I snickered. “A pepperoni.”
I leaned forward and sucked it up into my mouth, causing him to groan. “Nice.”
He slowly sat up, and when I say slowly, I mean like an old man slowly.
He wiped the grease off of his forehead with his good hand and then reached forward for a piece of pizza with the other.
He stopped midway and changed hands.
“I can’t believe that you were shot,” Raleigh mumbled around a bite of pizza. “Have you heard anything more on who might’ve done it?”
We were both shaking our heads before she could even finish.
“Nope,” I grumbled. “We just know that the man that broke into my place—or tried to—and his shooter are one and the same.”
Everyone stopped eating.
“Someone broke into your house?” Raleigh gasped, leaning forward, pizza all but forgotten.
I nodded. “Well, kind of. Yes? They stole my laptop and were gone before Croft could make it over here.”
“Wow.” Raleigh shook her head. “And when did that happen?”
“The night before I was shot,” Croft answered as he brought the pizza to his lips and took a hefty bite. “The only thing anyone knows is that the shooter ran toward a motorcycle and took off. That could be anybody. I know of four people that ride motorcycles in this neighborhood.”
I winced.
He was right.
“Alfie does, too,” I confirmed.
Croft looked at me. “The nerd.”
I rolled my eyes. “Very original.”
Croft smirked before taking another bite of pizza.
“You know,” Raleigh said. “Croft was a nerd when he was younger, too. He was also in the band. He wasn’t nearly as cute as he is now.”
“Raleigh…” Croft warned her.
Raleigh ignored him, though.
Instead, she focused on me.
“He also didn’t kiss a girl until he was a sophomore in college,” Raleigh continued, looking at me with a sinister smile on her face. “He used to be known as…”
Croft hit her in the face with a piece of pizza.
The pizza slid all the way down to her lap. Her face covered in sauce, she looked freakin’ hilarious.
My mouth opened as I turned and looked at Croft. Croft who was calmly reaching for another piece of pizza as if he hadn’t thrown the last one at his sister.
“You did not just do that,” Raleigh squeaked, picking up the pizza she’d been hit with and taking a vicious bite.
“Children,” Ezra started.
“Gavin was my mediator,” Mrs. Crusie sighed. “These two always fought like cats and dogs. Gavin was the one that got along with them both, and then made them like each other as long as he was around. It’s always been like this. And, just sayin’, but Raleigh was the one to give Croft that awful nickname, so I can see why he doesn’t want it mentioned. It practically ruined Croft’s senior year of high school.”
Now that had me intrigued. “What was the nickname?”
Croft was already shaking his head.
“Come on,” I pleaded. “Please?”
Croft’s eyes were hot as they landed on me.
Raleigh leaned forward and acted like she was about to share state secrets with me.
“His name was Crop Dust,” she whispered. “Because he had really, really bad gas.” She paused. “Actually, he had really bad smelling shits, too. It’s like something crawled into his ass and died.”
Croft raised his good hand and pinched the bridge of his nose.
“He still does,” Raleigh continued, not knowing how pissed her brother was getting.
“Raleigh,” Ezra warned. “You’re pushing.”
“Well.” Raleigh shrugged. “She wanted to know.”
I had. But not at the expense of what Croft was now looking like.
Murderous. Embarrassed. Disgusted.
“Sorry I pushed,” I whispered to Croft.
He raised his shoulder.
“It made me who I am today,” he admitted. “I wasn’t the most pleasant looking of kids. I was chunky, unhealthy, and I stunk. But not because of what she said, but because I was very bad at hygiene. I just… didn’t see what the big deal was. Anyway, my senior year was god-awful. The bullying was insane, and that was what pushed me to become a lawyer, lose the excess weight, and become healthy. I started CrossFit my junior year of college and haven’t looked back since.”
I felt something tug at my heart.
“Gavin was our good kid.” Mr. Crusie laughed. “He was the one that never had any problems. He was socially accepted, very popular, and loved his brother and sister. Raleigh was the awkward, accident prone one. Croft was the band nerd. But Gavin? Jesus, Gavin was perfect.”
Everyone went silent at that.
Then Raleigh sniffed, her eyes turning to me.
“Gavin had been playing mid-season. He’d come up to bat his second time, and the pitcher had thrown a wild pitch and struck him in the chest. The ball had made contact with his heart at just the right moment—according to doctors—and his heart had stopped. He’d died in the middle of that field, and despite the coach at the time, as well as my own father, giving him CPR, he didn’t make it,” Raleigh said softly.
I’d actually heard that from quite a few people, but I was going to let her talk.
It seemed like Gavin didn’t get much talk time lately, and if they wanted to talk about him, I wanted to listen.
“That’s why you were at the school, right?” I asked. “When that kid nearly hit me with my computer? To donate the Heart Guard shirts?”
Croft nodded as he absently took a bite of his pizza.
“I donate to the area schools every year,” he confirmed. “I spend the months of January and February schmoozing with the rich of this area collecting donations. They’re all donated in Gavin’s name.”
“That’s sweet,” I replied. “That you do that. I’ve also heard that you make it to almost every single one of Gun Barrel High’s baseball games. And you’re also the reason that they have defibrillators at every sports complex in town.”
“I am,” he confirmed. “Well, with their help.” He gestured to his parents. “If they’d had that at the field, he might’ve lived.”
“Wow,” I breathed. “That was one of the first things we saved up for at the gym. A doctor that comes suggested we have one
