Quit Bein' Ugly (The Southern Gentleman 3)

I felt something tug at my heart.

“Gavin was our good kid.” Mr. Crusie laughed. “He was the one that never had any problems. He was socially accepted, very popular, and loved his brother and sister. Raleigh was the awkward, accident prone one. Croft was the band nerd. But Gavin? Jesus, Gavin was perfect.”

Everyone went silent at that.

Then Raleigh sniffed, her eyes turning to me.

“Gavin had been playing mid-season. He’d come up to bat his second time, and the pitcher had thrown a wild pitch and struck him in the chest. The ball had made contact with his heart at just the right moment—according to doctors—and his heart had stopped. He’d died in the middle of that field, and despite the coach at the time, as well as my own father, giving him CPR, he didn’t make it,” Raleigh said softly.

I’d actually heard that from quite a few people, but I was going to let her talk.

It seemed like Gavin didn’t get much talk time lately, and if they wanted to talk about him, I wanted to listen.

“That’s why you were at the school, right?” I asked. “When that kid nearly hit me with my computer? To donate the Heart Guard shirts?”

Croft nodded as he absently took a bite of his pizza.

“I donate to the area schools every year,” he confirmed. “I spend the months of January and February schmoozing with the rich of this area collecting donations. They’re all donated in Gavin’s name.”

“That’s sweet,” I replied. “That you do that. I’ve also heard that you make it to almost every single one of Gun Barrel High’s baseball games. And you’re also the reason that they have defibrillators at every sports complex in town.”

“I am,” he confirmed. “Well, with their help.” He gestured to his parents. “If they’d had that at the field, he might’ve lived.”

“Wow,” I breathed. “That was one of the first things we saved up for at the gym. A doctor that comes suggested we have one just in case.”

“It’s a very good thing to have, yes.” Croft took another bite of pizza, his eyes lost in thought.

Everyone was silent for a bit after that, and I finished my pizza before everyone else.

J, Ezra and Raleigh’s son, crawled up to the couch I was sitting on and stood up before climbing onto the cushion next to me. I handed him a pepperoni off a piece of pizza in the box and he ate it, then held his chubby little hand out for another.

So I gave him that, too.

We did this for about ten minutes while all the adults watched, and soon there wasn’t a single piece of pizza with pepperonis on it.

“You know,” Ezra said at last. “If I’d known that all I would ever be eating again was pepperoni pizza, I would’ve rethought marriage to you.”

I snorted that laugh out and snagged the last piece of pepperoni off of Croft’s pizza before handing it to J.

He took it with a happy gurgle and held out his hand for more.

“I’m sorry, buddy,” I said to him. “There aren’t any more.”

“There’s one still in Raleigh’s lap,” Croft muttered as he finished off his fourth piece.

All eyes moved to Raleigh as she picked up a pepperoni and tossed it at her brother. He caught it and handed it over to his nephew.

His nephew leaned over and sucked Croft’s entire two fingers into his mouth.

Which then caused everyone to laugh.

J, thinking this was fun now that he had everyone’s attention, crawled over to Croft’s lap and gave him a big, sloppy kiss on the cheek.

“Thanks, buddy.” Croft wiped his chin. “That’s gross.”

Raleigh snickered. “You used to call those kisses creepy when I gave them to you.”

“They are creepy when they come from a ten-year-old, weirdo,” Croft countered. “Coming from your baby, though? Not as creepy. Give it a few more years.”

Ezra wrapped his arm around his wife’s waist and pulled her deeper into the curve of his arms.

I pulled my feet up onto the cushion and leaned into the arm of the couch. I’d never sat on my couches before, so this was a first for me.

And I decided that they sucked.

They weren’t comfortable, and I was fairly sure that if this was going to continue, I would need some new ones.

“So what’s the plan for…” Ezra started when my front door opened and Flint and Camryn spilled inside.

“Oh, pizza!” Camryn said as she walked over to the half-empty pizza box.

“We just ate, Cam,” Flint tried.

“We had tacos. This is a completely different food group,” she patted her belly. “And I was only able to get one in, remember? I have room again now.”

She picked up a slice of pizza and eyed it. “Is this something new?”

I pointed at J, who was laid out sideways in Croft’s lap, sucking on the piece of crust that he’d given him.