My cock slips from Eliza’s mouth and she peeks out from under the covers. “Who is that?” she asks.
I wince. “That’s my sister.”
“Junior, come on! We gotta go!” Maggie shouts, knocking even louder on the door. “You better not be in there with some bimbo!”
Eliza raises her brow at me. “Bimbo?”
“Just…” I slide off the bed and grab my pants from the floor. “Let me get rid of her. Hang on. Don’t—” I gesture at her perfect, naked body. “Don’t get rid of this.”
“Junior!”
I pull my pants on, rushed by the urgency in Maggie’s tone.
Eliza hides under the covers as I pull the door open and push outside into the hall, guiding Maggie to take a step back.
“Hey, Mag,” I say, closing the door behind me. “How did you get in here?”
“Ty let me in.”
“Oh.”
“Why aren’t you dressed?” she asks. “Did you forget about Mom’s birthday?”
I cringe. “Kind of…?”
She tilts her head with annoyance. “Well, hurry up and shower first. You smell like sex.”
“Shh!” I lay a finger against my mouth and lower my voice to a whisper. “I need a few minutes here—”
“Wait…” She takes a step back and glances over my shoulder with an upturned nose. “You really do have a girl in there.”
I nod. “Give me like twenty minutes—”
“What happened with Eliza?” she accuses.
“It is Eliza.”
“Seriously?” She bites her lip, cringing. “Did she hear the bimbo thing?”
“Yes, she heard the bimbo thing.”
“Sorry,” she hisses. “I want to meet her.”
My chest jolts. “No.”
“Why not?”
“Because—”
Maggie pushes forward and throws the door open before I even know what’s happening.
“Mag—”
Luckily, Eliza was blessed with the glorious gift of foresight and she’s already dressed in her blouse and skirt by the time I follow Maggie inside.
“Hi! You must be Eliza.”
“Hi,” Eliza says, forcing her tangled hair to one side of her neck.
“Ellie…” I sigh. “This is my sister, Maggie.”
Maggie takes several steps forward. “It’s so great to finally meet you. I’ve heard all about you.”
Eliza’s eyes flick up at me. “Really?”
“Well—” Maggie waves a hand. “Nothing too personal or anything.”
“Mag—” I tug her back toward the door. “Can you excuse us, please?”
“Oh, sure. I’ll just wait in the living room— Oh, hey!” She pulls her arm from my grasp. “Eliza, you should come with us to the party.”
“Party?” Eliza mutters.
I grab her again. “No, Mag, bad idea—”
“It’s a great idea!” she argues. “Today is our mother’s birthday and we’re going to see her. You should come along. It’ll be fun.”
Eliza tries her very best not to panic. “Uhh…”
“Mag…”
“It’s just a casual get-together with our parents,” Maggie continues, ignoring all my attempts to shut her up. “My boyfriend will be there, too, and our dad is a huge fan of your dad. He’d love to meet you. Mom, too!”
“Mag, for God’s sake—” I yank her through the doorway, but she digs her heels into the floor.
“Come on, Eliza. Please? It’ll be fun, I promise.”
Eliza’s little, blue eyes shift with nervous glitches. “Um… okay.”
“Awesome! I’ll just be in the living room—”
I push her out into the hall. “Okay, thanks, Mag—”
She pokes her head back in. “Sorry about the bimbo thing!”
“Get out.” I slam the door and turn back to Eliza’s petrified face. “I am so sorry. She can be a real…”
“Sister?”
“Yeah. Look, you do not have to come with us today.”
“No, it’s okay. I’ll go. Unless you really don’t want me there…”
“No — I do,” I say, panic gripping my throat. “I mean, I don’t not want you there, I just… Don’t feel like you have to go, I mean. She really shouldn’t have invited you out of the blue like that.”
“I don’t want to be rude,” she says. “I said I’d go, so… I’ll go and…” she swallows, “meet your parents.”
I cringe. “Yeah.”
She raises her fists in mock celebration. “Yay…”
“I guess it’s only fair…” I chuckle. “I’ve already met your dad, right?”
“Right…”
“And you don’t have to worry about anyone seeing us. They live an hour away. No one will know.”
“Good.” She nods. “Well… we might as well get cleaned up. Wouldn’t want to meet your mother smelling like sex.”
I laugh. Even in the trenches, Eliza Pierce cracks a joke.
They’re going to love her.
This is not good.
* * *
I cast one more apologetic glance at Eliza, but she just keeps smiling next to me in the backseat of Maggie’s little car.
I don’t know how she does it. She’s obviously screaming inside but there’s not a single thing on the outside that shows it. Maggie and Nate bark question after question at her from the front seats and Eliza answers each one — never once showing an ounce of inconvenience. It’s amazing, honestly. I guess this is what happens when you grow up in Cary Pierce’s shadow.
“So, where’s your mom?” Maggie asks, staring more at Eliza through the rearview mirror than at the road.
“Mag…” I warn.
Eliza pats my hand. “No, it’s okay,” she says, smiling politely. “My mother is no longer with us. It’s just me and my dad.”
“Oh, man, that’s awful…” Maggie says. “I can’t imagine living without my mother.”
“Mag.”
“What?” Her eyes shift to me in the mirror and I give her the sternest look I can muster. “I’m just preparing her for the exact same questions she’s going to get from Mom.”
“It’s okay.” Eliza chuckles. “Really. I don’t mind.”
Nate adjusts his glasses. “So, Junior… What are the team’s odds for taking the championship?”
I nod at him in gratitude for switching the subject. “I’m not huge on numbers, but pretty good,” I answer.
“That’s awesome,” he says. “When I was an undergrad, no one gave a shit about the football team. Now you guys actually get news coverage.”
“I guess all it took was for someone to come in and give a shit.”
“I guess so.”
“Pfft!” Maggie spits. “Boring. I want to know about the school play. Eliza, how’s that going? Got all of your lines memorized?”
I kick the back of her seat.
Eliza laughs. “About ninety percent of them, I think.”
“Well, I can’t wait,” Maggie says. “Nate and I already have tickets for opening night.”
I lean forward. “You know, Mag, opening night and the last game of the season are on the same night.”
Maggie tilts her head, feigning ignorance. “Oh, really? I had no idea.”
“There’s a show on Sunday,” I add. “You could always go to that one instead and come see us qualify for the championship on Saturday.”
She hisses. “I mean… I would… but… I kinda already bought the tickets, so…”
“They’re refundable,” I growl. “I’m sure you could get them exchanged.”
“Nah.”
I sit back and shake my head at Eliza’s grin. “Nothing is more supportive than family.”
“Hey, you’ll have thousands of people in the stadium and half the country watching and supporting you, little brother,” Maggie argues. “Someone has to support Eliza.”
“Thank you, Maggie,” Eliza says, batting her eyes at me. “I appreciate tha
t.”
We turn off into my neighborhood and my chest constricts. Eliza has certainly passed Maggie’s test but getting her to survive against my mother is another task entirely.
“We’re here!” Maggie announces, pressing hard on the brake in the driveway for no purpose other than to jolt the car a little.
I watch Eliza’s face as she takes in the street with interest. There’s no going back after this one. After today, Eliza Pierce will have seen where I came from and she’ll either accept it or she’ll run away screaming into the night.
I wipe my sweaty palms on my jeans as we step onto the porch.
Maggie barrels on inside, loudly announcing our arrival and Nate follows her.
“Ellie…” I slip my fingers around her arm.
She pops up onto her heels and lays a quick kiss on my cheek. “Relax,” she says. “It’s going to be fine.”
The imprint of her lips spreads across my face and tingles all the way to my toes. I take her hand and lead her inside.
My mother stands in the foyer with her fingers pinched hard against Nate’s cheeks. She’s always loved Nate since the moment she met him but I think she’s just thankful that there was actually a man in this world patient enough to put up with her daughter’s sass.
Her eyes catch Eliza and she instantly drops her hands.
“Mom…” I gesture to my right. “This is Eliza.”
Eliza throws on the sweetest smile in her toolbox. “Hello.”
My mother stares back at us as if Eliza just spoke some alien space language.
“Roy!” she calls out my father’s name and I squeeze Eliza’s hand even tighter.
“What is it, Bonnie?” he shouts back from the living room. I can just imagine him now, sitting there in his chair, watching the game.
My mother’s voice pitches higher with each word. “Is this a friend of yours, or…?”
“Yes, Mom,” I say. “She’s a friend of mine. Maggie invited her to come along today.”
I fire a quick glance at my sister. She grins at me from the hallway.
Eliza drops my hand and steps forward, taking complete control of the moment with a confident stride. “It’s nice to meet you. Happy birthday.”
My mother shakes Eliza’s hand while her face brightens with each passing second.
“Roy! Get in here. Now.”
“Why?” he fires back.
“Come and meet Eliza, a friend of our son’s…”
He says nothing in response, but I hear the shift of his recliner closing.
Mom’s attention twists toward me. “I really wish you’d told us you were bringing company, honey. I would have cleaned up a bit more.”
Eliza waves a hand. “Oh, no. This place looks great, really. You have a beautiful home, Mrs. Morgan.”
I blink, probably way more impressed with her than my mother is. Eliza is a damn champion at this. I breathe a little easier as my father finally makes an appearance from the living room.
“Roy,” my mother says, “this is Eliza.”
My father peels his reading glasses off his face while my mother slides her hand over his shoulders to flatten out the non-existent wrinkles in his shirt. He narrows his eyes for a moment, glancing Eliza up and down and I’m almost tempted to hide her under a damn sheet. It sure would be nice if they’d stop staring at her like a damn leper.
Eliza shifts over to him and extends her hand. “I’m sorry if I’m interrupting your game, Mr. Morgan.”
My mother slaps his arm. “Oh, he doesn’t mind at all. Right, Roy?”
“Not at all,” he confirms, shaking Eliza’s hand.
Maggie slides in from the kitchen. “Isn’t she pretty?”
I stare at my sister, fighting the childish urge to shove her down the stairs or yank her hair out.
“She’s very pretty,” my father agrees.
“So pretty!” my mother adds.
“Guys…” Blood burns my cheeks. “Come on. Don’t embarrass her.”
But Eliza just grins. “Thank you very much.”
Maggie opens her mouth again and I cringe with fear. “Eliza’s dad is the new football coach.”
Their faces drop cold.
“Your father is Cary Pierce?” my mother asks.
Eliza nods. “Yes, ma’am.”
If she was a leper before, then right now, she’s a leper with three heads and each one of them has a pierced nose.
My father says nothing. He just flashes a quick nod of approval at me, so I guess Eliza passed with him.
My mother, on the other hand, shifts between an expression of seasickness and abject terror.
Cary Pierce’s daughter is in her house and she didn’t clean it first.
Her fiery stare falls on me. This is my fault, obviously.
“So, who’s playing today?” Eliza asks my father.
I furrow my brow, knowing that Eliza doesn’t give two shits about football, but her face feigns great interest.
“New York and Dallas,” he answers.
“Oh, what’s the score?”
“You know…” my mother says, “if you’d all like to watch the game for a while, lunch won’t be ready for another twenty minutes.”
“I’d love to,” Eliza says.
And then, I realize… Eliza baited my mother, giving her the perfect excuse to isolate her location while she worked like a damn bee to get the rest of the house in top condition for her guest.
A fucking champion.
Eliza follows my father into the living room. Mom grabs my jacket before I can pass by her.
“Kitchen. Now.”
I sigh and fire another hateful glance at Maggie’s amused mug before dragging my feet into the kitchen.
Chapter 24
Eliza
“So, how long have you been dating my son?”
Junior chokes on his water. “Mom…”
“What? Is that not an appropriate question?”
The entire Morgan family stares at us from around the dining room table and I feel more on display than the fancy centerpiece Bonnie obviously pulled out from the back of the closet. It’s a sea of brown hair and brown eyes; sharp cheekbones and strong chins. Maggie and her mother could almost pass as sisters, but it’ll take Junior about twenty years to catch up to his father’s wrinkles.
“Oh…” I shrug. “Not too long, but I’ve been tutoring him in Geometry since the start of the semester.”
Bonnie looks at Junior. “I didn’t know you had a tutor…”
He nods. “Yeah… I needed to get my grade up a little.”
Roy furrows his brow. “You weren’t in any academic trouble, were you?”
“No, Dad. I wasn’t… I just wanted someone to check my work and help me study.”
Bonnie points her fork at him. “Get the grade up and keep it up. It’s just as important as football.”
He answers through clenched teeth. “I know, Mom.”
“I don’t want you flunking out before graduation,” she continues. “My baby is going pro!”
I laugh. “I can confirm that Junior has made excellent progress. You shouldn’t have to worry about him flunking out. I won’t let that happen.”
Bonnie grins at me, her eyes bright and accepting. I guess I haven’t lost my touch. “And you… he’s never said a word about you at all.”
“There’s nothing to say, really…”
“Well, you’ve clearly been quite the good influence on him.”
I smile. “It’s nothing he didn’t already have in him. All Junior really needed was the right incentive.”
Junior chokes on his water again.
“For heaven’s sake, Junior…” Bonnie snaps at him. “Chew your food.” I look over to find him glaring at me. “One thing’s for sure, I need to call up that coach.”
“Why?” Junior snaps.
“To thank him, of course! I’m not one to speak ill of the dead, but if that old coot that ran the team before hadn’t have died, Cary Pierce wouldn’t
be here and you wouldn’t be on your way to the championship. And if he weren’t here, Eliza wouldn’t be either. If you ask me, we owe the Pierces a great deal of gratitude.”
He shakes his head. “No, Mom. Really. Don’t call him.”
“Yeah,” I say, keeping my cool better than he is. “I’d be more than happy to pass on any message you have…”
Maggie flashes us a knowing wink. “Don’t bother the guy, Mom. Remember when you harassed one of my professors after he wrote me that recommendation letter?”
“I did not harass Professor Shelton — that was completely different,” Bonnie argues. “And that recommendation letter got you into graduate school!”
“Correction: Being a badass got me into graduate school. The recommendation letter was a formality.”
Bonnie sighs. “Well, I can’t help it if I appreciate those who help my children. Your father and I did the best we could to provide you two with every opportunity, but we couldn’t give you everything. Cary Pierce has changed Junior’s life and if we keep our heads up and minimize mistakes, then nothing can stop him from achieving his dreams.”
My gut lurches, weighed down by the growing black hole lodged deep inside.
Nothing can stop Junior from achieving his dreams?
I can think of something that might.
“Damn, Mom.” Junior laughs. “Maybe you should coach the football team. You certainly have the motivational speeches down.”
She smirks. “I may have applied for the job once or twice.”
I pick up the napkin from my lap and slide out of my chair. “Excuse me. I need to use the restroom. I’ll be right back.”
Bonnie nods. “We’re having the one on this floor redone, but the one upstairs is fine. Up the stairs and to the right.”
“Thank you.”
“Redone?” I hear Maggie quip as I leave the room. “Since when do we have rooms redone?”
I head up the stairs and the voices dim into whispers behind me.
The bathroom is just where Bonnie said it would be and I sneak inside to dab a bit of cold water on my forehead. I hold my hair to the side and let a little drip onto the back of my neck, cooling myself down as I hold my breath.
So, this is Junior Morgan’s family. Honestly, I never even pictured it. Not even once. I knew he had a sister — he mentions Maggie in some way about once a week — but other than that, he doesn’t talk about them.
The Bad Baller Collection Page 17
