Calling the Play

by Samantha Kane

  He laughed. “Nope. Card’s still in my wallet. But I need more condoms.”

  “You keep bringing me coffee in bed smelling like strawberries and you damn sure will,” she told him. She took a sip. Perfect, of course. “Can you cook?” she asked, crossing her toes because her fingers were busy holding her mug.

  “A little,” he said with a shrug. “But I’m no chef.”

  “A little is better than me,” she admitted.

  “Now why am I not surprised you can’t cook?” he asked with a grin.

  She almost threw the mug at his smug face. “Shut up. I need a shower, some food, and maybe a fuck. I’m not sure about the last one yet, though. I’ll let you know.”

  “I’m here to serve,” he said sarcastically. “Which will it be, Lucky Charms or Cocoa Pebbles? As far as I can tell, that’s the only food you have in your house. I couldn’t believe the milk was still good.”

  “That’s the only food I need,” she said defensively. “I only eat breakfast here.”

  “Randi!” She heard the front door slam after Johnny shouted her name. With a wince she looked down at her naked boobs. She quickly yanked the covers up over them and was glaring at the door when Johnny stomped into her bedroom doorway and immediately came to a sudden halt.

  “Holy shit,” he said. “You fucked Ty Oakes?”

  “Is your entire family pretty much unfiltered?” Ty asked, sitting down on the bed beside her. He took a sip of coffee as he looked from her to Johnny.

  “Give me the key,” she demanded. “I told you that was for emergencies only.”

  “It was an emergency,” Johnny said, glaring at Ty. “You got shot last night and I wanted to check up on you. Also, I still need to yell at you.”

  “Fuck that,” Randi said, taking another sip of the hot brew. She didn’t even know her coffee could taste this good. Maybe she should have read the directions.

  “Is that coffee?” Johnny asked suspiciously.

  “No, it’s shine,” she said flatly. “Moon broke in before you did.”

  “Ha ha,” Johnny said. “I know that’s a lie because I left Moon sleeping in his room at the house.”

  “Who’s Moon?” Ty asked.

  “My other brother,” Randi told him. She leaned over and kissed him on the shoulder just to piss Johnny off. “Thanks for the coffee, lover.”

  Ty grinned at her. “Don’t put me in the middle,” he said, standing up. “Although, you are welcome. Lucky Charms coming up.”

  “I didn’t tell you which one I wanted,” she said, not really caring.

  “Well I’m feeling lucky, and I figured since you have both, you like both.” Ty grabbed his shirt from the dresser. Last time she’d seen it, it had been on the bathroom floor. How long had he been up, and had he cleaned the whole house? She hoped so. She hated housework. She’d never had a grateful fuck before. It was kind of nice.

  Ty yanked on his shirt and tried to leave, but he was stopped at the door by Johnny, who was still standing dead center in her doorway. “Is there enough coffee left for me?” Johnny asked menacingly.

  “Sure,” Ty said cheerfully. “And I can always make another pot. She’s got, like, three barrels full of the stuff.”

  “Sam’s Club had a sale.” She turned and let her naked legs slide to the floor, making sure to keep everything else covered.

  “Get dressed,” Johnny told her, turning away. “And take a shower. This whole place smells like sex.”

  “That’s because we had sex,” she explained patiently. “Great sex. It leaves a mark.”

  “Randi,” Ty warned her in a tone that said enough is enough.

  “Okay,” she said with a sigh. “Don’t let the door hit you in the ass. I’m taking a shower.”

  She knew it was a mistake to leave them alone together. Hopefully no one would end up with a busted face. Johnny didn’t like most of the guys she hooked up with. At least he’d only beaten the crap out of one, though. She stretched as she stood up. She had aches where a girl ought to have them after a good fuck. It felt nice. She might have to keep the player around for a while.

  —

  “So what’s the deal with you and Randi?” Johnny asked him. Ty handed him a cup of coffee before answering.

  “I like her.” He’d decided that was the best answer.

  “You better,” Johnny said. He took a sip. “Damn, that’s good coffee.”

  “It’s the one thing I know how to do well,” Ty told him.

  “You’re not too bad at football,” Johnny conceded graciously.

  “Gee, thanks,” Ty said at the underwhelming praise.

  “She tried to kick you out yet?” Johnny’s question surprised him.

  “Not exactly,” Ty hedged. “But she seemed awfully surprised to see I was still here this morning.”

  Johnny grinned. “I bet she was. She scares most of them away before morning.”

  Ty just shook his head. He didn’t have any siblings, but if he did, he couldn’t imagine he’d be this blasé about his sister’s sex life.

  “I just mean she’s not the settling-down type,” Johnny said. “I love her, but she’s a lot like her mother.”

  “About that,” Ty said, glad he’d found an opening. “You and Randi don’t exactly look alike.” As a matter of fact, Johnny was obviously white, no mixed parentage at all. Typical Southern boy, a little overweight, brown hair with a full beard, ball cap. He was tall, too.

  “Different mothers,” Johnny said. “We have what the locals would call a colorful family history. Me and Moon and Watt were legitimate, Randi and Tuck weren’t.”

  “Five of you?” Ty asked in shock. He’d always wanted brothers and sisters. “Wait. What do you mean not legitimate?”

  “I mean my dad had a girlfriend on the side,” Johnny explained with a straight face. “Second family, without the benefit of polygamy.”

  “Ouch,” Ty said. “Why are you telling me this?”

  “Just want you to know that Randi has baggage, is all,” Johnny said, but Ty could tell there was more to it.

  “And?” he asked.

  “And,” Johnny said, “she’s going to try to push you away. Don’t let her. She’s a great girl. She deserves someone who treats her right.”

  “And you think I’m that someone?” Ty asked incredulously. He decided to shoot as straight as this strange family did. “I just met her last night, in pretty unusual circumstances, and we jumped into bed together. What makes you think I’m going to treat her right?”

  “Because from all accounts, you’re a nice guy,” Johnny said. “And you stayed. And made coffee.”

  “You have low standards,” Ty told him. “Especially for Randi.”

  “See?” Johnny said with a grin. “Nice guy. I told you so.”

  “Did you tell him my life story?” Randi asked as she walked into the kitchen. She was wearing tiny cutoff jean shorts that hugged her generous, curvy ass and a gray T-shirt that said Cops Do It Undercover. Her hair was curling in little spirals down to her shoulders, and the memory of running his fingers through her wet hair made his heart beat a little faster.

  “Yep,” Johnny said. “The whole sordid tale of how you got dumped at the prom.”

  “That’s bullshit,” Randi said. “I found a better offer. Guy didn’t deserve my cherry anyway.”

  Ty choked on his coffee. “Seriously? He dumped you at the prom?”

  “Some uptight white boy asked me and then forgot to tell me he asked someone else, too,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Some country-club princess. Well, when he didn’t show to pick me up I went by myself and gave him hell. I wasn’t the one embarrassed, he was.” She snorted. “I can tell you he didn’t get any pussy that night. And I got Jordan Lane. Ha!”

  “Jordan Lane?” Ty asked.

  “High school basketball star that went stag to the prom because he didn’t want to have to pick one girlfriend. Boy was pretty good in the backseat, too, if you know what I mean.”

  T
y was pretty sure he knew what she meant.

  “Anyway,” she said, dragging the word out, “where’s my Lucky Charms?”

  “Coming right up,” Ty said, reaching for the box and the empty bowl he’d left sitting on the counter while he waited for her to wake up.

  “You can have this one trained in a couple of days,” Johnny told Randi.

  “I like a man who can be coached,” Randi replied, patting Ty on the ass as she walked over to the coffeepot.

  The front door opened and Ty looked over toward the dining room. The house was small, with a simple layout. The front door was in the den, the dining room was off to the left, and the kitchen was in the back, beside the dining room. The whole thing was cozy and crammed full of books and furniture and family photos. Another big guy who looked like Johnny ducked under the low arch between the den and the dining room. His hair and beard were longer than Johnny’s, and he looked a little younger. Ty had Johnny figured for about forty, so this guy was maybe about thirty-five. He wasn’t sure how old she was, but Randi was clearly at least ten years younger than these two. The newcomer had on jeans, work boots, and a ratty, old New York Yankees T-shirt.

  “Hey,” he said, looking at the three of them. Nothing else. He just walked into the kitchen, took a mug out of the cabinet and set it down in front of the coffeepot. Then he took a bowl out of one cabinet and the Cocoa Puffs out of another. At close quarters Ty could see the guy was built, with powerful shoulders and arms and not an ounce of fat on him. He paused on his way to the refrigerator to pick up Randi’s arm and look at the bandage on it. He grunted and then dropped her arm and got the milk from the fridge.

  “This is my other brother, Moon,” Randi said, pointing at him with a thumb over her shoulder. “You gotta work today?” she asked Moon.

  “Yeah,” he said. “Promised Dickie.” He took a spoonful of Cocoa Puffs. “Stupid thing, getting shot.”

  “Shut up,” Randi said, without any real anger. “This is Ty.”

  “Hey,” Moon said, taking another bite.

  “Hey,” Ty said, not really sure what the protocol was. He’d never been confronted with two older brothers after sleeping with a woman before. “You a cop, too?”

  Johnny snorted and Randi laughed out loud. “Hell, no,” she said. “Moon got his name after Daddy caught him running moonshine for a guy when he was fifteen. Made him spend a night in the county jail. He doesn’t much like cops.”

  “No, ma’am,” Moon said with a grin. He put his empty bowl in the sink. “Just came by to make sure you weren’t dying.” He kissed the top of Randi’s head. “Do I have to beat him down?”

  Ty took a step back. The way the guy said it sounded like he had no doubt he could. There was something scary about Moon.

  “No,” Randi said. “This one’s good.”

  Moon poured himself a cup of coffee and started to walk out of the kitchen with it. Randi grabbed his hand before he got away. “How long are you gonna be gone?”

  Moon just shrugged and tugged his hand free, then left after a quick handclasp with Johnny.

  “Where’s he going?” Ty asked, wondering at the odd atmosphere.

  “We don’t know, and we don’t ask,” was Johnny’s cryptic reply. “His buddy Dickie owns a private security firm that does shit all over the world. Moon does favors for him from time to time. They were in the army together, more ‘hush hush’ crap. As long as Moon keeps coming back in one piece and pays his half of the mortgage, I don’t complain.”

  “I didn’t hear a car,” Ty said, frowning. “Where do you live?”

  Johnny smiled. “Two doors down,” he said. “If I had seen your car, I wouldn’t have shown up so early.”

  “You bought a house next to your brothers?” Ty asked, finding the whole situation surreal. But then, he’d been feeling that way ever since he’d met her.

  “No, are you crazy?” she said. “I didn’t buy this house. Meemaw left it to me in her will.”

  “Of course,” Ty said. “You’re living in your dead grandmother’s house.”

  “You say that like it’s a bad thing,” she said, giving him a deadly stare over the top of her coffee cup.

  “Nope,” Ty said, and meant it. “It just fits you. I mean, this town fits you. Like you belong here.” He cleared his throat, not really sure what he was trying to say, but sure he wasn’t saying it. He changed the subject. “Are your other brothers going to show up?”

  “Don’t worry, player,” she said, punching him in the shoulder. “Watt lives over in Hoover and Tuck’s got an apartment near UAB. He’s a junior.”

  “When he and his college buddies find out about you two,” Johnny said, waving a finger between the two of them, “expect company.” He laughed as he put down his coffee cup. “Well, I didn’t get to yell,” Johnny said. “But I am going to tell you that you’re off the job for two weeks.”

  “What?” Randi said, slamming the milk down on the counter. “Why?”

  “Really?” Johnny asked as they squared off across the kitchen. “You want to go there? How about that damn-fool car chase last night for starters? And him?” He pointed at Ty. “Not to mention mandatory time off when you get hurt in the line of duty.”

  “Just to be clear,” Ty said, “I willingly jumped in the car and refused to leave when asked.”

  “Which is why I impounded your Porsche,” Johnny said flatly. “Damn stupid move.”

  Ty looked over at Randi. “Is this a bad time to tell him I have another one in my garage?”

  “Maybe,” Randi said with a laugh as Johnny growled in disgust and turned to leave.

  “You have paperwork to sign, and then I don’t want to see you for two weeks,” he called over his shoulder.

  “Then stop breaking into my house,” Randi called back. “And I’ll come by Monday for the paperwork.”

  After Johnny left there was an awkward pause as Randi poured the milk on her cereal. “So how much did he tell you?” she asked, sounding resigned.

  “About what?”

  “About me,” she said, heading for the dining room table. It wasn’t a formal room at all, despite a couple of built-in china cabinets in the corners. The table was a plain, square wood table with four chairs, clean and pretty, but it was well-loved and old. “About my crazy-ass family.”

  “A little,” Ty said. “Mainly just that you have four brothers and different mothers.”

  “Okay,” she said, carefully putting her bowl down as she sat. “I’m going to give you the summary, not the long explanation. Got it?”

  “You don’t have to tell me anything if you don’t want to,” Ty told her. “You’re not on trial or anything. Family is crazy no matter how you look at it. I’m an only child and my parents divorced when I was real young. It was just my mom and me for a long time. Last week she told me she wants to move to Birmingham to take care of me. I’m a grown man, for Christ’s sake. But she insists.”

  “Dad?” Randi asked, taking a bite of Lucky Charms.

  “He basically skipped out on us,” Ty told her, the old hurt muted by years of separation. “Got a better job in California and decided he wanted a clean start, no wife and kid.”

  “Where you from?” Randi asked.

  “Am I being interrogated, Officer?” he asked with a smile.

  “We can play that later,” she said with a wink. “And I’ll ask more interesting questions.”

  “Promise?” he asked, picking up one of the dining room chairs and setting it down next to her. He sat facing her.

  She was frowning. “Why so close?”

  “Because you smell good and you’re sexy and pretty,” he answered. “And I’m from Indiana.”

  “Corn-fed farm boy?” she teased, letting his compliments pass.

  “Hardly,” he said with a laugh. “Indianapolis. Big city.”

  She pushed her empty bowl away. “I can honestly say I now know more about you than the last ten guys I fucked,” she said.

  “Good,” he sa
id, not letting jealousy over her past affect him. He had more than his fair share of past lovers, too. He waited to see what she’d say next.

  “So, do you want to hear it? About me,” she asked in a rush, reaching for her coffee.

  “Absolutely,” he said, thrilled that she wanted to tell him.

  “So, Johnny probably told you my mom was the girlfriend.” She didn’t look at him as she said it.

  “Yep.” He didn’t judge or elaborate.

  “Well, it was just weird. Dad’s wife, Alice, she knew about my mom and us. But she didn’t want a divorce. Best as Watt figures—he’s the oldest—she was scared to be on her own with the boys. As long as they stayed married, he paid the bills and helped with the kids.”

  “That’s a sad reason to stay married,” Ty observed.

  “It is. But the boys say she didn’t seem unhappy.”

  “What about your mom? Was she unhappy?” Ty leaned forward, his elbows on his knees.

  “No,” Randi said with a shrug. “Not at all. She didn’t want to be married. Crazy, right?”

  “Everybody’s different,” Ty said.

  “Anyway, my mom was never the motherly type. According to her, me and Tuck were both accidents. My meemaw looked after us, mostly. But Mom was with my dad for years, and we knew he was our dad. I mean, he came to school and sporting events and everything. Spent part of Christmas with us, that sort of thing. I was six when I met Watt and Johnny for the first time. He brought me to watch them play football.”

  “How weird was that?” Ty asked, wondering about little Randi and how she coped with her unusual home life.

  “Great,” she said. “It was possibly the greatest day of my life.” She turned and gave Ty a big grin. “Two big brothers, just like that. Bam! They took to me right away. Little sister, just like that.”

  Ty smiled back. “That’s good, right?”

  She nodded. “We all just sort of went with it, you know? We didn’t know any different. When Alice died of cancer a few years later, my mom sort of stepped in, but she still wouldn’t marry Daddy. He was a cop, did I mention that?” Ty shook his head. “Yeah. Anyway. When I was ten and Tuck was four, my mom decided to move down to the coast, to Muscle Shoals. She’s a realtor down there. And I didn’t want to go. Neither did Tuck. So we moved in with Daddy and the boys. Then, when Watt was about thirty, Daddy was shot and killed in the line of duty.”