“Come on, Rayn. You’ve known me forever. Are you really surprised?”
She giggled. “No.”
“I didn’t know what to say. Besides, I’m the girl. He’s supposed to call me.”
“Does he have your number?”
I fidgeted in my seat.
Rayna laughed. “You could have texted. That’s safer.”
I couldn’t argue. I’d thought about it more than I’d liked to have admitted, but when it came down to sending it—I’d re-read the message, decide it was lame, and promptly delete it.
“All right, so what’s the plan? We’re going to the game and then what?”
“I don’t really know. I’ve never done this before. That’s why I brought you.”
“So, I’m your dating coach?”
I shot her a sideways grin and replied, “Something like that.”
“Will you do everything I say?”
I laughed. “Within reason.”
“Hmm. All right.”
“First, we have to sit through a football game where I’m pretty sure we will both be completely dazed and confused—and frozen. What’s the temperature anyway?”
“Friggin’ cold! Did you wear your cuddle duds?”
“Hell yeah! And brought a couple of blankets for my ass. I’m sure those seats are frozen.”
“Luckily, the stadium sells booze. Maybe they have hot toddies. Isn’t that half the point of football anyway? Fast food and a few drinks?”
“Trade mine for a glass of rosé and we’ll talk.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Our exit was approaching, and I clicked on my blinker before moving into the other lane. There was another question I wanted to ask Rayna while we were still alone. I gave her a cautious glance. “Heard from Hudson lately?”
Rayna was still looking down at her phone, but I could see a play of emotions flicker over her delicate features at the mention of her brother’s name. “He calls once a week, and I go out there to visit once a month or so. Whenever I can.”
My chest clenched, wanting to know more but afraid to ask. “How is he?” I asked, my tone low.
Rayna leaned forward and tossed the phone back into her purse and then leaned back with a heavy sigh. “He’s hanging in there as best he can. As far as I can tell, he hasn’t gotten tangled up with anyone bad.”
My fingers worked the steering wheel as I nodded. “That’s good.”
“Yeah.”
“I’m still waiting on my bar exam results, but if I pass—and I really hope I did— I’ll start my job at the public defender’s office at the beginning of the year.”
Rayna rolled her head against the seat to look at me. She offered a weak smile. “Thanks, Shelby. Hudson and I appreciate everything you’re doing.”
“Well, I haven’t really done anything yet.”
“Yeah, but you will. And you believe in him. That’s more than most people at this point.”
The sadness in her words broke my heart into two. “Your parents—”
“Are a lost cause. They don’t know what to do.”
I sucked in a sharp breath. “I’m sorry, Rayna.”
She shrugged. “Yeah, but they tried.”
I rolled to a stop at a traffic light and looked over at Rayna. The pain on her face was there, despite her words. She might want to pretend everything was fine, that she didn’t care, but I could see the lines etched around her eyes, making her appear several years older than she really was. Her hands rested in her lap and I pat the backs of them. “We’re going to get him out, Rayn. I swear.”
She bit her lower lip between her teeth and nodded. Her green eyes filled with tears, and I felt a stab of guilt for even saying anything about Hudson. It wasn’t my intention to hurt her, but anytime we spoke of Hudson, she got that way. There wasn’t a way around it. At least, not that I’d found.
The light changed, and I followed the massive line of cars heading for the entrance of the underground lot closest to the stadium. It was slow going, especially with my heart still slamming around inside my chest, partially for Rayna and Hudson and partially for Ross and the endless possibilities for the evening that lay ahead.
“I might not know anything about football, but it seems like these are pretty good seats,” Rayna commented as we checked the tickets in our hands and compared them to the marked seat numbers in front of us.
“Not bad. Now, we just have to fit in with everyone else. Cheer when the crowd cheers, yell when they yell, you know, that kind of thing. But only for the Knights.”
Rayna laughed and warmth rushed over me at the sound. It had taken her a minute to shake off the darkness from our brief conversation in the car, but she was smiling and seemed at ease once again. “I think we deserve a little more credit than that.”
“My dad watched football. But I’ve never found the attention span for it.”
“Until you met Ross,” she retorted, waggling a finger at me.
My cheeks flushed, and I gave a quick look over each shoulder, wondering if anyone had overheard Rayna. I didn’t know why it mattered, it wasn’t like I knew any of the people around us, but I looked anyway.