Page 26 of The Second Dance
“Just you.”
“That asshole.” She shakes her head. “But that means that dick face Bo Thomas told him in the first place.”
I smile at her uncharacteristic swearing.
I pull a throw pillow onto my lap. “My dumb ass actually thought he liked me.”
I still remember every detail from that night. The way he held me. How gentle he was.
He told me I was beautiful. And yeah, I sang along to Taylor Swift after telling him how much I hated country music.
Still do.
Hate, hate, hate it.
Whit puts her arm around my shoulder. “You weren’t dumb for thinking that, Andy. He was dumb for treating you like that and telling his buddies about it.”
15.
Bo
March Madness is one of the few times we descend on Josh.
That and football season in the fall.
I don’t think he misses the bar scene. He only ever used that time to self-medicate. Now that he’s got Erin, the bar holds absolutely no appeal.
But football and basketball season? Yeah. We all miss those days.
I’m probably more like my dad in that regard than I like to admit. But they call them ‘glory days’ for a reason.
Josh’s moved on, though. More than once. His house of cards came tumbling down when Ana died, and this tough son of a bitch picked everything up and started over with Erin.
I admire him.
More than I can say.
It’s kind of funny to see the two of them together. He’s a big fucker, and Erin’s such a little thing. I wonder if that’s what Andy and I would have looked like together.
Duke scores again, and the guys groan, jogging me out of my thoughts.
They jog little Belle out of her slumbers, too. As soon as everyone sits down, we can hear her fussing from her crib.
Erin gives us a long-suffering look before trudging off to retrieve her. She promptly returns with a very alert, very grumpy little girl.
“You break it you buy it.” She says, carrying the baby to Josh.
“I’ll take her.” I say, holding out my hands.
“Such a softy.” Erin murmurs, but she looks pleased. Belle is a beautiful baby and anyone who acknowledges that is instantly on Erin’s good side.
I settle Belle into the crook of my arm and start trying to explain the rules of basketball to her.
Josh glances over at me, shaking his head with a grin. “You need to get one of your own, man.”
“I’ll just keep borrowing this one.”
“You can babysit anytime you want.” He says. “But you’d make a good dad.”
