Dropping The Ball - A New Year’s Billionaire Romance - Weston Parker Page 0,66
you about the goat?” Mom asked, and I bolted upright and swiped my fingers across my lips in an attempt to get her to shut it.
Of all the stories to start with.
Mom flatly ignored me, all her attention on Rylee when she got into the story. “Your brother was interested in some girl from that high school with the goat as their mascot. You know the one across town?”
Rylee rubbed her palms together. “Yep. I remember it.”
“Well, the boys decided it would be a great idea to steal the mascot. The girl was a cheerleader, so they figured she’d come looking for it.”
“She didn’t,” my dad added helpfully. “Her father did. He was some big-shot college swimming coach, and he found them lying on top of each other in our front yard.”
“The goat had come off the rope we had him on and we chased him at the same time,” I said, though I’d given up trying to hold onto my dignity for the evening. “We were so focused on it that we didn’t look at one another. Crashing happens. You don’t have to say it like we were intentionally on top of one another.”
Rylee roared with laughter next to me. “What happened with the girl?”
“Her father told her Billy batted for the wrong team, and she ended up trying to befriend him.” Mom chuckled. “Poor guy couldn’t catch a break back then.”
“I think he’s more than making up for it now.” My brother and I talked often enough that I knew some about his life in Nashville. I never flat out asked him, but from what I’d picked up, he wasn’t doing badly with the ladies. “What else have you got for me?”
“He shaved for the first time at our house,” my dad offered next. “I caught both these idiots trying to use my razor. It was blunt, and they hadn’t used much shaving cream, so they both looked like they’d been attacked by birds with all the bumps on their faces after.”
“I remember that,” she said, laughing as she propped her elbows on her knees and put her chin in the heels of her joined hands. “Billy almost cried when he dived into the pool the next day.”
“That’s why kids should let their parents know what they’re doing.” Mom chuckled again, leaning over to rest her head on Dad’s shoulder. “They think we only want to meddle. It’s too late when they realize we can actually help.”
“What happened to letting us make our own mistakes?” I asked, realizing my mistake when Dad’s bushy eyebrows wagged at me.
“Oh, I don’t know what happens then. How about you refusing to touch a razor again?”
“To be fair, he didn’t need it.” Mom sighed, her cheeks flushed under the heater but her eyes happy. “His facial hair only really started coming after he turned twenty.”
“Thanks, Mom.” I scrubbed my five o’clock shadow with my palm to prove my point. “I think it’s trying to make up for lost time.”
“Better late than never,” she retorted before bringing her gaze back to Rylee’s. “Billy ever tell you what happened at their junior prom?”
“No, but I remember he had a black eye the next day. He never told us what happened.” She was enthralled by these stories, but I supposed I would’ve been too.
Billy and I had kept mostly away from her. He thought she was annoying. I thought she was pretty. It seemed like the best thing to do for all involved to keep our distance, regardless of how often she tried to hang out with us.
“He didn’t run into the door. I can tell you that much.” Mom grinned. “Carter and Billy tried to fight a garden gnome.”
“What?” She laughed. “I’m assuming it didn’t fight back?”
Mom shook her head. “Nope. Some kid had spiked the punch and they claimed they didn’t know. They got drunk and fought each other, then tried to convince us it was the gnome.”
“How did he hide all this from me?” Rylee was gasping for breath from how hard she was laughing, trying to imagine it all. “I’d have paid good money to see that.”
“It was a very pathetic fight,” Dad said, motioning to me. “It was before Carter made it his life’s goal to look like a hefty kitchen appliance.”
“I’m not built like a fridge,” I objected, but my parents scoffed at me. “I said it one time. One time. I didn’t even mean it literally. I just meant that I had to be bigger.”