After the Game (Field Party Series #3)

by Abbi Glines

Overview

The third book in the #1 New York Times bestselling Field Party series—a southern soap opera with football, cute boys, and pick-up trucks—from USA TODAY bestselling author Abbi Glines.

Two years ago, Riley Young fled from Lawton, Alabama. After accusing the oldest Lawton son, Rhett, of rape, everyone called her a liar and she had no option but to leave. Now she’s back, but she’s not at Lawton High finishing up her senior year. She’s at home raising the little girl that no one believed was Rhett’s.

Rhett is off at college living the life he was afraid he’d lose with Riley’s accusation, so Riley agrees to move back to Lawton so she and her parents could take care of her grandmother, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s. But the town still hasn’t forgotten their hate for her, and she hasn’t forgotten the way they turned on her when she needed them most.

When town golden boy Brady Higgens finds Riley and her daughter, Bryony, stranded on the side of the road in a storm, he pulls over and gives them a ride. Not because he cares about Riley, of course, but because of the kid.

But after the simple car ride, he begins to question everything he thought he knew. Could Brady believe Riley and risk losing everything?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781481438933
Publisher:	Simon Pulse
Publication date:	08/22/2017
Series:	Field Party Series , #3
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	221,390
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.20(d)
Age Range:	14 - 17 Years

About the Author

Abbi Glines is the New York Times, USA TODAY, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of the Rosemary Beach, Field Party, Sea Breeze, Vincent Boys, and Existence series. A devoted book lover, Abbi lives with her family in Alabama. She maintains a Twitter addiction at @AbbiGlines and can also be found at Facebook.com/AbbiGlinesAuthor and AbbiGlines.com.

Read an Excerpt

After the Game

RILEY

The crash from the kitchen jerked me out of my dreams and into reality. Something was burning and Bryony wasn’t in bed beside me. Her sweet blond curls and big blue eyes were what normally met me when I opened my eyes.

Jumping up, I ran through the already open door of my bedroom and sprinted toward the kitchen. A million things ran through my mind as I went the short distance. Bryony never got out of bed without me. Another crash happened just as I turned the corner into the kitchen.

My grandmamma was standing at the sink with a frantic look on her face. The pot on the floor had been full of uncooked oats and milk, which were now splattered on the tile floor. Smoke was coming from the toaster behind her, and I moved quickly to jerk the plug out of the wall before things got worse.

“Momma,” Bryony’s sweet voice called out from behind me.

Spinning around, needing to see her face and know she was okay, I almost slipped on the milk under my feet.

The wild curls of her hair were sticking up everywhere as she stared up at me with wide eyes and a frown. “I’m some hungwy,” she said.

I reached down to pick her up before she stepped into the mess on the floor and cradled her against me. Holding her was enough reassurance to calm me down.

“Grandmamma was trying to fix you something, I see,” I said, looking toward my grandmother, who was now looking down at the spilled breakfast at her feet.

“I don’t know,” Grandmamma said. Her voice sounded lost, like she wasn’t sure what she was saying or why she was standing there. This was normal for her. Some days were better. Others were not. Today was not going to be a good day.

“I’ll put Bryony in her high chair and get her some cereal, and then I’ll clean this up. What do you want me to fix you, Grandmamma?” I asked her.

She turned her gaze to mine, and the confusion there always made me sad. The woman who had taught me to make biscuits and sang me songs while playing the pots and pans like drums was no longer there. She was lost inside her head.

“I don’t know,” she said, which were words I heard often.

I moved over to put Bryony in her high chair before going to take my grandmamma’s arm and move her away from the slippery mess. Most mornings I woke up earlier than my grandmother. Today I had overslept. My mom normally woke me up before she left for work, but today she either had tried and failed or had forgotten.

“I’m some hungwy,” Bryony said again. That was her way of telling me she wanted food, and now. If she’d woken up and found Grandmamma in the kitchen, she would have told her the same thing. For a moment, Grandmamma had known that meant she needed to feed her. But that brief memory left and she had dropped a pot. A dish was also broken on the floor with what looked like applesauce on it. Then, of course, the burned toast.

“Okay,” I told her and reached for a box of cereal to place some on her tray. “Eat this and let Mommy clean up the mess.”

Bryony picked up a piece of the round oat cereal and put it in her mouth.

“I broke a plate.” Grandmamma’s voice was full of concern.

“It’s okay. Accidents happen. I’m going to clean this up, then I’ll make you some of your favorite steel-cut oats with brown sugar and apple slices. Okay?” I assured her with a smile.

She frowned. “That’s my favorite?”

It was like dealing with another child. We hadn’t been back in Lawton, Alabama, long, but the time we had been back hadn’t been easy. Watching someone you love so much live lost in their own head was heartbreaking. Alzheimer’s was a terrible disease.

“Gandma hungwry,” Bryony told me.

I turned my attention to my daughter and smiled. “Yes, she is. It’s breakfast time.”

“Sandra will be upset about her plate. She loved those plates. I’ll need to go into town and buy her a new one at Miller’s. Least I can do.”

To anyone else, those words might have sounded sane. Logical. But they were anything but. For starters, Sandra was my grandmamma’s sister who had passed away from cancer when I was three years old. And Miller’s hadn’t been open for business since 1985. The only reason I knew this was because Grandmamma had sent me to fetch something at Miller’s when we first moved back and I’d started out the door when Momma stopped me and explained. Grandmamma was living in the past. Roy Miller had passed away of a heart attack in ’85, and his family had closed the store and moved out of Lawton.

Instead of reminding her of all this, though, I had found just going along with it was easier. If I told her Sandra was dead or that Miller’s was closed, she’d go into a fit of hysteria. That was what she knew and remembered today. So I ignored her comment and cleaned up the floor before getting a pot of oats on the stove cooking properly, then disposed of the burned toast out the back door.

“Do you know where I put Lyla’s applesauce? She needs to eat some this morning. I made it fresh yesterday from the apples I got at Miller’s.”

Lyla was my mother. That was another thing that Grandmamma confused. She often thought Bryony was my mother when she was a baby. Again lost in the past.

“I’ll get her some applesauce. You just sit there and relax. I’ll get you some juice. Watch the pretty birds outside. They’re eating the birdseed we put out yesterday.” That got her attention, and she began watching out the large bay window for the birds.

Mom only worked until noon today at the hospital. I would be able to take Bryony out for a walk and to the park after lunch. I needed to get them fed and start the morning chores so we would have plenty of time later to go play. The sun was shining and the warm days were behind us. The cool autumn air was perfect for being outside. And Bryony loved to pick up the different-colored leaves on the ground. She called them her “cowection.”

Editorial Reviews

High school seniors Riley and Brady have both experienced life-altering heartache. Riley was raped two years ago and is now a mother. The residents of Riley's rural Alabama town do not believe she was assaulted, and she is treated as a modern-day Hester Prynne. Riley's old classmate, Brady, leads a seemingly perfect life. He is the star quarterback, he has a full college scholarship, and his family is flawless. When Brady discovers shocking information about his father, life crashes down around him. Brady's only lifeline is Riley. In Brady’s eyes, she is the only person who understands what he is going through. They develop a romantic relationship that is complicated by Riley's vilified status. Together, Brady and Riley must decide whether their relationship can withstand the various issues they face. This is a story about finding inner strength when faced with tragedy. Both Riley and Brady face traumatic, transforming events. Even minor characters face tragedy, ranging from bereavement to a homicidal parent. Everyone emerges from their personal tragedy as a stronger, more empathetic person. While unrealistic, this is inspiring to both the characters as well as to readers. The high drama, however, does not add to the storyline, often detracting from the central plot between Riley and Brady. The dialogue is clunky at times, as teenaged characters occasionally lapse into stilted, unrealistically mature diction. In all, After The Game is not a masterpiece, but it will appeal to teens who appreciate stories about triumph over extreme adversity. This could be recommended to teens who enjoy romances with dark undertones. Reviewer: Hannah Grasse; Ages 15 to 18.

VOYA, August 2017 (Vol. 40, No. 3) - Hannah Grasse

2017-05-10
Welcome to Glines' (Under the Lights, 2016, etc.) seemingly mostly white Lawton, Alabama, where apron-clad moms bake all day, cute boys ride around in pickup trucks, and high school football is the lifeblood of the community.Two years ago, Rhett Lawton, the wealthy Lawton family's eldest son, raped Riley Young. When Riley reported the rape, the entire town turned on her, driving Riley and her parents out of Lawton. Now the Youngs have returned to Lawton to take care of Riley's ailing grandmamma. Riley (who wouldn't recommend teen motherhood "because it [isn't] a life choice") is ready to keep her head down and get through her time here, but all the suffering—the rape, the shaming, the shunning—was worth it, because now Riley is mother to a beautiful daughter, 15-month-old Bryony. "I'd live through it all again if I could have this," she says. Star quarterback Brady Higgens reviled Riley as much as everyone else at the time. Now a senior, Brady looks forward to college football. When chance brings Riley and Brady together, they tentatively become friends; as Brady begins to believe Riley's account of what happened, the relationship deepens. Chapters alternate between Riley's and Brady's first-person, present-tense accounts; neither's voice is particularly distinguished, and their romance develops along highly predictable lines. The novel's anti-abortion angle is likely to turn off a lot of readers; even a more conservative boy/girl-romance-loving crowd is likely to find it bland. (Fiction. 14-18)

Kirkus Reviews