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“Shit you gonna tell him what you just told us?”
“Sure am. Got a few other things to talk to him about as well.” With a wink, I walk out of the pool house. Ace and Remi are curled up together on one of the loungers, Remi successfully distracting him with her tongue down his throat. I smile at them, but I can’t deny that I’m not engulfed with jealousy.
I had that, and I fucked it right up.
The conversation I have with James, although a long time coming, is much easier than I was expecting. I opened up about the past, and, much like Ace, he blamed himself. I wasn’t quite as insistent that it had nothing to do with him, because really, he could have rescued us. But the past is the past, and I need to start leaving it there.
He agreed to look into the couple of requests I had for him. If he was surprised by them, he didn’t show it. I wonder if he’s got a better read on me than I thought he had.
I reluctantly went back to school on Monday. It was exactly as I was expecting, full of suspicious, intrigued stares and whispers behind my back.
James did as he promised and kept the details of my… accident, under the radar. But kids talk, and people soon started putting two and two together. Thankfully, though, most of them are scared of me, so all gossip stopped when I walked into a room or down the hallway.
My biggest issue was Hadley. She avoided me for the most part, or at least it felt like she was. But when we did cross paths, I couldn’t help my body craving her, my muscles desperate to reach out and pull her to me.
The sadness that was in her eyes gutted me, but anytime I took a step toward her, she spun on her heels and marched in the other direction.
Conner filled me in on the details of her split from her parents, so I know she has the weight of the world on her shoulders right now. I just hope James makes good on his word and manages to do what I’ve asked of him. Her life shouldn’t be any harder than necessary. She deserves so much better than the hand she’s been dealt.
“Yo, bro. You taking a shit?” Conner calls through the gap in my bathroom door not long after we’ve got back from school Thursday evening. Coach has let me back to training, and seeing as the final game is this Saturday, he’s really putting us through our paces.
“No, asshole. I’m in the shower,” I bark back.
Ignoring me, he pushes the door open and strolls in as if I’m not standing here naked.
“Do you mind?”
“Not really. I’ve seen your tiny cock plenty of times. Listen…” Groaning to myself, I turn my back on him and continue what I was doing. “Hadley just texted me.” I still at the mention of her name. “Yeah, fucker. I thought that might get your attention.
“Go on.”
“She needs a ride home from work tonight. Thing is, I’m really busy with homework and shit, and I’m not going to be able to make it. So I was wondering if you…”
“I’m there. What time?”
“Forty-five minutes. Give that a good clean, you know, just in case.” He nods toward my junk with a smirk.
“Get the fuck out, asshole.”
He holds his hands up in surrender. “I’m going, I’m going. Does she dig the piercing? I might think about…” He ducks out of the room just before
my shower gel collides with his head.
“That nearly hit me,” he complains.
“It was meant to,” I shout back with a laugh.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Hadley
“Keeping up?” Jeb asks me as I lean against the service counter to catch my breath. The afternoon rush finally seems to be slowing.
“Is it like this every Thursday?”
“It’s always our busiest day of the week. Don’t ask me why, but people love their coffee and cake on a Thursday.” He gives me a rare smile. “Why don’t you get those tables cleaned off, and I’ll deal with this mess.”
With a nod, I set to work, cleaning, spraying and fixing the tables. I’ve worked every afternoon for three hours after school. It isn’t much, but it’s a start. And the tips are surprisingly good.
