Maybe I can implicate him without implicating Carter. I don’t want to, but if Grace is attracted to him, she deserves to know the truth.
God, this is going to be so awkward.
“Look, Grace… I really didn’t want to tell you this, but Jake didn’t leave it at groping me the time you know about. After his football coach suspended him to punish him for his behavior, Jake got it in his mind that he needed to punish me back. He wanted to intimidate me into saying I lied so he’d be able to play, and… he and a couple of other guys from the team chased me into a classroom, cornered me, and—I won’t go into details or anything, but it wasn’t good. Jake isn’t a good guy, Grace. He’s not a safe guy.”
Grace’s brown eyes are wide with horror. “Oh, my gosh, Zoey. Did they…hurt you? I mean, did they…?”
I shake my head, looking down. “They stopped before it got that far, but just barely.”
She covers her mouth, tears springing to her eyes. “I’m so sorry, Zoey. I didn’t know. I would have never…. Are you okay?”
“It’s fine. I’m fine. It’s over. I don’t want to think about it. The only reason I’m telling you is because, if you like Jake…”
Grace shakes her head, sniffling. “No, I don’t. I don’t. It was just a stupid, drunken thing. Alcohol really is evil, isn’t it? Oh, my gosh, I just don’t even know what to say, Zoey.”
“You don’t have to say anything. Honestly, I don’t want you to get upset over it. I truly am fine. Thinkin’ about it makes me feel icky, so I would feel better if we didn’t. Let’s move on. I just needed to tell you so you knew what Jake was capable of.”
“Who were the other guys?”
That gives me pause. Maybe too obvious a pause, because there’s no way I wouldn’t know them all by name. Cartwright is an ass, but I’m not going to lie and say he did something he didn’t.
“Shayne Sutton,” I offer. “He was mostly just guarding the door. It doesn’t even matter, the point was just—I wanted to warn you.”
Her gaze drops to the comforter, then she swallows and meets my gaze again. “Was it Carter?”
Ignoring her question, I stand. “Let’s go have breakfast.”
Instead of letting it go, she presses. “Were you really sleeping last night, or were you… something else? Did he hurt you?”
“Grace, I’m fine,” I say, a little more shortly than I intend. Attempting to smooth it over, I add in a more solicitous tone, “Now, let’s go have breakfast or I need to go home. I work soon, and my phone is almost dead.”
I’m in the middle of updating the “new release” display when my phone vibrates. I finish arranging the shelf, steal a glance at my manager to see if he’s paying attention, then check my phone.
It’s a direct message from Carter. It reads, “Seems like I should have your phone number, doesn’t it?”
I type back, “I’m surprised you don’t already, actually. You don’t have devious alternate means of getting it? I’m disappointed.”
“You always have to make me work extra hard for you, don’t you, princess?”
I smile faintly. “It’ll be good for you for to work for something in your life, QB.”
“Hey, I earned that position,” he tells me.
“Uh huh. Didn’t your parents buy the whole team new jerseys?”
“My mom thought the old ones were ugly. That had nothing to do with me making the team.”
“Mm hmm,” I send back.
“If you’d ever bring your ass to one of my games, you’d see my skills.”
“You invited me to ONE game,” I point out. “It’s a little premature to be throwing around ‘ever’ like this is a habit of mine.”
“Last night I made a 31-yard touchdown pass to win the game. My parents didn’t pay for that, now, did they?” he asks.
“Congratulations on throwing a ball kinda far.”
“It’s not my best pass,” he assures me.
“I could not care less.”
A few seconds later, he sends back, “Brutal. What do I have to do impress you, Ellis?”
“Get my phone number,” I tease.
“Fine. I will. And when I text you, I’ll tell you when I’m picking you up.”
“Excuse me?” I send back, cocking an eyebrow at the screen.
“It’s Saturday. I don’t have practice. I thought we could catch an early showing of that movie.”
“I can’t, I’m at work until four,” I reply without thought.
“Can’t call off?”
I laugh a little, shaking my head at how out of touch he is. “No, I can’t call off. I’m already here. That’s not how jobs work.”
“That’s shitty. I can’t go tonight. My parents are gonna be in Dallas so I have to watch Chloe.”
“The jokes would probably go over her head,” I joke.
“Maybe slightly inappropriate.”
Even though I didn’t agree to go out with him, have not thought any more about this at all, and might not even want to go out with him, since he can’t go anyway, I decide to keep the joke going. “Unless you wanted to go see the new Disney movie instead. I bet she’d like that one.”