“It’s baseball. It’s innately boring,” I muttered. “You can’t work miracles.”
“Har, har. Yeah, well, with the right company and the right junk food, you really start to understand America’s favorite pastime. You really should come along sometime, man.”
“I think America has a few other pastimes higher up the list.” Ryan waved me off. “I’ll pass on that one. I’m going to go hibernate and get back to my dreams.”
Yeah, what delicious, sweet dreams I’d be getting back to.
Dad, ever oblivious, looked at me. “Hmm. Running away from your problems? Is something wrong, son?”
I shook his head furiously. “No, no. Just a bit of much-needed R and R, I assure you. Nothing to worry about.”
Sam grinned, knowingly.
CHAPTER EIGHT
SAMUEL BAKER
I don’t know how I’m gonna act like it’s just another day.
By the time I got to Noah’s, the top of the first inning was already over. Judging by the scoreboard, though, I hadn’t missed anything important.
“What held you up?” Noah said as I hopped over the couch to sit down beside him.
“What’s it matter to you? You miss me or something?” I said and made kissy lips at him.
Noah rolled his eyes. “Nah, nah. Just... odd for you to be late is all. You and Ry are, like, super punctual—all the time. It’s really kind of surprising.”
“We had a long night. Graduation. Hung out with Grace. And Kelly. You know, the whole thing.” He knew Grace, of course, via the extended circle of friends that looped back on itself.
“Grace?” He perked up and looked my way.
Oh. Well, then. I should have kept that to myself.
Second only to Ryan and Gray, Noah was near the top of my best friends list, just ahead of his older brother Brandon. He was a little bit of an elder brother for all of us, if only by two years. Just old enough to have enough wisdom to keep the rest of us out of trouble.
Noah elbowed my side. “Ha, two girls, two dudes, what did you mean you hung out?” He stared at me like he wanted answers.
Why did my night suddenly hold his interest more than the game? It made no sense.
“We had a drink. A swim. We celebrated being free of the high school grind.”
All of that was true.
“That’s it?” He seemed hardly convinced of our innocence.
I looked at the screen and didn’t answer. What could I say? I couldn’t tell him the whole story. I was a bit more of a gentleman than to kiss and tell after a one-night stand. The dudes who did that always sounded like such jerks. Plus, it didn’t seem kind to spill the story when I knew Noah had the hots for our Grace too.
For a while, we didn’t speak, and just watched the game. I hoped we’d dropped the topic.
But just when I started to get into the game and had forgotten about whatever we’d said last, he suddenly said, “You and Ry celebrated with Kelly and our high school’s best GILT F and you didn’t invite me. Man, see, it sounds like you bros had a plan.”
“Grace is your number one GILT?” I asked, using our much used made-up acronym. I knew she was on his list, but I hadn’t realized she was at the top.
“Of course, Grace the Girl I’d Like To.” He cupped his crotch and sighed. “Fuuuuck,” he said in a low breath. His eyes gazed toward the TV, but had sort of glazed over.
“I thought you were saving your dick for the girl you’re going to marry,” I said, surprised by his bluntness.
For most of us guys, we definitely thought and talked about the GILT Fs, but for strictly religious Noah, it had been more of the GILT kiss and hold hands with. He wasn’t an evangelical bore who tried to save the rest of us or anything. He just stuck to his beliefs. And I admired him for that, among other things.
“You know what it’s like being eighteen; I know you do. Well, same for me. My hormones don’t want me to wait. God can’t have given me all these urges to make me suffer. He must have made us this way so we can do something about it.”
“So, are you planning to be married before your next birthday, then?”
“If I met the right woman, and she said yes, then sure. Why not? But tell me about your night with the girls.”
“Noah, it wasn’t like that. We didn’t plan it. It just happened.”
“Yeah?” He shifted on the couch, angling himself toward me.
“How did it happen?”
I was talking about the fact that Kelly and Grace ended up at our place, but it felt weirdly like Noah was asking something else.
“Well, news of the day, all of our parents work at the school and had their own night out to celebrate graduation. That left us kids home alone.”