Page 78 of Bourbon Bliss
“Were you crushing on any of the players?” I nudged her gently.
I meant it as a tease, a chance for me to joke about football players being better than baseball, but her expression grew serious.
“Yes. Unfortunately.”
“Uh-oh. What happened?”
She held onto the chain link fence and looked out at the field. “Senior year, I liked a boy on the team. Hank Preston. I’d never paid a lot of attention to boys before that. Cassidy and Scarlett did, but I could take them or leave them. But I went to all the games, and he started paying attention to me. I liked that. He asked me to the prom, but…”
I stroked her hair. “But what?”
“We didn’t go. A few days before, we were together after practice. I went with him to his house. We had… we had sex. And then he took Tanya Varney to the prom and didn’t talk to me anymore.”
“Oh my god, June.”
“I heard later that he told his friends he just wanted to find out if I was a robot, like people said.”
Anger coursed through me, searing me from the inside. “Does he still live in town? Because I would love to pay him a visit.”
She sighed. “No, and anyway, it was a long time ago.”
“I hope you let your sister and Scarlett go after him.”
“Oh, they did. Scarlett flattened his tires with a screwdriver and Cassidy spread a rumor that he hadn’t been able to keep an erection long enough to have intercourse with me.”
I ran my hand down her back. “I would have done worse. Broke his nose, for starters.”
“Do you want to know what doesn’t make any sense?”
“Sure.”
“I really wanted to go to my prom.”
“Why doesn’t that make sense?”
“It was a dance,” she said with a shrug. “I’d never cared about going to a dance before that one. But Mom took me into Perrinville to get a dress and Cassidy was going to do my hair. I actually wanted to go. And even though what Hank did to me before that night was arguably worse, sitting home on prom night was when it hurt the most.”
I gathered her in my arms and held her close. “I’m sorry, June Bug.”
She threaded her arms around my waist and rested her head against my chest. “Did you go to prom?”
“I did.” I didn’t want to say prom had been great. I’d been crowned prom king, and my girlfriend at the time—a cheerleader—had been queen. High school had been like that for me—fun and easy. I’d been the football star. Everyone had loved me.
They’d loved GT, anyway. I wasn’t so sure about George.
“You had a perfect prom, didn’t you?” she asked.
“It was… yeah, it was pretty great.”
“I bet you were prom king.”
I laughed. “Can you read minds, too?”
“It doesn’t take a genius to know you must have been popular in high school. You’re terribly attractive, and fun, and clearly you were the star of your football team.”
“I’mterribly attractive, am I?”
“You must be aware of your substantial physical advantages. You’re tall, and your athletic prowess makes your body undeniably appealing.” She nibbled her bottom lip and her speech slowed. “You have those dimples in your cheeks when you smile. And those hands.”
