AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’ve been busy. I have a life, Olive. What do you want me to do?”
“Watch your son?” I started walking in the direction of the guys’ neighborhood. “Be a father?”
“I’ve got a life here. I didn’t ask you to follow me here. If you wanted someone to watch the kid, you should’ve stayed home with your parents or something. I’m not a fucking babysitter, Olive.” Taylor caught my arm and tugged me around to face him. “I never said I was going to watch him while you went out and did whatever it is you want to do. I’m busy.”
I’d been fourteen, going on fifteen when Taylor starting chasing after me. He was seventeen. He’d pressured me, bullied me, and controlled every aspect of my life even after he knocked me up and dumped me. He’d always been the one in power and he was so used to being in a position above me that it didn’t cross his mind that I might’ve grown up in the years since I’d seen him face to face. He just assumed everything would be the exact same. His rules, his way, as long as he wanted it that way.
Too bad for him I wasn’t a child anymore. “Go fuck yourself, Taylor. Honestly. I talked to you before committing to Oklahoma A&M. You were fine with it when you didn’t have to do anything. Heaven forbid you pretend to take care of your responsibilities. He’s your son, you dick. He wants to see you and for some reason, I believe he deserves a father, even if that father is you. Suck your shit up and start doing what we agreed on, which is taking care of him when I have class or work and don’t have other childcare options. Or when he wants to see you.”
I yanked my arm away from him and started walking again. I hated everything about Taylor Clarkson. I hated his very existence, but I was willing to put that all aside so he could be in Jesse’s life. I didn’t know at what point I gave up on that idea and wrote him off completely. He wouldn’t complain, if he even noticed. If I was the one responsible for taking him away from Jesse, though, I’d never forgive myself and every time he asked me where his daddy was, I’d feel responsible for not having an answer for him.
Taylor walked along behind me, not saying anything. I was considering the repercussions of roundhouse kicking him when he tried to grab my hand. I jerked it away from him, of course, and he reached around me to grab my hips and pull me to a stop. “Wait a second, Olive. Just let me talk to you.”
I stepped out of his grip and shot him a dirty look. “Do it without touching me.”
“When did you get all sassy?” His face had changed since informing me that he had a life and he looked at me like I was a slab of beef he wanted to eat. He even licked his lips in a display that was beyond disturbing to me. “I like the new attitude, babe. I like it a lot.”
“Gross, Taylor.” I shook my head and dodged his hands again. “Touch me again and I’ll be wearing your hands as earrings tomorrow. Jesse’s father, or not, I don’t want you touching me.”
“Goddamn, Olive. Why weren’t you this fun back in high school? I could’ve handled a little fight from you back then.”
My stomach twisted with nausea. “Fuck you. Stay away from me, Taylor. You can be a father to Jesse without coming near me.”
He stayed put when I walked away that time but I could feel him watching me. “Maybe I was wrong about you, babe. You’re a lot more fun than I remembered. I’ll see you around.”
12
***Olive***
FumingatTaylorquicklyturned into hugely furious feelings over what he’d put me through. After getting an ignorant kid pregnant with his lies and manipulation, he’d shamed me in front of the entire school and left me an outcast. As if everyone bullying me about it wasn’t bad enough, my parents had shipped me away as soon as I’d started to show. I’d given birth to Jesse at a camp for unwed teen moms with no medication or support and I still resented the hell out of everyone involved for making the experience so nightmarish.
I didn’t want to think about Taylor anymore, so I did my best to think about anything else. I tried thinking about class and that made me think about Jack. It was so clear that Jesse needed more men in his life. He was surrounded by women at home and he hardly ever got to experience men around him, especially nice men. My father hardly counted as anyone nice. It was so kind of Jack to help out with Jesse. I’d been in class with plenty of men while I still lived in Blackfoot and none of them ever volunteered to do anything with Jesse. It was like they saw red flags when they heard I was a mom and ran the other way. Good riddance.
Thinking about Jack while keyed up from being angry at Taylor did something strange to my body. The tense feelings of anger shifted into something else entirely and I felt my body respond south of my belly. The way he’d looked at me with so much hunger in his eyes earlier had left me breathless. I wanted that look again.
It wasn’t hard to imagine him staring at me like that when it was just the two of us. I stumbled a step as I thought of him moving closer to me, naked like he’d been in the shower. My imagination went wild, conjuring up his body, then picturing myself in the shower with him. The locker room shower turned into the shower in my apartment and when he moved closer, I felt a throbbing between my legs.
In my mind, Jack gripped my hips and pulled me closer, trapping his heavy erection between us. His eyes bore into mine as he stroked his hands up my sides and cupped my breasts. I shivered and then his hands moved over my shoulders and down to my ass. Gripping me tight, he opened his mouth and while I waited to hear his deep voice, I was shocked when a shrill ring came out.
Jarred out of my kinky imagination, I stood perfectly still and tried to clear my mind of all dirty thoughts. I wasn’t sure where that’d come from. Daydreaming about sex had never been something I’d done. Something about Jack had washed right over me, though. Even while standing still, shaking my head of the images, I could almost feel his hands on me still.
A truck honked its horn next to me and I jumped about a foot in the air. I grasped my chest and looked over to see Taylor in the truck, laughing hysterically. Glaring at him, I swore as the images of Jack vanished completely. “Leave me alone, Taylor!”
He honked again. “See you around, sexy!”
I flipped off the back of his truck as he drove away and rubbed hands up and down my arms, trying to get the chill out that he’d left. I was furious that he’d scared me, but also that he’d ruined the tingly feelings the thoughts of Jack had left me. I heard that same shrill sound from my daydream and frowned. What the hell was that?
It took a few more rings for me to realize it was my muffled phone. My heavy footfalls as I stomped down the sidewalk and my heartbeat pounding in my ears ate up all the other sounds around me. When it continued ringing, the sound pierced through my focus. I pulled the phone out and saw that Lydie was calling. I didn’t even get to say hello before she started talking.
“Something’s wrong with you. You’re upset or angry, right?” When I hesitated, she cackled. “Yes! I told you I have an extra sense for your moods, Liv. I just had a feeling that you weren’t happy. So, spill.”
I groaned. “Taylor.”
“Are you kidding me? Did he bail on watching Jesse again?” She swore. “If I didn’t have class, I’d come down there and kick his ass, Liv.”
“He’s bailed on watching Jesse every time. Tonight, he hit on me, though. Apparently, he liked the way I told him to go fuck himself. He’s disgusting.”
“Good for you! I’m proud of you for saying that to him.”
