Page 78 of Troublemaker
The ride back to Tabb was quiet. I drove one handed, the other on her left thigh, while she gazed out the window. Thethree hours passed quickly, too quickly, and then we were back, driving through Gehenom past the college bars and bagel shops.
“You should probably drop me off here,” Lucy said when we reached the bridge that would take us from College Village into campus. “If you’re seen dropping me off at my dorm after we both disappeared for a couple days, people are going to talk.”
I wanted to argue with her, to rail against her logic. If I could, I’d drive her straight to the dean’s house on the lake and tell him I was dating a student at Tabb who just also happened to be my ward, and he and the board could eat shit if they had a problem with it.
But what good would that do, other than get me fired, Lucy’s reputation ruined, and her chances at the pre-vet program destroyed?
I glanced over at her as I pulled to a stop. She was biting her lip, worrying at it, and I brushed my thumb over her mouth and teeth, easing her.
“What’s wrong?” I asked gently.
“I think you were right. We should’ve stayed in that random town,” she said. “I’m worried that now that we’re back…”
…you’ll go back to treating me like I don’t matter, she didn’t have to say.
“Lucy, we’re together now,” I told her firmly. “This isn’t ending because we’re back on campus. We’ll just have to sneak around for a bit while I figure something out.”
“Yeah? Like I’m your naughty little secret?” she teased.
“Something like that,” I said.
She looked at me, and I wanted to kiss her, but students were everywhere, on their way to study or drink their Sunday woes away. I wasn’t sure, and I didn’t care. I was going to fucking kiss her.
As I leaned in, she stopped me.
“We can’t,” she said fiercely, and I breathed her in for a moment.
“Don’t tell me ‘can’t,’” I growled, leaning in again.
“Blake, please. Don’t do this to us. Not yet.”
Damn it.
I fisted my hands, staring at her. “You’re mine, Lucy Braverman. I won’t kiss you right now and ruin both our lives, if that’s what you want, but you’re going to make it up to me later. If I have to tie you down spread-eagled to my bed so nothing gets in the way of me kissing you, I will.”
She smiled. “You make the sweetest threats, Coach.”
And then she was unbuckling her seatbelt, removing my feeling of control over her safety, and hopping out of the car. I watched as she swayed her hips down the bridge pathway, not moving my car until someone behind me honked, before driving home.
“What the fuck?”Trey greeted me when I joined him later that morning in the film study room. I’d gotten home, showered, paced around my house and tried not to go watch the video feed of Lucy’s dorm room. I knew she wouldn’t be there, but wanted to feel closer to her. Really, I’d had to force myself not to shadow her from class to class to make sure she was safe and no campus douchebag tried to hit on her. I only succeeded because I had to go to work.
“I know, I’m sorry. I had a family emergency,” I offered.
It was a pathetic excuse, and Trey knew it.
“You don’t have family,” he pointed out.
I did, in fact, have family now. Lucy was my family. I may have resisted that for years, but it was true, even if the way she was my family had changed drastically from what I’d ever expected. But if he wasn’t picking up on what I actually meant, I wasn’t going to explain it to him.
Instead I said, “I’m sorry I wasn’t here before, but I’m here now. Our next game is Saturday, so we need to get to work, not sit around and gossip like old women.”
Trey looked affronted. “I wasn’t fucking gossiping. I was trying to figure out why mybossrainchecked a date with my sister, only to disappear for two goddamned days, not respond to a single text, and miss practice. If you lack so much respect for me and this team that you can’t even explain where you were, then I have absolutely zero interest working with you anymore.”
Ah, shit.
Trey was a great assistant coach; I couldn’t lose him.
But I also couldn’t tell him what was going on between me and Lucy, not with her entire future and mine in the balance. The stakes had never felt higher, and I still couldn’t come up with a solution to our problem.
