Calling the Play by Samantha Kane Read Free Book Online Page A

not the long explanation. Got it?”
    “You don’t have to tell me anything if you don’t want to,” Ty told her. “You’re not on trial or anything. Family is crazy no matter how you look at it. I’m an only child and my parents divorced when I was real young. It was just my mom and me for a long time. Last week she told me she wants to move to Birmingham to take care of me. I’m a grown man, for Christ’s sake. But she insists.”
    “Dad?” Randi asked, taking a bite of Lucky Charms.
    “He basically skipped out on us,” Ty told her, the old hurt muted by years of separation. “Got a better job in California and decided he wanted a clean start, no wife and kid.”
    “Where you from?” Randi asked.
    “Am I being interrogated, Officer?” he asked with a smile.
    “We can play that later,” she said with a wink. “And I’ll ask more interesting questions.”
    “Promise?” he asked, picking up one of the dining room chairs and setting it down next to her. He sat facing her.
    She was frowning. “Why so close?”
    “Because you smell good and you’re sexy and pretty,” he answered. “And I’m from Indiana.”
    “Corn-fed farm boy?” she teased, letting his compliments pass.
    “Hardly,” he said with a laugh. “Indianapolis. Big city.”
    She pushed her empty bowl away. “I can honestly say I now know more about you than the last ten guys I fucked,” she said.
    “Good,” he said, not letting jealousy over her past affect him. He had more than his fair share of past lovers, too. He waited to see what she’d say next.
    “So, do you want to hear it? About me,” she asked in a rush, reaching for her coffee.
    “Absolutely,” he said, thrilled that she wanted to tell him.
    “So, Johnny probably told you my mom was the girlfriend.” She didn’t look at him as she said it.
    “Yep.” He didn’t judge or elaborate.
    “Well, it was just weird. Dad’s wife, Alice, she knew about my mom and us. But she didn’t want a divorce. Best as Watt figures—he’s the oldest—she was scared to be on her own with the boys. As long as they stayed married, he paid the bills and helped with the kids.”
    “That’s a sad reason to stay married,” Ty observed.
    “It is. But the boys say she didn’t seem unhappy.”
    “What about your mom? Was she unhappy?” Ty leaned forward, his elbows on his knees.
    “No,” Randi said with a shrug. “Not at all. She didn’t want to be married. Crazy, right?”
    “Everybody’s different,” Ty said.
    “Anyway, my mom was never the motherly type. According to her, me and Tuck were both accidents. My meemaw looked after us, mostly. But Mom was with my dad for years, and we knew he was our dad. I mean, he came to school and sporting events and everything. Spent part of Christmas with us, that sort of thing. I was six when I met Watt and Johnny for the first time. He brought me to watch them play football.”
    “How weird was that?” Ty asked, wondering about little Randi and how she coped with her unusual home life.
    “Great,” she said. “It was possibly the greatest day of my life.” She turned and gave Ty a big grin. “Two big brothers, just like that. Bam! They took to me right away. Little sister, just like that.”
    Ty smiled back. “That’s good, right?”
    She nodded. “We all just sort of went with it, you know? We didn’t know any different. When Alice died of cancer a few years later, my mom sort of stepped in, but she still wouldn’t marry Daddy. He was a cop, did I mention that?” Ty shook his head. “Yeah. Anyway. When I was ten and Tuck was four, my mom decided to move down to the coast, to Muscle Shoals. She’s a realtor down there. And I didn’t want to go. Neither did Tuck. So we moved in with Daddy and the boys. Then, when Watt was about thirty, Daddy was shot and killed in the line of duty.”
    Ty reached out and took her hand in his, not saying a word. He could tell by the way she spoke about him that she’d loved her father,