Forever Red (28 page)

Hearing the words I’d said to her coming from his lips made me glare. Lia thanked him, but turned on the couch, snuggling her back into my front and putting our clasped hands over her belly. Noah got the message loud and clear, but his smile only grew. “You two look tired. You should have slept in the house – the beds are much better.”

“Did you need something, fuckface?”

Dropping into the chair in the corner, he watched us. “Lia’s friends were wondering when you’d join us. I think they’re getting bored and want to go home.”

I stiffened. I didn’t want her to leave yet. I wasn’t ready for this to be over.

Lia sat forward, twisting around to face me, her expression carefully blank. “I am ignoring them. But we all actually have substitutes tomorrow…” She trailed off in silent question.

I nodded, cupping her cheek. “If they want to go home today, have Carson drive them. If they don’t, I’m leaving it up to you to entertain them,” I told my brother without looking at him. “If they go today, tell them I’ll drive Lia up tomorrow. If not, we’ll see you in the morning.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Noah stand up, but he didn’t move. Lia only smiled, moving her lips to mine. “Noah?” she called, leaning away from me slightly, not breaking eye contact. “Make sure you lock the door on your way out.”

Holy fuck. I was fucked. Totally, absolutely, utterly fucked.

Courtney was trying to kill me. Okay. Maybe that was a little extreme. But she was definitely punishing me.

“Get your ass moving, Foster!” she hollered over her shoulder. “We have to be at school in an hour.”

I groaned, willing my legs to keep moving. I’d tried to tell her I didn’t have a run in me this morning, but the brat wouldn’t take no for an answer. She insisted that after our weekend of booze and junk food, I had to get back on the damn horse. Her version of the horse, though, was a four-mile run. I could have handled a one-miler. Maybe two. But four? Right now, I hated her.

Every part of my body was sore. Muscles that I didn’t even know I had were screaming, begging me to stop moving and go sit in a hot bath. I smiled, remembering that the aches I was feeling actually had very little to do with this morning’s workout or the fact that I’d overindulged for my birthday. They had everything to do with a certain tattooed country singer and the fact that he didn’t want me to get out of his bed.

That country singer was also the reason my friends were a little agitated with me. I may have ignored them for the entire day on my birthday. And I may have gotten a ride home from said country boy hours after Mike brought the three of them back to Maine. And I may have spent the rest of last night locked in my bedroom, talking to that same boy while he drove himself back to Massachusetts.

They had questions. Not just about what I did all weekend, but about Mike’s connection and everything else I’d told them on Friday. They wanted answers. I owed them a good explanation. But right now, I wanted to keep all my memories to myself.

Kelly was all I could think about. From his contagious laugh to how incredibly sexy he looked in nothing but a pair of boxers to the way he made my body sing. I didn’t want to share any of my memories of him because I was selfish. The rest of the world had a piece of him all the time. Was it really so bad that I wanted the part that he’d shared with me all to myself?

“Foster!” Cort screamed in her best gym coach voice, interrupting my millionth thought about him. “Pick up the pace. Dig deep!”

I sighed, barely stifling a yawn. I could do this. Pushing every thought I had of Nathaniel Kelly aside, I forced my legs to pick up their pace.

*****

Somehow, we made it to work not only on time, but also with fifteen minutes to spare. I managed to avoid Cora and Nina – knowing Cort had undoubtedly filled them in – as I hurried to my classroom. They’d find me before the end of the day, but I was still floating on cloud nine and didn’t want to give either the chance to ruin it right now. I was totally unprepared to see the familiar face sitting behind my desk.

“Hi!” I squeaked, trying to cover how much he had startled me.

Deep brown eyes sparkled in humor. “I think you had way too much fun this weekend.”

I crossed my arms over my chest, instantly on alert. “Oh? And why is that, Oh Wise One?”

Craig only laughed, unfolding his large six-two frame from the short little chair that was set to my height, sitting on the edge of my desk instead. “One”—he held up a finger—“you never answered my calls or returned my texts. Two”—he added another finger—“you never called me when you got home last night like you promised. Three, you’re jumpy as shit. Which means you were really hung-over or you did something you feel guilty about.”

I rolled my eyes as I dropped my lunch box and files on my desk. “Don’t you have a class to get to?”

He nodded, reaching out and grabbing my chin. “This is so much more fun.”

He dropped his hand just as my door opened and Monica, an adorable senior, walked in. She lit up when she saw the handsome man with me. “Hi, Mr. K.”

Craig lifted a hand in silent greeting, but he ignored the busty brunette. Sliding a little closer to me, he met my eyes and lowered his voice. “When are we getting together to celebrate? I need to give you your present.”

I shook my head, taking a deep breath. I adored Craig Knightly. But I didn’t want a single thing that he had gotten me because behind every present was a hope that I’d change my mind.

When I found out he’d been hired to teach at King High, I’d panicked. I cried for an entire week, knowing that every sordid detail of my past was going to come out. I waited every day for him to say something, but he hadn’t uttered a word. A few months after the school year started, he’d cornered me in the lounge one day after school and told me that he didn’t want anyone to know our history. It had been five years, he was older, wiser, and he was starting over, too.

I’d been weary of him at first, keeping a constant eye on him and his behavior around his students. He was nothing but appropriate and over time, I started to relax. As the school year flew by, he made it extremely clear that the only person he was interested in was me. I couldn’t tell my friends why I didn’t want to date the hot new English teacher that hit on me every chance he got, and finally, I’d given in.

It was oddly comforting to spend time with him. I could talk to him about everything; how much I missed Julie, my regrets about Neil, The Game, and the fact that I thought he was a disgusting ass for touching me. I didn’t have to pretend when I was around him.

And he didn’t pretend around me. We talked candidly about our time together before. Five years may not be a big deal when you’re twenty-three and twenty-eight, but it’s a huge gap when you’re sixteen and twenty-one. Craig never once made some pathetic excuse about his actions, and he never made me feel like I’d done something wrong. Even though I was the one that had initiated the entire affair, he insisted it was all his fault and that he should have known better. We agreed that we’d both been stupid kids playing with fire.

Eventually, we moved on. We had a blank slate. I was Ms. CeCe Foster, American History teacher, not Lia Merrill, the sad student with daddy issues. He was brilliant Mr. Knightly, not Craig, the young, cocky student-teacher and assistant coach.

Mikey hated every single second of it. I’d been afraid to tell him, but we’d promised to be honest with each other, even if we had to hide from the rest of the world. There was no hiding that my oldest friend felt I was sleeping with the pedophile that had cost me my relationship with Neil.

We’d dated for almost five years. Right up until the day he told me he wanted to marry me. It became real that moment.

Craig was not the monster Mike thought he was. He was a dedicated teacher, had a kind heart, and had worked his way up to be a pillar in our community. The only flaw the man had was that he didn’t have the willpower to turn a half-naked student away years ago, and he’d fallen in love with a girl he shouldn’t have had the chance to know.

Even with all his amazing attributes, I couldn’t stay with him after that day. I adored Craig. Loved the time we spent together. But I didn’t love him. I would never love him. He deserved someone that would worship the ground he walked on.

I looked at him now and just shook my head. Lowering my voice so Monica didn’t hear me, I told him the only thing I could. “I slept with Neil this weekend.”

The shock on Craig’s face was almost laughable. He masked it quickly, but not quite fast enough. “Neil? Wow.” He cleared his throat. “I… ugh… wow. Didn’t expect that.”

“Neither did I.” I shook my head, smiling at more of my students as they trickled in. “The girls took me to his concert for my birthday.”

“Oh.” He said the word slowly as if it was finally dawning on him. Then he stood, giving me his brilliant smile. “We’ll talk later. Yeah?”

I nodded, almost sad as I watched him leave the room, shoulders drooping. I closed my eyes, turned back to my desk, and pulled on the front of my blouse. Today was going to be longer than I had thought.

*****

The week actually flew by. My friends didn’t pester me for details about Nathaniel, which shocked the shit out of me. My students were on their best behavior, including Justin, even though we were headed into their last long holiday weekend and they were getting antsy. Every time I ran into Craig, we exchanged pleasant chitchat as if nothing had changed.

Surprisingly, I talked to Nathaniel every night. I still wasn’t sure what to call him, even though he had programmed his number into my phone as Neil. He’d also managed to upload his entire tour schedule into my calendar so I knew where he was and where he was going for every concert. And he’d assigned “Sweet Home Alabama” as his ringtone. All things I thought were incredibly sweet. Annoying, but sweet.

Each night that he didn’t have a show, we spent hours talking about nothing at all. The nights he had a show, he’d call me as soon as it was over. I would tell him about my day, he’d tell me about his. Just two people getting to know each other. It was amazing.

Friday night, I walked out of the high school much later than I’d planned and stopped short. There was a very large, very attractive, very happy looking man leaning against my car with his legs crossed at the ankle and his arms over his chest. I shook my head, smiling, and then walked straight to him.

“Mikey?” I asked cautiously. “Whatcha doing here?”

Mike stood straight and slid his black sunglasses up onto his head. “Probly should check your phone Lee.”

I never had my ringer on during the day and I blindly searched through my bag looking for it. Pulling it out, I squinted at the screen and the messages that Kelly had sent.

“I thought he had a concert in Virginia.”

Mike grinned. “He does. Tonight. But he’s flying home as soon as it’s over.” He pushed himself off the car. “I’ve been sent to grab you.”

I gaped at him. “Grab me?” I repeated.

He nodded. “I was supposed to go to the apartment and get you some clothes, but I decided to come here and get you first.” His lips twitched with laughter, making my eyes narrow. “As much as I’m dying to get my hands in your panties—” His wicked thought was cut off by my annoyed growl. He held up his hands in surrender, barely containing his laughter. “Drawer. Get my hands in you panties drawer. Figured you’d want to pick out your own lingerie.”

“Do you expect me to thank you for that?” I was extremely grateful, though. I kept more than undies and teddies in my top drawer, and did not want Mike to even know about my toys, let alone see them. Or touch them. Oh, God! The thought made me shiver. Pulling out my car keys, I unlocked the doors and dumped the handful of files on the backseat. Resting my hands on my hips, I sent a glare in my friend’s direction. “So he sent you to get me so that I’d be what? Waiting for him in Mass when he got back?”

Mike walked around to my passenger side, staring at me over the roof. “Nope. He sent me to grab you so I can fly with you and then drive you out to his farm.”

“His farm? The one in Alabama?” I asked and Mike only nodded. I tried to ignore the little sparks of excitement in my belly. “Why?”

Shaking his head as if he couldn’t believe I was actually asking him that question, he sighed. “Because he wants to see you, that’s why. Because it’s a long weekend and he usually doesn’t get any weekend off. Because he wants to spend the next three days with you. He thought you might want to spend it with him, too.”

I did. But I wasn’t giving in that easy. “And if I say no?”

Fighting another smile, he shrugged. “Then I actually grab you.”

Even though Mike looked like he thoroughly enjoyed that idea, I knew he wouldn’t actually force me to go if I didn’t want to. My mind was still caught up on the idea that Nathaniel would send Mike up here to get me, and then fly us to Alabama just to spend a few days with me. I smiled at the thought of having him all to myself. “Guess we should hurry then, huh?”

*****

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Cort’s hands were on her barely-there hips and she was giving me her angry eyes. “You’re fucking with me right now. Right?”

Mike glanced from me to her and then back to me before mumbling something about needing a beer and abandoning me to the firing squad. Coward. All that muscle was obviously just for show.

I smiled at my friend before turning back to the pile of clothes on my bed. Picking up a pair of jeans, I folded them into my suitcase. “I’m not.”

Cort groaned, throwing her hands in the air. “You, Cecelia Marie, do not run to a man when he demands you go to him.”

I laughed at that. “That is so
not
what I’m doing.”

“Uh, yeah. It kinda is.” She pointed to my bed. “You are standing here at six o’clock on a Friday night, packing your shit. Because a man told you to.”

“It’s Memorial Day weekend, Cort. Half the country is packing right now.” I sent her a lopsided smile, shrugging. “We weren’t doing anything, anyway. If we were, I wouldn’t bail on you.”

“We did have plans! Our asses should be planted on the couch, stuffing our faces full of lo Mein, over indulging in cheap beer, and binging on
Scandal
. But noooo. Some ass sent you a booty call and now you’re running to him as fast as you can.”

I dropped the tee shirt I was holding into my bag and turned back to her. “Sweetie, you’re going out with your girls tomorrow night and you probably won’t be home until Monday. This is not about me leaving you. What is going on?”

She met my eyes and twisted her lips before pinching the bridge of her nose in exasperation. “I’m worried about you.”