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Poppy and Sofia both let out a dreamy sigh, while Aaron leaned over to shake his hand.
“Congratulations, man. I have only one question. When’s the bachelor party?” Everyone laughed.
“What says you, Coach?” Avery tipped his head at Jason.
“You can’t call me that anymore, Ave. I’m not your Coach.”
“Nah, you’ll always be my Coach.” Something passed between them.
My dad had been there every step of the way through Avery’s football career, from Pee Wee to middle school to high school. He’d never liked my cousins calling him uncle. Of course, Ashleigh refused to listen when she was a little kid, and she liked to give him crap about it now, but not Avery. From the second my dad had started training him, he’d always been Coach. It was their thing. The way Mom called me Lily Star.
“You’re young, Ave. Really fucking young.”
“You were only a sophomore when you proposed to Fee,” Avery countered.
“You got me there, kid. Fuck… I mean, shit… you’re all growing up, aren’t you?” Dad ran his eyes over each of us.
“Yeah, babe.” Mom said, winding her arm around his shoulder and kissing his cheek. “They are.”
Chapter Fourteen
Kaiden
I gently kickedLily’s chair and she glanced over at me.
“What?” she mouthed, and I slid the note to the edge of the table. Frowning, she plucked it from me and pressed it into her palm and turned back around.
Yesterday, Bryan had been moved to a different seat after he made inappropriate noises when Mr. Jenkins was going over the lesson. When we’d arrived in class today, he had informed us we were to stay separated. It sucked for Bryan, who was now sitting next to Carrie-Ann Trombley, the class know-it-all, but it was a definite upside for me.
I was walking a fine line, I knew that. But after riding the simulator with Lily on Saturday, I didn’t want to just kick her out of my life. I couldn’t. She wasn’t like anyone else. She didn’t only see the boy from across the river.
Lewis Thatcher’s son.
An Eagle.
She sawme.
My stomach did a little flip when she leaned her arm back and dropped the note on my desk. I’d asked her if she would be at the game Friday.
Yes.
She had the neatest handwriting,which didn’t surprise me for the girl scared to live life outside of the lines.
Will you be at the party afterward?
I foldedthe note and looked up to check if Mr. Jenkins was distracted. Happy he was, I kicked her chair again. She didn’t turn around this time, but she did sneak her hand behind her. I dropped the note in it and watched her open it.
What I wanted was to see her eyes. You could tell so much about a person when you looked into their eyes. But where Lily was concerned, I’d have to take whatever scraps I could get.
Mr. Jenkins stood to explain something to the class, thanks to a question from Bryan’s new desk neighbor. I breathed a sigh of relief when he finally sat down and continued grading papers. Lily slipped her hand back and I plucked the note from her fingers, our hands lingering.
I could still remember what it had felt like to hold her hand Saturday, which was fucking weird considering I’d never really held hands with a girl before. I would never tell the guys, but it had been like a seismic shift inside me.
It was fucking terrifying. To feel so much for a girl who had the power to ruin you. Well, her father anyway.
I didn’t get close. I didn’t let girls in. They were a distraction. Nothing more than something to work off the tension.
But not Lily.
