Yet, I didn’t say a word.
Not when he was staring at me like I was the next best thing to the brownies he’d given up a month and a half ago.
“Do you love me more than brownies?” I asked him.
His eyes lifted, and they were hooded and hot.
“You know I do,” he answered simply.
“What about Dr. Peppers?” I wondered, a small smirk kicking up the corner of my lip.
His eyes narrowed on that smirk. “More than Dr. Pepper.”
“What about those little kolache thingies you used to get at the gas station?” I teased.
He growled low in his throat. “You are about to get your ass spanked.”
I was really pushing all of his buttons here.
Ezra was what you could call hangry. All the damn time.
So not only had he given up sugar, but he’d given up bread, noodles and rice.
He was on a low carb, low calorie diet that was really doing impressive things to his physique.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t be strong like him.
I now had to sneak food into the house.
Last week, I’d had food in my purse when I was visiting Morgan, and Ezra had walked in during a surprise lunchtime visit to see me with a pile of the no-no foods in my lap.
I’d acted like they were Morgan’s and had thrust them at him.
Morgan had laughed at me while he’d eaten them in front of me, and that was when I knew that he was going to be just fine—well, as fine as a boy with limited mobility in his legs would ever be.
Ezra moved and started to run his lips up the length of my neck, pausing at the base to suckle lightly on my collarbone. “You’re not paying attention to me.”
I bit my lip and moved my hands away from my breasts, running them up his body to curve around his shoulders. “You weren’t being very interesting I guess. Don’t worry, you have my full attention now.”
His chuckle had my insides turning to mush.
“What is it about you that makes me so goddamn happy?” he wondered.
I didn’t know.
I couldn’t tell him what it was about him that attracted me to him all those years ago, or why it was that I loved him so much. There were just too many things to count.
But I’d give it a try.
“I love you because you’re selfless,” I said softly, my hands going up to cup his bearded cheeks. “I love that you take time out of your summer to spend with kids—all day, every day—for weeks on end. I love that you’ll drop anything to go pick up one of your players. I love that you make me smile. I love that you…”
His mouth slammed down on mine, and all of a sudden, he was in a rush to get me naked.
I didn’t stop him. In fact, I helped him.Chapter 21The worst part about online shopping is having to get up and get your card.
-Text from Raleigh to Ezra
Raleigh
The beginning of the school year
“Who do you have in your class?” I heard one of Ezra’s assistant coaches ask.
Ezra and Allic, the assistant coach, traded class rosters, and Ezra whistled. “You have Mackie? Fuck, that sucks.”
Mackie was back with a vengeance this year.
I could happily kill the English teacher, as well as the science teacher—Camryn, who’d failed him last year.
Out of all of the kids that needed to get the hell out of this school, he was it.
I hated it even more that I somehow knew he was guilty of hurting Morgan, yet he wasn’t punished for the crime.
Morgan was back at school and happier than ever.
“All right, children,” Mrs. Sherpa sighed, sounding tired. “Two things before I allow y’all to head to your classrooms to get set up.”
We all waited, none of us bothering to question what the two things she needed to say were.
She didn’t take long in voicing them, which had been why everyone stayed silent.
“I want to have a great year. We did excellent on our state testing scores last year, and I would like to do the same this year…”
My attention shifted away from Mrs. Sherpa to Coach Casper that was sitting on the opposite side of Allic, and I wanted to throat punch her.
She had her hand on Ezra’s hand, and she was practically leaning all the way over Allic to accomplish it.
Not that Allic seemed to mind. He was actually grinning as he tried to suck his belly—which wasn’t very big to begin with—in so that Coach Casper would have more room.
His eyes were on me, and he was mouthing something that I couldn’t quite make out.
I gave him a puzzled look, and he repeated it.
Her boob is in my hand.
My eyes flicked to the hand that Allic had resting in his lap, and I burst out laughing when I saw that Coach Casper’s boob was, indeed, in his hand.