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“Honey, what’s wrong?” I say gruffly, maybe a little harsher than I meant to. But fuck if it isn’t doing something strange to me to see her upset like this. She jumps and screams a little, her wild eyes shooting up to me. She places a hand on her heaving chest.
“Jesus, Ford. You scared me,” she shakes her head a little, swiping what I can see now are tears that are running down her face. Her cheeks and nose are red, her eyes puffy like she’s been up half the night crying.
“What is this? What happened? Why are you so upset?” I start firing questions at her after kicking the door shut and stalking over to her desk. I drop down to my knees next to her chair, taking her hands in mine. “Talk to me, baby. What has you so worked up?” My eyes are searching hers, but I’m seeing nothing but fear and apprehension.
She waves me off and tries to laugh but it comes out shaky. “Nothing, I’m just being silly,” she snatches her hands out of mine, reaching across her desk to grab a tissue. She starts blotting at her face. “I must be getting ready to get my period,” she laughs again. I’m not buying it for one fucking second.
I drop back on my haunches, pushing up from the floor and propping my ass on her desk. I cross my arms over my chest and look down on her, trying to see if she’s actually telling the truth. But she won’t make eye contact. She starts nervously shuffling papers around her desk and rearranging pencils.
“Everything is great. Really.” She pushes her chair back and stands up, placing her delicate little hand on my forearm. She finally, fucking finally, makes eye contact with me. “I promise. I’m good. Just having a day.” She leans over and pecks me on the cheek just as the first bell rings. I reach over and tuck her hair behind her ear, letting my palm rest on her jaw and stroking her cheek with my finger.
“Are you sure you’re good? You’d tell me if something was seriously wrong, right?” My eyes shift back and forth between her sky blue ones. She tilts her head towards my hand and lets her eyes fall close before she opens them back up, blinking twice.
“I promise,” she says, covering my hand with hers, and then turning her head to kiss my pulse point on my wrist. “Now go on, get outta here. These kids are going to come bursting in at any moment and if they catch us together it will ignite the rumor mill.” She laughs a little as I bend down and grab my bag. She creates a little space between us and snags a dry erase marker from her desk, turning around she uncaps it and reaches up like she’s going to start writing on the board. Just as I go to open my mouth,
probably to do something crazy like tell her how I can’t stop thinking about her, the door to her classroom bursts open and a few students start to trickle in.
“Thanks for the reminder, Mr. James,” Lex says as she starts writing on the board. “I’ll be sure to let the cheerleaders know about the pep rally on Friday.” She looks back over her shoulder, her wavy blonde hair flipping over to her opposite shoulder as she shoots me a wink.
“Yeah,” I say clearing my throat, “pep rally. Great. Thanks again, Miss Carter.” I turn and head out the door, acknowledging a few students with a chin lift and a few fist bumps. Pep rally, my ass. This conversation isn’t over. Not by a long shot.
???
The rest of the day slowly passes by. Between classes there’s no time to pop down to see Lex, and during lunch she’s nowhere to be found and her classroom door is locked. I finish out the day and head down to the athletic office to change out of my school attire and into my shorts and t-shirt for practice. Locking up the office after changing and grabbing the mesh bag with the footballs in it, I make my way out to the football field, popping my head into the locker room to tell the boys to hurry up.
I make it to the field where Jax is already setting up cones so we can run plays. Jax is my best friend and has been since we were just kids. He works as an accountant during the day and spends his evenings and weekends helping me coach football. We get to work setting up the field and once the team is out, we start practice.
Same as it’s always been, we practice on the field and the cheerleaders run their practice on the sidelines, at the same time as us, two days a week. I’ve usually never bothered to pay attention, but there’s a certain blonde that I’ve had my eye on who looks super sexy in a pair of tight as fuck black shorts and a Jefferson High t-shirt stretched across her magnificent tits. It is taking everything I have to stay focused on my team and not on her ass in those shorts.
Jax, who notices everything, elbows me in the ribs and starts shaking his head, a smirk on his face.
“Man, you’ve got it bad.”
I glance back towards the field, where the guys are running a counter play, and then slide my glance back to Jax. “That obvious?” I laugh a little. No use in denying it, I am definitely smitten with Alexis. I just wish I knew more about her. She doesn’t seem like she wants to open up.
“She brought dinner last night, the kids really dig her, but I don’t know much about her.” I lay it all out there, hoping to get some advice from him. He finishes scribbling something on the clipboard he’s holding.
He shoots me a look. “She’s met your kids?” he sounds shocked.
“Yeah, I mean, she does live next door to me. It’s kind of hard to keep them hidden, man.”
“Ah man, I didn’t realize it was actually serious. Fuck.”
“What aren’t you telling me, Jaxson?” I’m starting to get shitty. He’s acting shady, like he’s keeping something from me.
He tosses the clipboard down on the bench behind us, running his hand through his unruly hair. “Shit, okay. So, I hit the bar last night and I ran into Laney, old lady Jenkins' niece. And she was telling me about this new chick in town that her aunt is renting to…” he trails off, like he doesn’t want to say anything. Now he’s just pissing me off.
“Cut the shit, Callaway, obviously this is about Lex. Spit it the fuck out.”
“Okay, so she told me that her aunt said one of her friends from way back in the day contacted her and said she had a young lady who had just gotten herself out of a really shitty domestic violence situation. Like, real shitty. I guess this dude was a real asshole and the girl put up with it for a while. It started as emotional abuse and then towards the end it escalated into physical. She took the girl in for years, man. Years while she rebuilt her life. I guess she just dipped out on the dude one day after shit got real bad and never looked back.” He finishes, glancing between the cheerleaders and then back to the football players, who are being led in their end of practice huddle by the captain of the team.
Domestic violence? Suddenly all I can see is red. I want to hunt this mother fucker down. I glance towards Lex, watching her write something in a notebook. She looks up, her forehead furrowed, like she can feel me looking at her. She catches my eye and a smile lights up her face, giving me a little wave. I wave back.
“You’re sure she was talking about Lex?” I grit, looking back at Jax.
“Yeah, man, I’m positive. I heard they were married. Still could be if she actually took off on him like Mrs. Jenkins said she did. That’s all I know. Just, maybe be careful? I know how hard shit has been for you since Zoe. You’ve got a couple of well-adjusted kids considering everything they’ve been through, and I know you’re the kind of guy who’s going to want to save her, but I don’t want to see the three of you get hurt.” He claps me on the shoulder.
I turn my focus back to the team, my thoughts clouded with what Jaxson just told me. I may look like I’m focused on my guys but my head, and maybe even my heart, are stuck back on those bleachers with Alexis Carter.
