Red Zone: Boys of Fall (7 page)

He nodded. He’d only missed a half-dozen Sundays in the last decade, yet his mother always felt the need to double-check. “Of course.”

Oakley fidgeted next to him, looking for a chance to escape. His mother was nothing like Oakley’s folks, who were free spirits who laughed often and hadn’t imposed many rules on his friend growing up. Oakley didn’t know how to relate to Joel’s strict, quiet mother and her devout religious beliefs. In fact, Mom seemed to be the only person with the ability to make Oakley nervous. So much so, he rarely spoke in her presence, always afraid he’d say the wrong thing.

Joel was probably an asshole for enjoying his friend’s discomfiture so much. After all, his mother had never been rude to Oakley. She just hadn’t been great at hiding her displeasure of his wild lifestyle and foul language. Oakley had expressed his amazement that Joel had grown up with any sense of humor at all. Joel tried to explain that just because his mother didn’t smother him with hugs and kisses and care packages like Oakley’s did, didn’t mean she didn’t love him. She just wasn’t comfortable expressing emotion—
any
emotion.

“Good.” Mom hitched her purse higher on her arm. “It’s my week to clean up communion, so you might want to come a little later. Or you could come earlier and go to mass with me. I know Father Andrew would love to see you there.”

His mother had been trying to get him to return to mass with her for several months. Joel had always gone with her to the Sunday morning services, but after Coach’s heart attack, things had been too busy on the ranch. He’d used that as an excuse, but the fact was he’d only been attending mass to please his mother. He didn’t find the same peace in the service that she did. Now that he’d made the break, he was finding it difficult to
unbreak
it. “I’m not sure I’ll be able to make it this week, Mom. I’ll just meet you at home for lunch.”

Mom’s expression was pinched. He’d pissed her off.

Oakley shifted uncomfortably. “Okay. So we probably should, um…”

Joel took the hint. “Right. We’ve got a lot of errands to run.”

They were about to say their goodbyes when Sadie’s father approached them.

“Hello, Ms. Rodriguez,” Mr. Milligan said, tipping his baseball cap respectfully.

Mom’s smile was friendly. “Good afternoon, Mr. Milligan. Lovely to see you.”

Nelson Milligan was an enormous, hairy bear of a man. Joel and Oakley weren’t small guys, both of them well over six feet tall. Mr. Milligan made them look like toy soldiers by comparison. The man was easily six-seven and pushing three-fifty—all of it sheer muscle. And all of that muscle was covered in tattoos of skulls, naked women, a huge dragon and Sadie’s name on one of his biceps. He looked like a cross between a Hell’s Angel and a death-row inmate. The dude was fucking scary.

If Joel’s mother intimidated Oakley, Sadie’s dad scared the hell out of Joel. And Joel didn’t spook easy.

So far they’d managed to avoid the guy since hooking up with Sadie. With any luck, they’d been successful in keeping their affair a secret, because Joel didn’t want to know what would happen if Nelson Milligan found out about it. Sadie had mentioned murder and while she’d meant that as a joke, Joel was fairly certain that was a definite possibility.

Mr. Milligan smiled at his mom. Unfortunately, any bit of pleasantness on his face was gone when he turned to face Joel and Oakley. “Heard you two left Wade’s wedding with my daughter.”

Shit. Joel nodded. “We shared a cab.” He didn’t bother to add that the cab hadn’t taken them to their own home.

Mr. Milligan’s scowl deepened. “No shit. I own a bar, Joel. If there’s anyone in town who knows the local cabbies better than me, I’d like to meet them.”

Joel wasn’t sure how to respond to that, so he didn’t. He glanced over at Oakley, who gave him a slight
I don’t know what the fuck to do
shrug.

“Man who drove you that night said he dropped the three of you off at Sadie’s place. Said you looked pretty chummy.”

“Chummy?” Joel’s mom asked.

“Also heard you two have been showing up at Pitchers at closing time. Suppose you’re going to tell me it’s just a coincidence you picked the nights when I wasn’t there.”

That was no coincidence at all. Sadie had given them the nightly work schedule and told them exactly when to come.

“We’re friends, Mr. Milligan.” Joel didn’t have a clue how to get out of this.

Mr. Milligan crossed his arms. “That all?”

Joel didn’t want to lie. It didn’t come easy to him, didn’t sit right. Because in just a few short days, he knew he could never return to being merely friends with Sadie. He was crazy about her. At some point, he’d have to figure out what to do with those feelings because he’d backed himself into a corner—agreeing to a no-strings fling and including Oakley in the equation. He was fucked six ways to Sunday.

“Yep,” Oakley answered, finally joining the conversation. Oakley teased Joel about his bad habit of being “honest to a fault”. Meanwhile, Oakley was a master at stretching the truth. “We’ve asked her out about a thousand times each. She keeps turning us down. You got any advice for us, Mr. Milligan?”

Oakley’s guileless grin didn’t fool anyone.

“Yeah,” Mr. Milligan said, suddenly appearing a foot taller. “Stay away from my daughter. She’s too good for either one of you.”

“What’s going on with you and Sadie?” Mom asked Joel point-blank.

This conversation kept going from bad to worse.

Joel winced. “What Oakley said. We’re friends.”

“But you’d like it to be more?”

So much more.

Before he could reply, his mom turned to Mr. Milligan. “Sadie works in your bar, is that correct?”

Mr. Milligan nodded, clearly reconsidering his timing. He’d wanted to scare the shit out of him and Oakley, but he’d failed to take Joel’s mom’s presence into account.

“She’s the girl with the tattoos and the earring right here?” His mother tapped her nose to demonstrate.

“Yeah. She is.” Mr. Milligan’s tone dared his mother to make a disparaging comment about either, but that clearly wasn’t his mother’s intent.

“I met her at a wedding last December. She was working the bar there. They had one of those Keurig coffee machines set up. I couldn’t figure it out for the life of me. Sadie taught me how to use it and made me a cup. You have a lovely girl, Mr. Milligan.”

Some of the aggression in Sadie’s dad diminished at that. “She bartends part-time for special events, to make extra money.”

“Are you and Oakley bothering this girl?” Mom asked him.

“No, Mom,” Joel said, his temper sparking though he tried to remain cool. He was a grown-ass man, whether she wanted to believe it or not. “We aren’t.”

“Mmmhmm.” It was a typical reply. Whenever she didn’t believe him, she gave him that damn hum that let him know she’d be praying for his soul at mass. Joel tried to recall the last time his mother had paid him a compliment. It had been…years.

She turned back to Mr. Milligan. He cast a pretty big shadow over her, yet in this instance, his mother looked three times bigger than the giant standing next to her.

“You’ve raised a fine daughter.”

“Thank you, Ms. Rodriguez.” For a second, Joel thought Mr. Milligan actually blushed, but that could be remnants of the anger that sent him over here to threaten him and Oakley.

Oakley looked as bewildered as Joel by the exchange. “Uh, we gotta go…do some stuff,” his friend said in what was probably the most awkward attempt at escape ever.

“I’ll see you Sunday, Joel,” his mother said. “Goodbye, Mr. Milligan. Oakley.” The last name was added with the same unimpressed look she always reserved for Oakley.

Mr. Milligan tipped his hat once more, and then shot them a deadly look before heading off in the opposite direction.

Oakley slapped Joel on the back. “And that, my friend, is why I moved as far away from my folks as I could. Doesn’t matter how old you get. Parents are always going to stick their noses in your business.”

“Nelson Milligan is going to murder us. Painfully,” Joel said matter-of-factly.

“Oh yeah. That’s a given.” Then Oakley grinned widely. “But you know what? It’ll totally be worth it.”

That one line told Joel everything he needed to know. There wasn’t going to be an easy resolution to what they’d begun. Oakley was as smitten with Sadie as Joel was.

This wasn’t good.

* * *

Oakley had just finished unloading the truck when his cell phone rang. He grinned as Sadie’s name popped up on the screen.

“Hey, gorgeous.”

“Hi, Oak.” The sound of her voice made him feel good all over. He’d been floating on this cloud of nonstop happiness since the wedding. Making a big enough jackass of himself that Coach had called him out for it this morning when he’d caught Oakley leaning on his pitchfork, his thoughts a million miles away and a goofy grin on his face. Coach had told him to get his head out of ass and pay attention to what he was doing.

Oakley figured that was easier said than done. He couldn’t go two seconds without reliving some part of his time with Joel and Sadie. He was happier than he’d ever been in his life.

“What’s up?”

“I was at the ranch earlier.”

Oakley was instantly disappointed he’d missed her. “What for?”

“I’m helping Lorelie plan the after-party for Homecoming. We worked out the alcohol list. I was hoping to run into you and Joel and Woody in the barn.”

His cock rose at the sexy tone. “Damn, sweetheart. I wish you’d told us you were coming. We could have postponed our trip to town.”

“My fault. I was hoping to surprise you. Believe me, I won’t make that mistake again.”

He chuckled. Woman had a sex drive that rivaled his. Which was scary considering he thought about sex approximately every three seconds.

“By the way, Lorelie knows I’m sleeping with Joel.”

Oakley frowned. “Just Joel?”

“Yeah. It was a weird conversation. She could tell something was up by the way I kept looking outside for you guys. One thing led to another and she figured out there was some sex going down.”

“Why would she think you were with Joel?”

“She guessed it was you at first, but I was trying to put her off the trail. She said something about how you never sleep with the same person twice, so if I was there looking, it must be for Joel. I realized I was being dumb to play it off completely. If she thinks I’m sleeping with one of you, she won’t question it if my bike is parked outside your bunkhouse one night. Or several nights.”

It was a good idea, but there was something about Lorelie thinking Sadie was just with Joel that rubbed him wrong. He knew he’d always given off a vibe of carefree Oakley, the guy who never settled down, but that wasn’t for lack of desire. He’d always hoped to find someone and get married. Or at least someone to cohabitate with for the rest of his life. He was starting to resent that everyone thought he was a bad bet—Joel’s mom, Sadie’s dad, Lorelie. Maybe even Sadie and Joel.

The thought of those last two stung the most.

“That’s probably a good idea,” he said begrudgingly. “Ran into your pop today.”

“Oh shit. What happened?”

Oakley climbed the three steps to the porch of the bunkhouse and sank down on one of the two rocking chairs there. The bunkhouse was small, built at the same time as the ranch house. It wasn’t a huge spread, but it was big enough to keep them busy. It had been a shit ton of work when it had been him, Joel and Coach. Since Coach’s heart attack and recovery, the only thing keeping the ranch going was Joel’s former teammates. If not for them, he and Joel would have been working twenty-four-seven.

“Let’s just say no blood was shed. Yet.”

Sadie groaned. “Dammit. Asshole cabbie came to pick up a drunk at Pitchers last night. Started running his mouth about dropping the three of us off at my place. I told my dad—and the driver—to mind their own business. I thought that had taken care of it. How bad was it?”

“It was a show. Especially when Joel’s mom hopped in.”

“She was there?”

Oakley understood her alarm. It had been a pretty uncomfortable scene. “Yup. Figure it’s just our rotten luck that my folks are the only ones who don’t live in Quinn. They’d get a kick out of our relationship.”

“We’re not in a relationship.” Sadie had made that point clear to them every single time they’d hooked up. She insisted it was just sex. That was all it could be.

Joel obviously agreed with that assessment. Neither of them thought a threesome could be more than a sexual fling. Oakley didn’t agree. He believed he and Joel could quite easily share Sadie for the rest of their lives. The three of them fit together.

If that meant putting away a part of himself—the part that was attracted to Joel too—then so be it. He was relatively sure he could do that. He was sure as hell willing to try if it meant keeping both of them in his life.

So he didn’t push the relationship point. It was still early days. Wouldn’t do him any good to spook them now. He was determined to show them exactly how good the three of them were together.

“Fine, Sade. But you’re going to have to give me something to call this thing we’re doing. Feels like more than just a fling, you know?”

“I’ll give it some thought and get back to you,” she teased. “And I’ll talk to Dad again. Tell him to stay the hell away from y’all.”

Oakley chuckled. “Yeah. I don’t see that happening. He was pretty pissed.”

“I guess that explains why he suddenly changed tonight’s schedule. He’s working until close with me. That’s why I called.”

“Fuck,” Oakley muttered. They’d made plans to meet up at Pitchers. It had become a bit of a routine, locking the doors behind the last customer then meeting at “their table”. Sometimes Sadie went down on him, other times she offered that paradise to Joel. Then they took turns fucking her.

It was completely hot, but Oakley was sort of anxious to break the pattern. He wanted to get Sadie in a bed, wanted to show her all the ways he and Joel could rock her world. “How late are you going to be?”

Sadie sighed. “No idea. Friday nights are usually hoppin’. Could be well after two. Which doesn’t really work with those
up with the sun
hours you and Joel keep on the ranch.”