Dad must have gone to Granny’s because there were two platters of cinnamon rolls on the table. She’d introduced a maple-cream-cheese frosting with pecans. Half the rolls had that on it. I would have to thoroughly test both to see which was better. The smell coming from the oven indicated there was some kind of breakfast casserole warming up. Peggy came downstairs with Little David and handed him to me so I could say good morning.
She made herself a cup of coffee and got me a glass of orange juice.
“I hear you had quite the crowd for your game. They interviewed Mr. Hicks, and he said they may move your games to State to accommodate the number of people interested in seeing you play.”
“Surely he didn’t say it was just for me. Eve sang, and the Washington boosters had a fundraiser.”
“I’m afraid so,” she said.
I didn’t get a chance to quiz Peggy any longer because the back door opened and Uncle John walked in. Mom and Dad came downstairs, and we had coffee.
“Shouldn’t we at least have a cinnamon roll?” I suggested.
“You can wait until everyone gets here,” Mom scolded.
It wasn’t long before the rest showed up. Mom and Dad had talked to both Alan’s parents and Tami’s mom. Everyone seemed to agree I was the one who needed to tell them. As far as they knew, we were all here for breakfast. Mom had told Tami she was tired of us not being close friends and that I was ready to make that happen. Of course, Tami told Alan.
Everyone filled up their plates except for me; I would wait until I was done talking. We’d arranged it so Tami was at the head of the table and I was to her right with Alan on her left. Uncle John said psychologically, Tami sitting at the head of the table would give her more control. I thought he was crazy, but I wasn’t about to argue. With them seated like this, I could look at both of them at the same time.
“I wanted to talk to you both about all these things I’ve said over the last few months. Some of my words were hurtful and drove you both away from me. In my defense, I assumed some things I’ve recently discovered to be untrue. You both know what I’m talking about,” I said and then tilted my head to indicate that we weren’t alone. “We’ll leave it at that.”
Tami looked me in the eyes, I felt her reading my soul, and then her eyes narrowed.
“What was untrue?” she asked.
For once, Alan sat quietly as he tried to figure it out.
“Tami, you were raped,” I barely got out.
Alan’s eyes grew wide.
“I didn’t do anything!” he yelled. He started to get up out of his chair.
I held up my hands.
“I didn’t say you did it,” I said and then hurried on before they began to question me. “Brandon drugged you both, raped Tami, and then staged you both to deceive me.”
“You’re saying this was done to get at you,” Tami said, getting mad.
“Partly. Partly, Brandon’s a serial rapist. Before you kill me, let me explain,” I said.
Tami rocked back in her seat and crossed her arms. Her body language wasn’t good; she looked hostile. Alan was simply stunned. I looked around the table, and everyone had a grim expression on their face. I wondered if I’d messed this up.
“Rigby, Thompson and Associates were told I needed a PA and someone to handle my recruiting. They introduced me to Brandon Rigby, Don Rigby’s nephew, and told me he was available. They shared with me he’d decided to quit Harvard and take time off to travel around Europe. Brandon’s dad was said to have given him an ultimatum to either get a job or go back to school. The firm thought being my PA would be good experience for him since Kendal had done so well. It helped her transition into her role as an entertainment agent.
“Brandon said he’d also been a top-150 football recruit in high school. That meant he was familiar with what I would face in the recruiting process,” I said and got out of my chair to pace.
“Over the fall and into the winter, I talked to both of you enough to start to have some suspicions about what happened that night. But I just couldn’t get past what I’d seen,” I said and licked my lips.
Suddenly, I had cottonmouth and had to get a drink. I rubbed my hands together and powered on.
“When I came back from LA, Caryn was put in charge of running my businesses day-to-day. We needed office space and to hire her some help. One hire was Megan Crowley. She’d been in charge of the financials at Rigby, Thompson and Associates, and took care of their computers.
“When we met to see the strip mall we bought, she told me about Brandon. Megan told me she’d overheard Brandon bragging to one of his fraternity buddies who worked at the firm about what he’d done that weekend,” I said.
“Wait a minute, how long ago was that?” Tami asked.
I took a deep breath.
“Let me finish this, and I’ll answer all your questions,” I said, knowing if we got off track, this would turn into a bigger mess.
Tami just nodded. Alan started to ask a question, but Tami gave him a look. At least she hadn’t hit his forehead.
