Hometown Hope by Laurel Blount

Author:Laurel Blount
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2019-04-10T20:20:22+00:00

* * *

“Look, Hoyt. We’re sorry, all right? We were just telling some stories.” Bobby had his eyes fixed on Hoyt’s face. “We didn’t mean anything by it.”

Hoyt made a frustrated noise. “You guys were talking about stupid pranks we pulled on the woman’s dead father. In what universe is that funny? None of us should be laughing about the dumb things we did back then anyway. I’ve grown up enough to be ashamed of them. I thought you guys had, too.”

“You’re right.” Jimmy spoke up immediately. “I’d hate to think one of my kids would act like we did in high school.”

“Same here,” Hoyt agreed. “And Anna’s never been the kind who’d laugh at stuff like that, anyway. You remember what she was like back in high school. She’s always been serious.”

“We didn’t know her all that well, Hoyt. I mean, I knew she tutored you in English or whatever and you stood up for her during that cheating thing, but that’s about all I remember.” Bobby’s face, like Jimmy’s, was creased with concern. “I’m really sorry.”

“I don’t remember her at all.” Carl swirled another bitten breadstick in the marinara sauce. “I can tell you one thing, though. She can’t have been that cute back in high school, or she’d have gotten my attention for sure.”

Hoyt’s gaze cut sharply in Carl’s direction. Bobby took one look at Hoyt’s expression, took off his Braves cap and whapped the ex-wrestler on the head with it.

“Shut up, Langston, before you get yourself punched in the mouth. Look, we’re really sorry, Bradley. We seriously messed up. What else can we say?”

Hoyt’s attention had been drawn to the sliver of parking lot he could see through Tino’s checkered curtains. Anna was getting into Bailey’s truck. Bailey would see Anna safely home, so that much was good.

But then Hoyt was going to have to go see her and do some serious groveling on behalf of these bozos. And himself, thanks to their big mouths.

Not good.

He glared at his friends. Stork and Bobby looked genuinely concerned, but Carl was still zeroed in on the breadsticks. It didn’t matter. He was equally irritated with all of them.

“Anna Delaney kept me on the football team when football was the only good thing I had in my life.”

His tone got even Carl’s attention. He paused midchew.

Hoyt kept going. “She did it in spite of me, too. I wasn’t much help. I was too wrapped up in what was going on at home to focus much on school.” The men shot long, silent looks at each other. They knew exactly what had been going on at Hoyt’s house back then. “Looking back now, I see what a difference being on that team made. If Anna hadn’t pulled it off...if I’d been cut from the team at that point in my life...I don’t know what I would have done.”

“Look, like I said, we’re all really sorry,” Bobby said earnestly. “Aren’t we, guys?”

“Yeah,” Stork promptly agreed. Bobby shot an elbow into Carl’s ribs, and he coughed.

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