leg down on her plate and wipes off her hands. “I probably shouldn’t eat any more of this if I’m going to be going up soon. What number are they on?” She looks over toward the mat where the bull is.
“I think there are, like, five people in front of us.” Brooke glances over at Noelle. “Right?”
“Yeah, I think so. Are you guys done? We should probably go over there.” Noelle stands again, holding on to Casey’s hand.
I grab my plate and look at Chelsea. “Are you done with your leg, or do you think you’ll want more?”
She giggles. “I’m done with my leg. I’m saving room for that funnel cake. And I might switch out the Twinkie for a fried Oreo instead.” She drops her mouth open and wiggles her brows.
“Living dangerously. I like it. But please don’t puke on the way home. I’m a sympathetic puker, and I really don’t want to do that in front of you.” I scrunch my face in disgust.
When I stand, I hold out my hand for her so she can climb over the bench. Once she’s standing behind it, I pick up my plate and hers as the others walk ahead of us.
She looks up at me while we walk. “So, you really never had any pets growing up?”
I drop our plates in the trash, then take her hand in mine. “I really didn’t. My mom’s sisters and her parents had dogs, so when we visited, we’d get our puppy fix, I guess. Never really bothered me much as I got older because I was so busy playing sports.”
“Did you play anything other than football?”
I nod. “Yeah, I played baseball and a little basketball. By the time I got to high school, I was only playing baseball and football.”
Casey calls my name to tell me where they are, and I lift my chin to acknowledge him as we make our way over to the group.
“I actually almost went to school to play baseball instead. And they tried to get me to play here, too, but football is what I really love and part of my long-term plan.”
“That’s fun. I can see you as a baseball player. You have the perfect baseball butt.” She smacks my ass.
My mouth lifts up on one side, and I wink at her. “Thanks, Lucky. I’m a big fan of your butt too.” I release her hand, then run my hand over her ass in these skintight jeans that are driving me wild. “Have I told you yet that I can’t wait to get these off of you tonight?”
We reach our friends and stand around the mat that the mechanical bull sits on. It has a rope around it, like you see in a boxing ring. There’s a girl our age on it right now, and she looks like she knows what she’s doing. Her arm is up in the air, and her other hand is holding on to a horn on top of the machine. She rocks with it as it slowly speeds up. When she flicks her wrist, thebull starts to get faster. There’s a group of girls on the other side, watching her and cheering her on.
