Page 44 of Hot Four Teacher (The Lawson’s #4)

Chapter forty-three

Fifteen will get You Twenty

Dane

O ne of the downsides to owning a pick-up truck is that everyone and their brother will ask you to borrow it.

Or I guess I should say sister since it was Jenny who called and begged me to help her move some stuff to her storage unit.

A few times a year, Jenny gets the urge to declutter her house but rather than completely getting rid of it, the hoarder in her insists on simply putting it in storage.

Both she and her husband drive a Prius, so I get called on to be her mover for the day. It’s always been a pain in the ass–especially since now, it’s a further drive for me–but I enjoy getting to spend a couple hours with Ashley.

But now, I’m ready to get home, so I can see Michelle. She’s all I’ve thought about all day. Who am I kidding? She’s all I think about most days.

And tonight, we will get to spend all night together.

I’ll get to feel her next to me while we sleep and wake up with her in my arms. Any time we’ve had together has been few and far between, so I plan on doing it right.

I got candles, wine, and chocolate-covered strawberries. We are going to enjoy every second.

I haven’t told her I’m on my way back yet because I want to get everything set up before I do.

As I get closer to my house, I pass a raging house party. It’s not surprising. On this road, there are a few fraternity houses for the local college. House parties are a pretty common occurrence.

The car in front of me slows down to drop someone off, so I get stuck behind it. Anxiously, I tap my thumb on the steering wheel as though it’s somehow going to make them hurry up.

With my windows down, I hear a guy, “Come on, baby. Let’s go back inside. I’ll show you my bedroom.”

Wow. What a line.

I look over to see if the girl is actually falling for it.

What I see has my jaw hitting the ground. The girl in question…is Eve.

What the fuck is Eve doing at a college party? Michelle told me she was staying the night with a friend. Clearly, she wasn’t told the whole story.

The car ahead of me moves, but I don’t. After a quick glance in my mirrors to make sure no one is behind me, I go back to watching the scene to my right.

The terrible, awful scene.

The guy grabs Eve’s hand, trying to lead her back inside, but she keeps pulling away.

“No,” she says. “I don’t feel good. I need some air.”

“Come on, baby.” Without warning, he yanks her toward him and shoves his tongue down her throat. She fights against him again, and I see a couple of his buddies coming to help get her back inside.

I’ve seen enough.

I yank the steering wheel so hard that my truck lurches onto the curb. I’m so pissed that I don’t even care about that.

I storm out and onto the large lawn.

“Hey!” I shout at the guys. “Let her go!”

The guy looks at me like I’ve lost my mind. “Whoa, man. She wants to be here. We’re just having some fun.” As if he’s now the one who’s lost his mind, he slaps her ass.

“She's fifteen, you fucking idiot,” I say.

He now lets go of her like her skin electrocuted him. ”Hey, I had no idea. She said she was 21.”

“Does she look 21?” I ask, getting in his face.

“I don’t know, man. Look, if there’s grass on the field, you play ball.”

I can’t believe what I’m hearing. This guy must be the dumbest kid alive.

I take a step towards him.

“Here’s the deal. You have two seconds to get the fuck away from her before I not only kick your ass but call the cops to raid this place every single night. And guess what? Fifteen will get you twenty.”

One of the guy’s friends says, “Come on, bro. Let’s go inside. We don’t want any trouble.”

I take another step toward him. “No. You really don’t.”

He thinks for a moment, trying to figure out if he wants to take this any further. Ultimately, though, he turns to go back inside.

On the way, he mutters, “She’s not even that cute anyway.”

It takes everything in me not to punch this dude square in his face. Instead, I decide to get Eve out of here.

“Come on,” I say, setting my hand on her shoulder. “Let’s go.”

As we are walking back to my truck, Eve asks, “So, how much trouble am I in?”

“Well, I can tell you you’ll be running a shit ton of laps on Monday, but aside from that, I can’t say.”

“Any way we can keep this between us?”

I give her some side eye. “What do you think?”

She sighs. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”

I get her wobbly self buckled into the truck and then get into the driver's seat. Before I start driving, I say, “Tell me if you’re going to puke. I’ll pull over because I don’t want it in my truck.”

She gives me a thumbs up. “Aye, aye, coach.”

She adjusts her crop top and mini skirt. I’m guessing the clothes aren’t hers. I doubt Michelle would let her leave the house like this. Then again, Michelle didn’t know Eve was at a college party instead of at her friend’s house.

Teenagers.

Teaching them is hard enough. I can’t imagine raising them.

I reach into the backseat to hand her one of my jackets because it’s clear she’s uncomfortable.

“Thanks,” she mumbles.

“What were you drinking?” I ask as we start driving.

“I don’t know. That guy gave me something.”

“You drank something from someone you didn’t know? What if he had put something in it?”

She doesn’t respond.

Maybe I shouldn’t be having this conversation right here, but I’ll tell you I would read the riot act to any of my students who did something like this. That’s not going to change just because I’m dating her mom. I’m not going to coddle her.

“Eve, you’re a tremendously smart girl, but this was so stupid. What would have happened if I hadn’t seen you? Do you think you could have fought those guys off?” The thought makes me sick.

“I don’t know.”

“I’ll tell you something. Men are pigs.”

She looks at me. “Are you a pig?”

“When I was young, yes, I was. Guys that age only think with one body part, and it’s not their brains.”

“Yeah, I’m starting to get that. Last year, I had a boyfriend I was crazy about. When I wouldn’t put out, he dumped me and slept with my friend.”

“Yeah, boys are dumb. I’m sorry that happened to you, but I’m guessing if you didn’t want to do it with your boyfriend, that you probably didn’t want to do it with a frat boy you barely know.”

She sighs. “I know.”

I spend a few more minutes lecturing her about her irresponsible decisions and their consequences.

When I’m finished, she asks, “You want to know something messed up?”

“What’s that?”

“In the past ten minutes, you’ve acted more like my dad than my actual father ever did.”

Hearing her say that breaks my heart a little. I hate that she has to go through this.

I look over and see a tear falling down her cheek. She says, “I just don’t know why he never cared about me. Why is his new family so much better than me?”

I pull the truck over to the side of the road and put it in park.

“Eve, I want you to listen to me. If your dad can’t see how great of a kid you are, that’s his problem.

One day, he’s going to be an old man, sitting all alone in his house, and he’s going to regret his decisions.

When he turns on the TV and sees that you’re a soccer superstar or a scientist that cured cancer, he’ll realize how much of an idiot he is. ”

She looks over at me and gives me a weak smile. “Coach,” she begins. “I’m going to puke.”

“Shit. Open the door.”

She does and then hangs her head out and starts vomiting. I reach over to hold her hair back as best I can.

Well, tonight did not go as I imagined.

***

Fifteen minutes later, I pull into Michelle’s driveway. Eve has been dozing the past few minutes, so I walk over to help her out.

As I open the door, she looks at me. “I really wish my dad could’ve been someone like you.”

I have no idea how to respond to that without giving away anything that her mother doesn’t want her to know, so I just smile back and help her out.

We get to the door and knock. Michelle opens the door and grins at me before her head snaps to Eve.

“What the hell is going on?” she asks.

I look at Eve for her to answer.

Still out of it, she says, “I went to a frat party. Got drunk. A guy got handsy. Coach showed up like a fucking superhero and saved me. And then, I puked. I think you’re all caught up now.”

Anger washes over her features. “What?”

“Mom, I totally know you’re going to yell…a lot, but I’m about to throw up again.”

She immediately steps out of the way, letting Eve run past her to the bathroom. She follows her but looks over her shoulder at me.

“Hold on just a second. Don’t leave.”

I wonder if she’s going to be mad at me when she gets back. Maybe I overstepped a boundary. I anxiously wait for her to return.

When she finally does, I brace myself for impact. I figure she’s about to be pissed although I’m not exactly sure why.

When I see her, it’s clear she was ready for our night together. She has some pretty makeup on her eyes, and her hair is curled.

And she’s wearing a cute sun dress that hugs every delicious curve.

She walks toward me and doesn’t stop before she wraps her arms around my neck in a hug.

“Thank you,” she says. “Thank you for taking care of my girl.”

I hold her close and kiss the top of her head. “You’re welcome, baby. Is she okay?”

“She’s already asleep, but ask me in the morning. I might kill her.” She looks up at me. “I’m sorry our evening was ruined.”

“Yeah, let me just say damn, you look incredible, but that’s okay. There will always be other nights. One of these days, we’ll get a chance for some alone time.”

She gets a wicked grin on her lips. “Actually, I wanted to talk to you. I think I have a solution to that.”