Page 111 of A Whole New Play

In two seconds, Carlee is next to me. “What’s going on?”

The woman steps back and releases an airy laugh. “Oh, nothing. Valerie and I were just talking.”

Corey arrives and stands next to Carlee, seemingly unaware of the sea of admiring children and adults staring at him in awe as his attention zeroes in on the blonde woman in front of me.

“Sara?” The baseball star frowns. “What are you doing here?”

Corey knows her?

Maybe she wasn’t lying. Maybe she really was friends with Carter…

The woman, Sara, laughs again. This time, it sounds uncomfortable. “What do you mean? I’m here for the science fair.” She waves a hand around the room.

“You shouldn’t be here,” Corey pitches his voice low. His brows turn inward with his narrowed gaze. “This is inappropriate. Leave.”

“Corey?” Carlee rests a hand on his elbow, just as confused by his firm behavior as I am. “What’s going on?”

Feeling safer now that their aunt and future uncle are here, the twins step out from behind me, positioning themselves at my side.

“She’s bothering Valerie,” Abby says.

“And saying mean things,” Andy adds.

Sara feigns shock. “What? That’s not true, I’m just?—”

“Sara,” Corey interrupts her. “You need to leave. Now.”

She sputters. “But I?—”

“No,” he clips. “Leave. Now. I’m not going to let you harass Carter’s kids.”

Her face floods with embarrassment, but when her eyes lock with mine, anger takes its place.

“You,” she spits. “You don’t mean anything to him. He’s just going to fuck you and then leave you—Hey!”

Corey wraps a firm grip around Sara’s upper arm and starts to drag her to the exit.

“Let go of me!” Sara shouts.

He doesn’t.

“Corey?” Carlee follows after him.

A security guard approaches from his post by the exit when he sees the massive baseball player’s approach. “What’s going on here, sir?” His eyes dart between Corey and the woman huffing and puffing about how rude he’s being and demanding he let her go.

Corey doesn’t mince words. “This woman is harassing Carter Jones’s children. She has no business being here.”

The security guard immediately takes action. “I’ll take it from here, Mr. Johnson.”

Corey releases Sara’s arm.

“You need to leave the premises immediately, ma’am,” the security guard commands.

“But I want to see the science fair.”

“Do you think Carter is going to like hearing about this, Sara?” Corey growls. “Approaching him at Jerry’s is one thing, but you’ve gone too far by coming here today.”

“I just wanted to say hi.” Sara pouts, trying a different tactic to get her way.

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