Page 64 of More, Daddy

I don’t know.

But I think about her and that tiny little furrow between her brows when I took her hand.

That furrow is all I can think about for the rest of the day.

And in the evening, I haveextra timeto think about that pinch in her brows, and the way her eyes swept over me like she was seeing me for the first time ever, because she doesn’t get online.

Not even for a minute.

Not at all.

CHAPTER

FIFTEEN

West Dupont cameonto me today.

I think?

It was the strangest thing. No, not just strange.

Quite possibly the weirdest thing to ever happen to me, which takes the cake, because at a high school, I have witnessed and walked in on a plethora of oddities.

Two teachers 69ing in the janitors’ closet. Seriously. Next to the Simple Green and everything.

A student taking inappropriate photos beneath the bleachers. A male student, by the way.

Some kid who had watched way too muchBreaking Bad, who thought he was Jesse and started a fire in the chemistry lab. That one was bad.

Leah crying. Yep, the principal and my personal boss, sobbing uncontrollably. Talk about awkward.

But of all the things I’ve experienced at Bluebell High, West Dupont grabbing my hand and giving me bedroom eyes seriously ranks number one. Without a doubt.

“How come you tossed your meal?” Maven asks as I walk her to her car after a long practice.

“Huh?” I was so deep in thewhat the fuck is up with West Dupontthought that her question catches me off guard.

“Your lunch today. When we came and got you, you just tossed it.” She blinks up at me with ruddy cheeks as we trudge through the heat on the asphalt. “Were you mad we interrupted you?”

I shake my head. “Oh no. I could’ve brought it with me but… it was one of those meals that requires adding so much extra time, only to make the edges hot with a still-cold inside, you know?”

Maven nods. “Totally. That’s how my favorite microwave pizza is.”

I smile. “I bought a sandwich from the vending machine in the teacher’s lounge during my free period. It was all good.”

Maven’s mother pulls up in her teal minivan, jutting her hand out the window to wave down her daughter.

“Well, thanks for walking me out.” She smiles. “See you tomorrow.”

I wave at her mother, then continue on, finding my tired looking car waiting for me. Inside, I start the air and crack the windows, and glance up to see West Dupont stepping out of the training office, one of the last players to leave under his arm as he talks to him closely.

I squint.

Tanner Colt. The quarterback who was recently injured. A car passes me, and I recognize it as Clara June Colt’s vehicle, which means Tanner is getting picked up.

Not wanting West to look my way after the awkward come-on in the breakroom, I pull out of the lot without a second glance. A few weeks ago, I stopped by his office to tell him congratulations for the grant he won for Warriorville County, and he was basically a zombie.

West is hot, don’t get me wrong. But dating someone that I will see at work every day? No way. Still, I can’t help but wonder–what is going through his mind?Grabbing my hand and hitting me with fuck me eyes? How about “Hey, Cadence, I don’t think I’ve ever initiated conversation, I’m West.” That would have gone miles further than whatever plan he concocted today.