AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“We haven’t… not yet. It’s important that you know I haven’t pushed Lily into anything she wasn’t ready for.”
Her mom gave me a small nod. I wanted to believe it was reassurance but this whole thing was so fucked up.
“Back to Lindsey. What happened to get to this point?” Mrs. Bennet frowned.
“Lindsey made a couple of idle threats, but I thought she was bluffing. Until she showed me the video before the game tonight. She said that unless I agreed to go to the dance with her, she would show everyone the video.”
“So she blackmailed you?”
“Yeah, but I thought she’d deleted it.” At least, that’s what I’d wanted to believe. “Lily and I planned to meet after the dance. I was going to tell her the truth then and come clean to Coach as soon as I’d talked to Lily. I swear, it wasn’t supposed to go down like this.”
“It’s okay, Kaiden,” Mrs. Ford said. “Everything’s going to be okay.”
How could she even say that?
Lily had turned up at the dance to surprise me, to declare her love for me, and it had all gone to shit. I wouldn’t blame her if she never wanted to see me again after tonight.
Mrs. Ford leaned over and squeezed my shoulder. “Lily is stronger than she gives herself credit for. Once the dust settles, I’ll talk to her.”
“Why? Why would you do that for me?”
“Because Kaiden, despite what other people may say about you, you are not your father. And I have watched my daughter bloom over the last few weeks… because of you.”
“Coach Ford will—”
“Let me handle my husband. You worry about the major groveling you’re going to need to do to smooth things over with Lily.” She winked, soothing something inside me. I didn’t know what it was about these Ford women, but they had magical bewitching powers or some shit.
“What will happen to Lindsey?”
“I’ll handle Lindsey,” Mrs. Bennet said. “It’s about time that girl was brought down a peg or two.”
“I suggest you go home and lie low for a couple of days. Jason might be your coach, but he’s also a father, and that is a dangerous thing indeed.” There was humor in her voice, but it didn’t stop her words hitting me dead in the chest. If our roles were reversed, I’d want to kick my ass too.
“Thank you, Mya,” Mrs. Ford said, standing. “Kaiden, will you walk me out?”
“Uh, yeah, sure,” I said.
The air was thick between us at first as we made our way back toward the gymnasium.
“You know, this feels an awful lot like history repeating itself,” she eventually said.
“What do you mean?”
“How much do you know about what happened between your dad and Jason back in high school?”
“I know bits.”
“Well, Lewis did something similar to us… to me. And Jason did what he thought necessary to protect me, just as you did what you thought necessary to protect my Lily. So while he might want to kill you with his bare hands tonight, once he calms down enough to see sense, things will be different.”
“I betrayed him,” I said. “I broke his trust and lied to his face.”
“Because you care about our daughter. I won’t say that everything you’ve done has been the right thing, but I won’t chastise you for putting her first either.” She took my hand in hers. “Lily told me that you wanted to tell Jason, how she talked you out of it. You put her first, Kaiden. You were respecting her decisionsandtrying to protect her. And that is a wonderful thing.”
We finally reached the parking lot. “I’m going to go home and check on my daughter. I suggest you go home and get to work on your grovelling.” She winked again, before heading for her car. “Oh, and Kaiden?”
“Yeah?”
“In case you didn’t already realize, my daughter loves you very much.”
