The Boys Are Back in Town by Christopher Golden Page A

thrown for a first down. When his gaze swept to the right and found Will, however, his excitement diminished.
    “Have a seat and enjoy the game, shithead. Enough with that mopey crap. Dude, I am getting you
so
drunk tonight.”
    Will gave him a lopsided grin. “You promise?”
    “Oh, yeah.”
    Then Keisha was asking him a question and in the moment when Danny was distracted, Ashleigh tugged on Will's hand again.
    “Sit with us. Come on. Just chill. You'll see her tonight.”
    He nodded and slid onto the seat next to her, wishing that Stacy's abrupt departure were the only thing on his mind.
    “Unless you're trying to scare her off?” Ashleigh suggested.
    “Why would I do that?”
    She shrugged. “You know how you are. The second you think you like a girl a little too much, you send her packing.”
    Will rolled his eyes. “Why does everyone think I'm afraid of getting close to a woman?”
    Ashleigh stared at him, just a hint of amusement on her face.
    Will laughed. “All right, besides that. And it isn't true, anyway. I send them packing when I think I don't like them
enough.
” He paused, glanced around again as though he might catch sight of Stacy. “Did she say anything?”
    Ashleigh linked an arm through her husband's on one side and through Will's on the other. He sensed her relaxing then, settling into the safety of this contact. She had always liked to sit or walk like this, arm in arm with the two of them. Her lover and her best friend. Eric had been forced to get used to it but had not done so without frequently teasing Ashleigh about her penchant for ménages à trois. Inevitably, she would end up rapping her knuckles on Eric's head, and Will wondered if that accounted for his unusual silence this time.
    “Ash?” he prodded.
    A sly smile touched her lips.
    “Did she say anything?”
    Ashleigh shot him a sidelong glance. “She said she'd see you tonight and to save her a dance.” Her smirk was devastating. “Then she kind of laughed and said on second thought, she hoped you'd save her all your dances.”
    Will's mouth hung open a moment and then he laughed hesitantly. “Fuck you. She did not say that.”
    Ash held up her hand as though she were in court. “Swear to God.”
    All Will could summon up was “hunh.” He grunted softly and nodded ever so slightly to himself. Ashleigh nudged him in that universal good-going-champ sort of way, and this time when he smiled there came with it an immense sense of relief.
    It was possible that the
entire
world wasn't turning to shit.
    “Sort of interesting, the way things change, isn't it?” Ashleigh asked.
    “You can say that again.”
    “Are you feeling all right, Will? Seriously. Between last night and today—”
    “I wasn't feeling all that well. But I'm OK now.” Will glanced at her. “Just a little stressed, I guess.”
    Her husband was within earshot and now he leaned forward so he could speak directly to Will, with Ashleigh in between them. “Come on, my friend, relax. You've got nothing to be stressed about until Monday morning rolls around again. You're among friends. Let your hair down. From the looks of things, this weekend's already going better than you could've hoped.”
    With the last sentence, Eric wiggled his eyebrows suggestively and Will laughed.
    “Agreed. I'll take it under advisement.”
    But Eric's attention had already been diverted away from him. The entire crew—in fact, the entire coterie of assembled Cougars fans—were on their feet booing dramatically.
    “Pass interference!” Danny shouted.
    “You suck, Ref!” Lolly and Pix cried in harmony.
    It was anarchy, but it was familiar and comforting. Just the idea of these two beautiful women, each the exotic opposite of the other, screaming at the ref in unison, was enough to bring him back to another time in his life, a time when he had never been as confused about anything as he had felt in the past twenty-four hours. Teenage boys were all arrogance and