Under the Lights (The Field Party #2) - Abbi Glines Page 0,12
the kitchen inside. “I guess. Come on, and I’ll feed you a healthy meal of peanut butter cookies and whole milk like only my nonna can supply.”
It had been a while since I’d had her nonna’s cookies. My mother didn’t allow anything as terrible as sweets in the house, and I was too old to come begging Ms. Ames for a treat. Not to mention, the idea of coming to this house and not seeing Willa had been too hard for so long it had become a habit to stay away from here. Even after time healed my broken eleven-year-old heart.
Following her into the house, I watched her ass twitch. It was a really nice ass. Hard not to look at, and I wasn’t going to not look while I had the chance.
“I think she has lemon pound cake, too. Want to add that to your healthy dinner of cookies and milk?”
“Hell yeah. I’m a growing boy.”
She let out a soft laugh and shook her head. “I’d offer you a sandwich, but I doubt you’ll have room for it with all the baked goods.”
“Cookies and cake are just fine. So how did you like school today? Suck here as bad as your last school?”
I doubted anyone loved school. I was going to get her talking about her past and why she was back, but I needed to trick her into it.
“Looks like you love school just fine.” She sounded snide as she pulled a frozen glass mug out of the freezer, then filled it with milk. I’d forgotten that Ms. Ames froze her milk glasses. That always made the milk taste better somehow.
“Are you being a smart-ass again?” I asked, torn between watching the icy cold milk with anticipation and the way her body looked in that outfit.
“Stating a fact isn’t being a smart-ass,” she replied as she turned to bring my milk and cookies over to me. I liked the way her voice had that raspy tone in it. Her drawl wasn’t as thick as it had once been, but it was there.
Lingering.
I Just Want Out of Here
CHAPTER 8
WILLA
Inviting Gunner in was probably stupid. His mother would hate it if she found out. Nonna would be furious. And Gunner wasn’t exactly friend material anymore. He was everything a wealthy, spoiled, good-looking guy turned out to be.
But I’d let him in. Because I was lonely maybe. Because I needed company from someone who didn’t look at me with disappointment. Because for now I didn’t want to think about what I’d done wrong, or the correctional hell I’d lived through. Or the fact my mother hated me.
So here I was with Gunner Lawton in my nonna’s kitchen, eating cookies and pound cake and drinking milk, when I knew he should be at his family dinner with the all-important Grandmother Lawton. The boy I used to know, however, wasn’t one to upset his mother. He tried to make his dad happy. I poured myself a glass of milk too and joined him at the table.
“When did you decide to become a rebel and piss off the folks? Is this a new thing, or have you been at it awhile now?” I asked, truly curious.
Gunner looked at me over the frosty glass he was taking a drink out of. I could see anger flash there, then a coldness. He was different all right. I wasn’t the only one who had changed. I guess we all did that with age and time.
“Stopped giving a shit what they wanted a few years back” was the only response I got.
“No more cotillion events then?” I asked, not even trying to hide my smirk. He had hated the cotillion his mother made him attend back when we were younger. He’d even begged her to let him take me once so he wouldn’t have to dance with one of those country club girls in their long white dresses and fancy hats.
“Fuck no. God those were terrible,” he said with a grin tugging at his lips. He had really good lips.
“Little Gunner Lawton always tried to please his momma and did all he could to get his dad’s approval. Guess I didn’t expect that to change with puberty.” I was pushing him. But I liked thinking about his past instead of mine.
Gunner finished off his lemon pound cake before looking back up at me. I could see the indecision in his eyes. There was something there. He wanted to tell me, but he wasn’t sure if he should. His