Free Scrimmage Gone South (Crimson Romance) by Alicia Hunter Pace Page A

And green beans. Chicken pot pie. And I know how to make those smoothies for myself. I like them with peaches and bananas. Not blueberries. I don’t mind eating blueberries, but when you put them in a smoothie it turns all gray looking.”
    “Good.” She added to her list. Missy could teach her to make chili and pot pie.
    “Okay. Only — ” He looked at the floor.
    “What?”
    “To make smoothies you have to have a blender. I’m pretty sure my aunt took mine and I haven’t seen one here.”
    “Okay!” Tolly added it to her list. “One blender coming up. See how easy that was?”
    Kirby blushed. It had not been easy at all.
    “What else do you need? For football, or not. Anything?”
    “I’m good.”
    “Kirby. Don’t tell me that. There is bound to be something you need.”
    “Well … ” He blushed. “We’re supposed to reading
The Great Gatsby
in English and I was going to wait until I get paid next week to get it.”
    “Don’t be ridiculous. We can get the book tonight, sweetie. Creekview Books is open until nine. I don’t want you spending your money on necessities. You hardly make enough to take a girl to a movie and buy a hamburger. Though, I’m not sure if you’re supposed to have a hamburger.” She took the papers from Kirby and flipped through them.
    He smiled. “I can have fast food twice a week as long as it doesn’t replace a real meal. And I’m between girls.” The mood was lighter but he was still embarrassed.
    “I thought you were dating Lauren Kilpatrick.”
    He shrugged. “I was. Then we just kind of stopped. She came to the funeral and all. Her parents sent some nice flowers. I think she might want to go out again but it’s like I don’t have room for it right now. You know?”
    Tolly nodded, though she really didn’t know. “You’re almost a man, aren’t you? It’s going to be hard for you to ask me for things, isn’t it?”
    He looked at the floor again. “I guess. You’ve done a lot for me.”
    “Like what? Starve you? You’ll get past the not asking. But, until then, how about this? I’ll put a pad on the refrigerator. When you need something, write it there and I’ll get it. How’s that?”
    “That might work.” He hesitated.
    “What? Kirby, I’m a lawyer. I can read minds. I know you want to ask me something.”
    “Yeah. I’ve wondered. How do we get clean clothes? There’s no washing machine or dryer here.”
    “Rosemary Jackson comes in and cleans every Friday. As soon as she gets here, she takes the dirty clothes and linens to the drop off laundry. When she finishes cleaning, she picks them up and puts them away. So on Thursday nights, if you’ll make sure that all your dirty clothes are in the hamper, you won’t need to worry about it at all.” She was going to need to give Rosemary a raise.
    “Oh.” Clearly, this was not good news for him.
    “Kirby, what is it?”
    “I only have two sets of practice clothes. I’m supposed to wear clean ones every day. Something about fungus. And then there’s the smell. I kind of got in trouble today for having stinky practice clothes.”
    Which meant
she
was in trouble. Splendid.
    “Then I guess we’ll just have to buy you enough practice clothes to get you through the week.”
    “That won’t really work. The clothes are issued to us. Coach says we should be glad to have two sets. When he played, they only had one and he had to wash them himself every night.”
    “Poor Coach. Well, I guess we’ll stop by the self service laundry tonight when we go to the bookstore. And this weekend, we’ll see about getting a washer and dryer.”
    “Sorry.”
    “Don’t be. I’ve spent enough at the drop off to have bought a set anyway. I’ve just been too lazy. And I’ll tell you what else we’re going to do this weekend. We’re going to go through your clothes and decide what we need to buy for winter. And we are going to talk about your social life and decide what is a reasonable allowance for