my head. “Strictly a private mixer. I wasn’t certain we could skip the parental permission forms since the attendees will all be minors, but Sam assured me it wouldn’t be necessary since it’s not a school-sanctioned event.” That little niggling ball of doubt started unraveling in my chest. “I hope kids show up. My fear is that they’ll wake up today and think . . . No one will ever accept me, so I’ll just stay home.”
“That is a possibility. But there are also those kids who will be nervous as hell to come, but they’ll do so anyway and maybe for the first time ever, they’ll be surrounded by people who accept them, and they’ll see they’re not as different or alone as they’d thought.”
“I hope you’re right.”
“Why’d you decide to do an event like this?”
“I wish I had a great, uplifting story as an inspiration. But I’d been waffling on two other ideas when Sam suggested this. I immediately got on board.” I swigged my coffee. “Why?”
She shrugged. “I would’ve guessed you, as a member of the Lund family, would host a sports-themed event.”
“I’m sure Jax will do that once he’s caught up building his business empire. As far as my cousins, we all do our own thing when it comes to LCCO. Annika sponsors a coat drive. Brady and Lennox host tutoring classes. Walker and Trinity build and paint sets for community theater. Jensen and Rowan run a summer camp that focuses on music, dance and art.” I smiled. “After today? The pressure will be on Ash and Dallas to get their projects lined up.”
“Woo-hoo!” sounded from the entryway. “The star power is here, baby, so light ’em up!”
“Back here,” I shouted.
Gabi’s friends Mariah and Amy wandered in.
“Write it on the calendar, Mariah is early for a change!” Gabi said.
“What do you mean, early?” Mariah whirled on Amy. “Woman, did you lie to me about what time we were supposed to be here?”
“Yes. How was I to know you’d actually listen to me for a change and we’d be nearly an hour early?” Amy smiled at me. “Hey, Nolan.”
“Amy. Thanks for coming.”
“What do you want us to do?”
Sam hustled in, laptop bag dangling from the crook of his arm as he carried in two boxes. “I’d love for one of you to grab the other box of volunteers’ T-shirts in the back of my car while I set up the coffeemaker.”
“You bought a coffeepot?”
He looked at me over the tops of his sunglasses. “You bought a coffeepot. You know I don’t function at all without massive amounts of caffeine.”
“Yes, we agreed not to discuss the Miami incident ever again.”
Mariah and Amy returned, and introductions were made. Then Sam’s friends Markus and Edison arrived.
Sam clapped his hands to stop the chattering. “I have two boxes of T-shirts for volunteers so please find a size that fits and put it on. If someone approaches you claiming to be a volunteer, send them to me. Since we are dealing with minors, I have a list of officially recognized volunteers.”
While Sam passed out other assignments, I snagged the bright blue T-shirt off the top of the pile that had my name on the sticky note. I checked out the design as I walked to the locker room area. VOLUNTEER in big black letters across the front, curved over a rainbow. The LCCO logo on the back. Perfect. Simple with clear sponsorship.
I’d just removed my button-down shirt, when I heard, “Nolan?” I turned around.
Gabi stood there, gaping at me. “Oh. I, ah . . . sorry.”
The way her eyes devoured me didn’t say “sorry” at all.
So I flexed my arms and tightened my abdomen as I leaned over to pluck the T-shirt off the bench. “Did you want something?”
“I . . . ah . . .”
Erasing the distance between us allowed her a better—closer—view of my torso, because she hadn’t looked me in the eyes since she’d walked in. “Gabriella? Are you okay?”
She blinked and tilted her head back to meet my gaze, then jammed her finger into my sternum. Hard. “No, I’m not okay, you sneaky jackass.”
“Excuse me?”
Another poke, harder this time. “I really thought the reason you wore such fancy-ass custom-made clothing was because you’re the brainy type, not the athletic type . . . kind of like when that super-nerdy character Chidi from The Good Place whipped off his shirt after being doused by sprinklers and everyone was like . . . whoa, he is built like that? Now