Love, Ally by Hannah Gray
twenty-two
Ally
“Ithink you’re the only one who’s ever scrubbed the legs of the chairs,” Carla says from behind me.
Dipping the rag in the hot, soapy water, I wring it out before moving to the next leg. “Bitch, that’s clear. These things were nasssty.” I shake my head and tsk her. “You all should be ashamed.”
The kitchen door swings open, and out strolls Lenny. “I’m too old for that shit, Al. And Carla here, well, she’s too damn lazy.”
All Carla does is shrug and lift her eyebrows up. “He speaks the truth. Ain’t nobody got time for that.”
“Well, I mean, it’s slow as shit. I think we got a little time,” I deadpan.
“You’re not about to soon.” She nods her head toward the front door.
Following her eyes, I watch the door to Lenny’s push open, and in strolls Cole. A white T-shirt and faded blue jeans with a pair of Nikes on. And a ball cap that is pulled down low on his head, making my stomach do somersaults.
Pushing myself to stand, I walk over to meet him. “Hey, stranger. What are you doing here?”
He grins, those beautiful white teeth showing. “Just wanted to see my girl for a minute. Team’s heading to the airport in a few hours for our game tomorrow in Massachusetts. I wanted to kiss you good-bye.”
When I glance at our audience, Lenny quickly tries to busy himself. Pretending he wasn’t just eavesdropping the hell out of this conversation. Carla just continues to blatantly stare.
“I’ll be back in five minutes.”
“Make it forty-five, Al,” Lenny calls over his shoulder. “We won’t have our dinner rush for a few more hours anyway, and I don’t want to see Romeo here salivating over you. So, go, scoot, skedaddle.”
Knowing I won’t see Cole tonight, I don’t need to be told twice. Forty-five minutes is all I need. Hell, I would have settled for five.
“Where do you want to go?” he says as we climb into his truck.
“That pond is what, ten minutes away?”
His eyes show the smile that he tries to keep from his lips as he backs out of the parking spot, doing that incredibly sexy thing where he puts his arm on my seat.
“So, while we’re on our way there, I wanted to run something by you,” he says, flicking his gaze between the road and me.
“What’s that?” I ask anxiously.
“Don’t be nervous,” he says, reading my mind. “I was talking to Coach. I asked him if he could talk to the music director and get you to sing the national anthem at our next home game.”
“Cole, you didn’t …” I say.
I feel like I’m going to puke. Doing that in high school was no big deal. We had a small school. Brooks U is huge. That’s a lot of eyes. A lot of judging eyes.
Wiggling his eyebrows, he grins. “I did. Because, babe, you love singing in front of people. I know at first, you always do this thing where you get nervous. And when you get nervous and stressed, you get bitchy. But then you fucking love it.”
I frown and point to him. “You just said I’m bitchy.”
He shrugs. Taking my hand, he presses it to his lips. “Well, sometimes, you are.”
“This was really nice of you, Cole. It means a lot, really.”
I’m nervous as shit about doing this. But he believes in me. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t want me singing in front of thousands of people.
“You can repay me when we get to the pond.” He winks.