Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 93270 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 466(@200wpm)___ 373(@250wpm)___ 311(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93270 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 466(@200wpm)___ 373(@250wpm)___ 311(@300wpm)
Conor walked toward the truck with his head held high, which brought another smile to Hayden’s face—he assumed his son’s first day went well. Of course, he could’ve been happy that his day was over. Hayden often hated school as a kid. One Monday in particular always stood out in his mind—the Monday after some Saturday-night party in the eighth grade, where he and Devorah Crowley had made out in the closet for seven glorious minutes. He thought he’d done a pretty damn good job of expressing himself and confidently walked right up to Miss Devorah Crowley and tried to ask her out—only for her to turn ten shades of red and run from him.
“Hey, Devorah.” Hayden said her name with such confidence—he felt like he was on top of the world. Laila looked at him first. He avoided all eye contact with her because he was pretty certain she had a crush on him. But Hayden was also confident Dev liked him more.
“Oh, hi, Hayden.”
The air left his sail. He’d hoped for a little more exuberance from her.
“Can I speak with you in the hall?” As soon as he’d asked, he regretted it. Their classmates lingered, staring, and some looked at them questioningly. He should’ve waited until they were doing homework later, when they’d be alone in the dining room of her house, and while Colt was on the phone with his current girlfriend.
The other girls around the table giggled. Hayden smiled, even though he wanted to run away. Devorah stood, and he motioned for her to walk ahead of him. Like his father often did with his mom.
When they got to the hall, Hayden pointed to the alcove where a lot of the high schoolers went to make out. Dev’s footsteps faltered a bit, but she continued.
Once they were safely behind the wall, Hayden mustered all the courage he could. “Would you like to go out with me?”
Her eyes widened, her cheeks turned a fiery red, and she covered her mouth. Before he could ask her if she was okay, she ran away, leaving him there in utter embarrassment.
Later, Colt said that some older dude had asked his sister out. “If I find out which one of my friends did this, I’m going to pummel him.”
Dev apologized weeks later, and while Hayden wasn’t afraid of Colt, he was afraid of Crow, and he didn’t want to do anything to damage his friendship with Colt. Devorah liked Hayden, though, and she flirted.
He flirted back.
Two months after they’d had seven minutes in heaven, he kissed her again, this time under the old oak tree, where no one could see.
Hayden sighed and cleared his thoughts as Conor approached the truck. Hayden leaned over and pulled the handle to help Conor open the door. His son tossed his backpack onto the floorboard and climbed in.
“Well, how was it?”
“It’s school,” Conor said pointedly and shrugged. “But Mr. Raze is nice. He’s very funny.”
“Did you make any new friends?”
Another shrug. “I met some kids. They invited me to play kickball with them.”
“That’s fun.” Hayden inched his way out and drove slowly around the crescent-shaped roadway, watching for any youngsters who might dart out in front of him, but also trying to see where the girl Conor had spoken to had gone. Hayden told himself he wanted to confirm the girl was Devy’s, but what he really wanted to do was see Devy again. She’d left him in the parking lot, and at first, he was okay with her leaving, until he remembered what she’d said about her husband and how he hadn’t chased after her. By then, it was too late. He’d looked around for her, but it was like she had vanished into thin air.
“Yeah, just the guys, though.”
“Girls don’t want to play?”
“I don’t think they’re invited. They sit on the bleachers and cheer. Some even have those hand things they shake.”
“Pom-poms?”
“Yeah, those things. One girl did some leg thing and had her arms doing funny things. The guys seemed to like it.”
“That’s called cheer or cheerleading,” Hayden said as he made his way down Main Street. “It’s actually a popular sport for kids your age and through high school. Some go on to college and cheer for college teams.”
“You mean girls?”
“No,” Hayden said as he turned onto his parents’ street. “Boys can join if they want. Cheerleading is serious business, especially in high school and college. They’re responsible for hyping up the crowd.”
“Oh, like the announcer at the basketball games?”
Hayden pulled into his parents’ driveway and put his beastly truck into park. “Exactly.” He turned the truck off and got out, meeting Conor around the front. He placed his hand on his son’s shoulder and guided him to the back door.
“Did you start on the house today?” Conor asked as they climbed the back steps.