Songs for Cricket by Laine, E. (best books to read in your 20s TXT) 📗

skirt. Though in heels, she barely reached my height.

“Finley Farrow,” I said, deciding to give the woman a pass for her zealousness from that morning.

“It’s so great meeting you. I’m hoping this piece will be another example about how we as women can do anything. I know you’re not the first, but you’re still a member of a very small club.”

I nodded.

“This should be relatively painless, and we are grateful for your time.”

Things didn’t start immediately. So much went into production from light and sound checks and other conversations between the crew. When it finally began, a small crowd of onlookers had formed.

Great. I wasn’t exactly the poster child for public speaking.

But it went relatively smoothly. She asked me my name and where I was from, then she asked about my history with football. I gave her concise, honest answers I hoped couldn’t be twisted later.

She was surprised to learn I hadn’t played competitively before, and I explained about my background in soccer. She wondered how that played into me making the football team as a kicker. I tried to stick to the facts and not speculate on why I was chosen over Bryant, whom I hadn’t named.

Just when I thought we were done, she asked, “What are the rules of dating fellow teammates?”

A coating of ice constricted my vocal cords despite the heat. How could I possibly answer that?

When I said nothing, Tori stepped in for me. “Next question.”

“Does that mean the boy taken in for questioning in regards to a rape isn’t your boyfriend?”

My tongue became cotton, and it took effort to mutter, “Next question.”

“That’s not her boyfriend.”

I looked up into dark eyes. Billy slung an arm around my shoulder.

“You are?” Glenda asked him.

Tori stepped in front of me. “I think that’s enough for today.”

She turned around and removed the mic pinned to my jersey. I vibrated with fury. So much for trusting the woman. She’d waited until the end to blindside me.

Tori hustled me down the hallway away from the crew and the onlookers. Billy followed and offered to take my gear to the locker room. I gratefully handed him my jersey still hanging on my pads.

After he left, I said, “Can you please take me home?”

Tori nodded.

26

shepard

If not for Finley, I might have sworn off women for good after seeing Lacey’s sneer. The crazy bitch had it out of me for reasons unknown. I still couldn’t equate how turning her down when no one else was around to hear could make her want to ruin my life in the worst possible way.

But she wasn’t the reason I’d passed up going to the café for dinner. I’d remembered the condition I’d left my room and didn’t want August and Cooper to find out about Finley and me that way.

I’d walked home playing with words, trying to find the best way for August to accept that I loved his sister with every fiber of my being. Cooper was less of the problem. I wasn’t sure he would accept it, but he wouldn’t be as vocal about his feelings. August, on the other hand, would call me out for betrayal.

During that walk, I decided if I had to choose between my best friend and the love of my life, I would choose her. We may have only been official for a very short time, but I’d had years to fall in love with her smile, the way her mind worked, her determination, and every inch of her lean body. She was the one I saw myself spending my life with. I wanted her and everything the Farrow household symbolized, from the house to the family inside. Though I would hate to lose my best friend.

After I’d arrived, I’d taken a shower just in case Finley showed up and we had a little more alone time before her brothers arrived. I’d opened the windows in my room and stripped my bed of the sheets. When the doorbell rang, I tossed them in my closet and had made it to the top of the stairs when another stiff knock sounded.

Damn reporters, I thought as I tore open the door, furious from the day’s events, causing me to act without thinking. As I realized my mistake, I hoped that maybe August or Finley had forgotten their key.

But it wasn’t either of those possibilities.

Hastings stood at the door, grim expression at the ready.

“What is this about?” I asked.

Miller’s scoff matched Lacey’s from earlier, and my stomach dropped as he lifted a folded paper, so I could see the heading.

“We have a search warrant,” he said, glee glowing on his face.

I held up my hands palm up as I was shoved aside. Miller went directly for the stairs, followed by two uniformed cops. Hastings waited after closing the door.

“Where’s your room?” When I didn’t answer, he added, “If we don’t know which is yours, we’ll be forced to search them all.”

No way would I let my friends’ personal space be invaded.

“Top of the stairs to the right.”

Hastings yelled the coordinates to Miller.

“What’s this about?” I asked again, feeling baffled they were still after me.

“Lacey amended her story. She said she’d come back, having remembered why she’d given you a ride in the first place.”

“Of course she did,” I muttered.

“So you admit she came back?”

“No,” I said with fortified steel in my tone. “She didn’t.”

But even as I said it, I knew I had no way to prove it.

“Well, she says she did while looking for her grandmother’s ring, and that’s when you attacked her. She said your room had changed since the first time. You had trophies on display.”

How in the hell had she figured that out? She hadn’t been to my room since I unpacked. When I stood there shell-shocked, he asked, “Is it true?”

“It is, but I didn’t finish unpacking until Sunday. What are you here to find anyway?”

He opened the warrant and pointed to the words ring, notebook, and anything relating to the crime.

“My notebook?”

“She says you wrote about