Bluegrass Brothers: Bluegrass Undercover - Part 12
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Part 12

Annie clasped her hands nervously and then rubbed them on her thighs as she waited for the start of the fourth quarter. So far it had been back and forth with neither team holding the lead for long.

"Here you go. I thought you might like some." Paige handed her a hot chocolate and took the seat next to hers.

"I was afraid you weren't going to make it back in time. I don't know how much more I can take," Annie laughed.

She had never gone to a high school sporting event before coming to Keeneston and was drawn in by how hard the boys tried. It was killing her that they were fighting for every yard. They were currently tied and she couldn't imagine what their parents were feeling.

"I wouldn't abandon you. You're the only person who will sit with me during a game." Paige turned around and looked up the stadium. "See the large group sitting about fifteen rows up. Couple in their fifties with three strapping men next to them?"

Annie turned around and looked up into the stands. They were easy enough to spot. All the women and some of the girls in the stands were trying to get closer to them. It was easy to see why. They all looked like slightly varying versions of Cade. "Yes, I see them. Your family?"

"That's right. My own family won't sit next to me. Oh! Here we go! Come on, Austin! Watch the coverage!" Paige screamed.

Annie tried not to crush the little white Styrofoam cup Hallshe held as a ma.s.sive linebacker broke through the line, causing Austin to scramble out of the pocket and make a run for the first down.

"Look at that." Paige hit her arm, causing her to spill some of the hot chocolate. "That c.o.c.ky safety is all over Ryan. He's holding him up so he can't run his route. Come on, Ref! Defensive interference!"

Annie watched the next play, and sure enough, that kid was jawing at Ryan. This was accompanied by gestures that mimicked the trash talking. Even she wanted to go on the field and give him a talking to.

"Ref! You watch number 35. He's holdin' our boys 'til the cows come home!" Annie turned at that familiar slow, elegant voice coming from Miss Lily. A KHS blanket was lying over her standard flower print dress, her white hair covered with a beautiful, light pink knit hat with a big white flower sitting jauntily off to the side.

Looking around, she saw that the entire town was here. She had walked down to the Blossom Cafe the other night to get dinner, and the town was covered in the school colors. Signs were posted on the doors of businesses announcing they would be closed for Senior Night.

Her attention was turned back to the field as the c.o.c.ky safety shoved Ryan, sending him flying to the ground. Cade was on the field yelling at the referees, and she was pretty sure one of the Rose sisters called the ref a horse's a.s.s. The bench was yelling at the offense on the field as they huddled on third down.

The boys clapped and lined up for the play. The ball was snapped and Ryan ran along the sidelines as number 35 covered him. Ryan stopped, turned, lowered his shoulder and hit number 35 square in the chest. The benches emptied as Ryan's teammates jumped up to cheer. Annie looked around and saw that the people in the bleachers had done the same.

Cade watched as his team went nuts. They were waving towels in the air and screaming encouragements to the offense. It was a wasted down. The pa.s.s to Ryan had overshot him when he decided to pull his little stunt. But, it seemed the boost in the morale of the team made it worthwhile.

"Time out!" Cade yelled as he signaled the referee. He waited for the boys to run over to the sidelines before he said a word. "Okay, gentleman. We have two options. One, we punt the ball away. Two, we go for it on fourth down and ram the ball down their throats. What say you?" He made eye contact with his team and knew their choice by the smiles on their faces. "Austin, blue slant thirty. You think you can do that?"

"Only if it's to Hall, Coach. " Cade looked between Austin and Ryan and knew by the determined look in their eyes that they would move Heaven and Earth to make this play.

Paige reached over and grabbed Annie's hand. "Oh my G.o.d, they're going for it!" There was a collective gasp from the crowd and then all at once they erupted in cheers to encourage the boys.

The ball was snapped. Paige squeezed her hand tighter, and Annie held her breath as she watched the play take shape. Austin dropped back as Ryan burst from the line and blew by the safety who had been pus.h.i.+ng him around all night. Ryan never looked back. He sprinted straight down the sideline for ten yards before slanting towards the middle of the field.

Austin pulled his arm back and released the ball with everything he had, his back leg raised off the ground with the effort. The football sailed through the air in a tight spiral. The cheers stopped as everyone waited to see where the ball would land. Ryan leapt into the air, arms outstretched, and plucked the ball from the night sky. Cheers burst forth from the crowd as feet pounded the metal bleachers. Annie and Paige involuntarily stood up as Ryan landed on the ground and stumbled forward into the end zone.

Cade smiled and shook hands with the opposing coach. Hall's touchdown had sparked the team. The defense prevented any more touchdowns, and Austin threw for two more. It had been a huge victory going into the playoffs and a wonderful Senior Night for the guys.

Students poured onto the field to celebrate the victory with their friends. Parents hugged their children, and several mothers cried knowing their sons were soon graduating. Cade searched the crowd for Annie. He found her immediately. Her red hair danced in the wind as she and Paige made their way onto the field.

He shook the hands of the parents who approached him while fighting through the growing number of people on the field to get to Annie. All he wanted was to wrap his arms around her and celebrate just the two of them.

"Annie!" He waved his arm in the air and drew her attention. He smiled when he saw her face alight with a smile of her own. Paige waved back as he moved around some cheerleaders hugging their boyfriends.

"Well done, Coach!" His sister clapped excitedly. "The playoffs! I can't believe it."

"Thank you, Paige. But now, there is something I have to do." He turned to Annie and saw her wrinkle her brow in confusion before he wrapped his arms around her. The feel of her body against his was all the celebration he needed. He lowered his head and brought his lips to hers.

"Hey, Bro, I think you're embarra.s.sing our mother." Miles' serious, yet sarcastic voice cut through the crowd noise.

Cade sadly pulled away from Annie's warmth to glare at his older brother. "As always, you have impeccable timing, Miles."

Miles just smirked and rocked back on his heels. He was still in his suit from work and looked ridiculously out of place in the sea of denim. Cade wrapped his arm about Annie's waist and tucked her against the side of his chest. "Mom, Dad, I would like you to meet Annie Hill. Annie, these are my parents, Marcy and Jake Davies."

Annie stood frozen against Cade's side. She had never met a man's parents. Actually, she had never met many parents at all and was wholly unfamiliar with the situation. Did she say something? Did she shake hands? Luckily the decision was taken from her when Mrs. Davies pushed Cade aside and grabbed her up in a matronly hug.

"It's so nice to meet you. I have heard so many wonderful things about you. This is my oldest son Miles." Annie smiled and shook hands with the very serious looking man with an eerie similarity to Cade. "And this is my second son Marshall, and my youngest son Pierce."

My, if she were seven years younger, Cade would have some compet.i.tion. Pierce was handsome in a s.e.xy, laid back, country boy way that made her know she'd like him instantly. Marshall just looked tough. She could easily see him as a soldier. "It's nice to meet all of you."

"Well, I know you young people will want to celebrate tonight's victory so we won't keep you. It's was very nice to meet you, Annie. I hope to see you at our Sunday dinners soon. Good job, son. I knew you would be a wonderful coach." Marcy patted Cade's cheek.

"Thanks, Mom." The group watched as Jake Davies led his wife through the crowd towards the car.

"We hate to tear our dear brother from such a lovely lady, but we had thought to have a guy's night out to celebrate the victory. Will, Mo, Ahmed, and Cole are going to join us," Marshall said.

"That's alright. Annie's going to hang out with us girls tonight. We don't need any of you men to have a good time." Paige grabbed Annie's hand and pulled her over to her side. "That is, if you would like to join us. Dani, Kenna and I are going over to Miss Lily's for a spa night with lots of chocolate, which any woman would tell you is way more satisfying than a man."

"I would love to join you. We will see you gentleman later." Annie grinned, linked her arm with Paige's, and followed her off the field.

She had never had a girls' night before. While she was terrified about the prospects, the mention of chocolate focused her mind so that all she could think about was getting there as fast as possible to sample the treats. She glanced over her shoulder and shot Cade a grin, conveying that he would need to prove himself against the chocolate. Paige was right, chocolate could be very satisfying.

Chapter Seventeen.

Annie hoisted herself into Paige's old pick-up truck and grinned. There were two rifles mounted on the back window and an adopt-a-pet b.u.mper sticker on the tailgate. Paige was her kind of girl.

"So, what is this thing we're going to?" She hoped she didn't sound as nave as she felt.

"We're just going to put on a movie, eat some chocolate, paint our nails, give each other facials and talk about guys. You know, a typical girls' night."

Paige drove down Main Street and turned at the second and last stoplight in Keeneston. She drove up a slight hill lined with old houses with even older trees. The houses and lots were large and square. No cookie cutter neighborhoods squeezed onto postage stamp sized lots here, no condos reaching for the sky and no apartments stretching out over the land. Instead there were tons of green gra.s.s, bagged leaves sitting neatly on the curbs and landscaped yards surrounding picture-perfect colonial and Victorian houses.

They turned right into the driveway leading to a pretty, white Victorian with a large wraparound porch. A porch swing swayed gently in the cool fall breeze as lights blazed from inside.

Paige parked next to a s.e.xy, red BMW M6, a brown piece of c.r.a.p Nova, and two Buicks the size of a small country. Interesting. The M6 was her dream car. But, with a sticker price around a hundred grand it would always only be a dream.

"Wow. It must be nice to marry a prince. That's my dream car." Annie pointed to the red BMW.

"Oh, that's not Dani's car. That's Kenna's. She used to be a real hot shot attorney in New York City. She bought it as a gift to herself when she made junior partner. Dani drives that brown and rust Nova."

She saw Paige smile when she choked and then coughed. A princess drove a Nova?

"I can see what you are thinking. Yes, Her Almost Royal Highness drives a clunker. She's very attached to it and insists on keeping it. I think she just really likes to rile the king.

"See, Dani refused to touch her sizable trust fund when she was younger and earned every penny she had. The first thing she bought was this car. It breaks down all the time, has no heat, and can be heard from two counties over. But, it's hers. The king thought she was a gold digger out to snare his son and was rather mean to her. Then he had to eat crow when he found out she was the daughter of one of the richest winery owners in Italy. She found it all very amusing and even went to pick up the king at the airport in her Nova. He drove all the way to Keeneston in that car, and Dani had never been happier."

Paige opened the door and hopped out of the truck. Annie slowly lowered herself to the ground and looked at the house. This was the stuff of nightmares: giggling, gossiping, and girlie bonding. She squared her shoulders and took a deep, steadying breath. Hey, she had taken down drug lords, how hard could a girls' night be?

The front door opened before Paige and Annie had made it up the steps. Annie felt her eyes widen at the sight before her. One of the Rose sisters, probably Miss Lily, was at the door with her white hair pinned tightly away from her green face.

"Well, bless the Saints and color me happy! Daisy Mae! Violet Fae! Paige brought Annie!" Miss Lily hollered into the house. "Come in, come in." She opened the door wide as Annie climbed the steps to the porch where two more green colored faces came into view.

"Annie we are so glad you could join us! Hurry up and take off your coats you two. Ya'll gotta catch up. We've already started the facials," Miss Violet said as she started helping her off with her coat.

Annie gulped. You can do this. Just stay quiet and listen to the conversations. Maybe she could even learn something. Paige grabbed her hand and led her down the hall and into a cozy living room.

"Hi, Paige. Welcome, Annie! I'm so glad you could join us. You two have a seat right here and we'll get started." With her burgeoning pregnant belly and her auburn hair tied up in a topknot to keep the green gook out of it, Kenna pointed to the loveseat. Annie cringed at the sight of a bowl with green mush in it and the paintbrush in Kenna's hand.

"It's great that we get this chance to talk more. I know we've hung out some at the games every now and then, but this really gives us a chance to get to know each other. I mean, you're dating Paige's brother that practically makes you family," Dani said as she came at her with some gauzy type thing. Oh G.o.d, what were they going to do to her?

Paige flopped down on the couch and picked up a piece of fudge from a pretty plate sitting on the side table. "I'm glad we're doing this too. I needed some time away from Cole and his wedding planning. I swear, if he and my mother come at me with another invitation design, I'm going to scream. I thought guys weren't supposed to be involved in the wedding planning process."

Annie looked around as the girls all laughed.

"And I thought they weren't supposed to be involved in the pregnancy either, but I too had to escape Will. He's following me around and practically clucking. We've been here thirty minutes, and he's already texted me three times, making sure I'm okay. I just had to call Ahmed and bribe him with a little known law to get him out of testifying in a committee hearing if he'd lift Will's cell phone from him tonight."

Kenna put the paintbrush into the goop and stirred it.Oh G.o.d, was she coming at her with that stuff? Annie jumped when she suddenly felt her hair being pulled away from her face.

"Sorry! I didn't mean to startle you. I was just going to put this wrap on so you don't get that stuff in your pretty hair," Dani said, holding up a strip of the gauzy stuff.

"Um, okay." Annie tentatively sat down and let Dani wrap the gauze around her face. She sat in terror as Kenna came towards her, paintbrush in hand.

"So, what about you?" Kenna asked as the first glob of green gunk was smeared on her face.

"What about me?"

"What does Cade do to bug you?" Kenna smeared some more gunk on her face and waited for her answer. What should she say?

"Come on, dearie. Don't be shy. We've all been there. Men are simple creatures, and sometimes it helps to talk to your friends about it so you don't one day smash a freshly made apple pie in his face," Miss Lily said as she sat in the floral embossed chair across from her.

Annie looked around and saw everyone looking at her. Her mind suddenly went blank. She couldn't think of anything. Wait, what did he do that ticked her off?

"Well, he has a tendency to think he has to protect me from, well, from everything." Annie saw heads nodding and felt some of the tension in her shoulders ease.

"I once took out a man twice my size with a crepe pan. Men, so clueless sometimes." Annie whipped her head around to look at Miss Violet, who was sitting so primly on another floral chair, the green gunk on her face having dried into a light lime color. She couldn't be more than five feet tall and looked pretty much like Merriweather, the short, round fairy G.o.dmother in Sleeping Beauty.

"Miss Violet!" Paige exclaimed.

"Don't look so shocked, Paige. You, after all, shot an a.s.sa.s.sin."

"Yes, but that doesn't have the flair of taking him out with a crepe pan." Paige leaned back against the couch and folded her arms over her chest. Annie would swear she was pouting.

"Back to Annie. It's a good sign he's being protective. It means he cares," Miss Violet said.

"Definitely. So, is it true you're getting married?" Dani asked as she grabbed some more fudge.

"No! We haven't discussed the future at all. I'm sure he doesn't think it's serious. You never know when I'll be transferred again." Did Miss Lily just roll her eyes?

"Well, then you better hurry up and tell him you love him," Kenna said as she swiped the goo across her forehead.

"What?"

"Oh don't look so shocked. We all know it already. So, spill." Miss Daisy gave her a stern look. Annie looked around the room and saw that everyone there, including Paige, all thought that they were in love.

"It's too soon. We've only known each other a couple of months."

"Oh nonsense. You don't have a man practically living with you when you don't love him," Miss Lily told her.

"He's not living with me!"

"That's not what Father James says." Miss Violet gave her sister a wink.

"Yea, and Cade has missed three Sunday dinners at my parents' house. He's never done that before." Paige leaned her head back as Kenna attacked her with the green gunk.

"Would you care to revise your previous statement?" Kenna asked as she dipped the paintbrush in the bowl. If her tone had been cold instead of joking, Annie could see why she was rumored to be such a good attorney.

"Okay, so maybe it's not casual." That was the closest she was going to get to telling them the truth, the truth that she was starting to feel way more than she had ever felt before. She snapped out of her thoughts when she heard laughter. "What?"

"Just tell him you love him. It's so obvious that you both are crazy about each other, but if you want to keep being delusional, I guess that's your business." Kenna put the paintbrush back into the bowl. "I have to go to the bathroom again. I swear, this kid is doing jumping jacks on my bladder."

Paige and Dani started talking about weddings as the Rose sisters started in about a pie contest they were sponsoring. Annie rested her head against the back of the couch and closed her eyes. She didn't want to show the women the fear in her eyes. They were sharp enough to see it. It was fear that her face was going to be ripped off by whatever this goop was. It felt like her face was pulled so tightly you could bounce a quarter off of it. Who was she really kidding? It was fear they would see the confusion in her eyes. The more she thought about it, the more she thought they were right, all those feelings she was having that couldn't be defined or explained. Oh no, she was totally in love.

Her eyes popped open and she found the three wise faces of the Rose sisters looking at her. "Told you, you loved him," Miss Lily said as the other sisters nodded their heads.

Cade accepted the beer Will handed him and took a long slug of it. He was under attack. It didn't look like an enemy ambush but it was. Instead of the mountains of Afghanistan, it was a bonfire and cornhole boards. Instead of insurgents, it was his brothers and his best friends, which only made it more dangerous.

"Come on, Cade. Just admit you are in love with her." Will sat down on the bench next to him.

"Just because you are whipped by your wife doesn't mean I'm in the same situation."

"I'm sorry, my friend, but I agree with Will. You're very much in love with her," Mo said as he tossed a cornhole bag.

"Yea, Bro, you've missed three Sunday dinners. Ma is already picking out places to hold the wedding." Marshall laughed as his bag knocked Mo's from the board, and Mo murmured something he guessed was a curse word in his native language.

"A real man is one who can admit his true feelings."

"Give me a break, Ahmed. You have never expressed any kind of feelings."