Page 14 of My (Not So) Perfect Plan

It wasn’t my fault, totally not at all my fault. He swings forward another step and suddenly there’s nowhere for me to go. We’ve reached the back wall. We were supposed to turn around and go the other way. Instead he seems pretty content to crowd my space on the wall.

“So, Claire, about this tutoring,” he says, leaning in toward me. His voice is smooth and deep, washing through me. I can feel little puffs of air on my mouth as he speaks and it makes me shiver.

“Hm?” I ask, not even knowing what he’s talking about. Is he going to kiss me? It feels like he’s going to kiss me. Do I want Evan Carmichael, known-lady’s-man, to kiss me? The answer is undeniably, yes. Please. Kiss me, Carmichael.

He lifts his head and grins at me, like he knows exactly the effect he’s having on me. It’s enough to wake me up from my zombie trance. Muttering to myself about fangirling like an idiot I slip out from in front of him and wait for him to turn.

“I’m afraid I’m going to fall over, Miss Brown. I think you better hold on to me so I don’t lose my balance,” Evan says in the most pathetic voice known to man.

I narrow my eyes at him because there’s not a person alive that wouldn’t believe he doesn’t have an ulterior motive. But, Joanna did say I was supposed to hold on to him and I do love the way he feels. At the same time, I wonder if there is some kind of ethics violation I’m committing by enjoying this. I step up to him again and put my fingers on his waist. He takes a quick intake of breath as he stares into my eyes and I wonder if maybe I’m having an effect on him too.

Joanna breezes back into the room. “Excellent. I talked it over with your mother, Evan. Since Claire is familiar with all the exercises, instead of volunteering her hours here, she can volunteer her hours helping you do your exercises. You’ll be coming here once a week just to check in and make sure you’re progressing. Let me know next week when your surgery is because that will affect your plan of care. Sound good?”

He nods and seems to be much happier now than when he first arrived, but I am panicking. PT three days out of the week, for an hour at a time?

“That’s actually perfect,” he says. “We can do our tutoring then too, if you’re good with that?”

“Just make sure you don’t try to do the tutoring while you’re doing the rehab. You really need to make sure your mind is focused on the PT when you’re doing it,” Joanna tells him.

I raise my eyebrows at him to emphasize the point. None of this distraction with flirty behavior.

“Help me to my wheel chair, Claire?” Evan asks me. The deep, rumbly sound of my name on his lips has me wanting to fan myself. Oh, man, I am in so much trouble.

Evan is finally situated in the car. I’m holding Mrs. Carmichael’s purse and the folder with Evan’s information. I can’t say I’m sorry to see him go. He tends to disturb my equilibrium, which is already disturbed enough what with the chaos at home.

Mrs. Carmichael comes up to me looking a bit frazzled. I’m sure she doesn’t appreciate it considering she looks like one of those people who trys to stay in a constant state of interview –ready preparedness.

“You’re a dear,” she says, taking the purse and folder from me. “I was wondering. This might be an imposition, but I hope the payment will even things out. You go to school with Evan, right?”

Where was she going with this? “Yeah…?”

“Well, he’s going to be almost bed-ridden for weeks if not months.”

I nod my head. His sort of injury was not fun.

“I worked it out with the school that he’ll be able to complete whatever he misses in school at home.” She turns and does this weird thing where she looks at her car closely, as if to see whether Evan is watching her. It looks like he is buried in his phone, but she turns her back to him just in case and leans forward to whisper, “Since his football career is ruined, we want to get him into college on an academic scholarship. His father refuses to pay for college. Wants him to bootstrap or something.”

“Yeah, of course.” I bob my head because that makes sense, although why she’s trying to hide it from Evan, I don’t know.

“Here’s the thing. There are a few subjects he needs to improve his grades on. I know he’s tutoring you in Trigonometry, so it sounds to me like you have a pretty good working relationship with him already. He mentioned that you are in the top 10% in your class – only because it surprised him that you would need his help. Would you consider coming over to tutor him on English, and Spanish? I know it’s a lot to ask, but I can pay for it. Would thirty an hour do it?”

“Thirty?” I ask in shock. I could so use the extra money to pad my college fund.

“Sorry. Forty?” She asks.

“Sure,” I croak before I can talk myself out of it, before she can raise the amount anymore. Who knows how high she would go. “I can bring over any assignments that don’t come over the internet, do some PT with him, and then we could do some tutoring.”

“I think that would be really good because he seems to be really struggling right now and anything to get his mind focused on something other than the loss of any potential football career would be good right now.”

I had no idea this injury was complicating his life this much. It makes me feel a little sick inside. He has potentially month’s worth of recovery in his senior year. It’s not like I am this party animal who planned on having the senior year of all senior years, but I didn’t have to spend it cooped up or bedridden.

“Does he have a lot of his friends stopping by, Mrs. Carmichael? Or at least, showing their support?”

“Some, but I can’t say I was impressed with how many. Two of the kids from the football team showed up, and I know he’s been getting texts, but they don’t seem to make him very happy.”

“Noted.” I didn’t know what I could do about his friends, but even if he didn’t have a ton of people for support, at least I could send a card. “I would gladly do it, but I don’t really have a way to get out there. I don’t have a car.”

“Oh, well.” She worries her mouth a moment. “I really want you to come. If I let you use his truck, will you do it?”

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