ROMANCE: DBL Coverage (Bad Boy Sports Romance)(Alpha Male Football Romance) (Contemporary New Adult Womens Fiction Romance) (3 page)

Chapter 6

Clarke was having a hard time dealing with the changes in the house. Brandon barely looked at her, Jared avoided her and she could see the judgment in her parent’s eyes. Finally she decided that she couldn’t deal with all of it and found a college near her dad’s house that she could attend for her last semester. She didn’t tell anyone that she was leaving, finding it hard to say goodbyes when she would be expected to give a reason. The real one she could not really say, so Clarke thought it best to leave sooner than later.

Going back to her dad’s house was a shift. Her mother had married well and with it brought the nice house, cars, everything that her father didn’t have. Clarke worried that it was because of those things that her mom left her dad, but she would never ask. It was strange being back in the small three bedrooms home that she had spent her first ten years of life in. It was ever weirder to see her father after several months apart or for more than a few hours. She never pictured herself moving back in with him, but he was making an effort and she tried as well.

It was hard to make an effort for Clarke though. She missed her friend Senna, her family that knew her and she missed her stepbrothers. That was the strangest part of it, that she could miss them at all. The kiss from Jared had kept her up at night ever since it had happened and there was nothing she could do. The all looked at her as if she was depraved and maybe she was. Clarke knew that getting away from everything for a while was the way to go, even if she did miss her family.

Her mother agreed to pay for tuition for her last term, but she left nothing left over for her to live on. She had to find a job in the small coastal town. All she could get was a waitressing job at a local 24 hour diner off the interstate. It wasn’t exactly how she had imagined her last bit of college to be, but Clark knew she had no choice but to go along with it. It was better than the looks and avoidance, everyone in the house talking about her behind her back.

Sighing to herself, she looked up at the clock. She had another 3
rd
shift and Clarke was supposed to be working, but she was studying instead. There was always a dead time between three thirty and five thirty where there usually wasn’t a soul in there. While most everyone else used the time to do side work and get ready for the next shift, Clarke tried to get as much studying in as she could.

“Clarke you’ve got a phone call. Take it in behind the counter.”

Clarke looked up surprised. There was no one to call her. Senna was sleeping and no one else that she knew around there would call her at work, it would be on her cellphone. She was not expecting the voice that she heard on the other end.

“Hey Sis. How have you been?”

It had been weeks since she had talked to Jared. That hadn’t actually spoken a word to each other since their kiss that changed everything. Clarke wondered how he got her number. He had called over and over again on her old cell phone so much that she had gotten it changed. She hadn’t told anyone from home that she was working at the restaurant. “Alright. How did you get this number?”

“Right to the point. That is something that I always liked about you. Before everything changed.”

“I didn’t change anything Jared, you did. What do you want?”

“Have you not learned to not ask that question yet?”

She sighed and waited for it. “Just what Jared. I can’t even go home because of you.”

“I wasn’t the only one doing the kissing, if I remember right.”

“You don’t remember right Jared. I was shocked was all. You are my brother.”

“Not by blood, as you so eloquently put it. We miss you. We want to come up and see you.”

She paused. It was not a good idea. She knew it wasn’t. “Sorry I am really busy right now.”

“Well you don’t look very busy.”

“I have school to finish and work.”

“No I mean right now. I don’t see a soul in there and you weren’t studying very hard.”

Clarke looked over at the car in the parking lot that started to look familiar. Through the large windows in front, she saw Jared waving from the front seat. “So you are here now?”

“It looks that way. I will see you in a minute.”

She watched him get out of the low lying sports car and then Brandon getting out of the other side. Her heart slammed in her chest with their sudden arrival. It had been weeks since she had seen them and she didn’t want her first time to be there, in her diner getup. Clarke sighed. There was also a lot she wanted to say to Jared, but couldn’t with Brandon there. She had no idea what the hell they were doing there all of a sudden. Any time that her stepbrothers wanted to see her, it was never good news.

There was nothing else to do but wait for them to come in. She smiled at Jared for a moment before she remembered herself. Her body remembered him pressing her against the counter and kissing her until she could think of no one else.

“Do you want something to drink?”

Jared nodded, drinking in the sight of her. “Yes please.”

Clarke turned around, weirded out by him being nice to her. It would never be normal for Jared to say please for anything. It was not in his nature, so it didn’t seem right. She brought them a couple coffees with cream. It looked like they had been driving for a while.

“So what’s up guys? What are you doing here? I obviously don’t have any money.” She tried to smile like it was a joke, but it really wasn’t. She had been kicked out cold on the cash with the parents. That one kiss, while awakening, had cost her a lot in the long run. Clarke had to wonder if he felt any repercussions. She doubted it.

“We want you to come back home Clarke. It’s strange there without you.”

“Well it was strange to be there. I don’t think I have any desire to go back. I am already enrolled here Jared.”

He sighed. “Why did I know this wouldn’t be easy?” Jared was talking to Brandon. Brandon found out about the kiss and it had sent him to thinking that she was down for his plan, but Jared wasn’t so sure. With her refusal, Jared tried to think of a way to make her come back. “How are your grades doing Clarke?”

“I don’t know, pretty good. Do you want to go sleep with one of my teachers to change that?”

Jared was not expecting that and his face stoned up for a minute. He looked at his brother accusatorily. “How do you know about that?”

“Rhonda liked you even less than she liked me. Question is, why would you do that? What the hell is wrong with you?”

Clarke started to feel better. When Rhonda had told her about it, Clarke couldn’t believe it, but having to say it to him was worth the wait. The only wish is that she could have captured his face.

“It’s not like that.”

She smiled. “I think that is what we told our parents too.  Is it about as true?”

Jared sat back. The conversation was not going the way it was supposed to. It was certainly not going the way he had seen it happening in his head. All he could think about was grasping for an excuse, but he had none. “If you wouldn’t be so uptight, we wouldn’t have to do things like that.”

Clarke looked at Brandon. Finally he speaks and once again, she didn’t want to hear it. “I may be uptight compared to you two, but at least I have some loyalty. I didn’t tell your dad about the stupid blonde bimbo from the cheerleading team that you got knocked up. Or that you get hard every time you are around me. Now did I?”

“How did you know about that?”

“Because you are not as slick as you like to think you are Jared.”

Chapter 7

“Well that didn’t go how it was supposed to go.”

Jared looked over at his brother and sighed. He got the prize for the biggest understatement ever. It had been a train wreck, nothing short of it. They hadn’t even finished their hot coffee before she asked them to leave. When she put it out there like that, it was hard to not see it her way. The only thing that made him pause from giving it all up was the first look in her eyes when he had come in.

“No it didn’t. I knew that you had filled my head with crap.”

Brandon sat back and looked out at the sun starting to rise as they made their way back home. She had moved far enough away that it was not easy to just ride out there. Clarke had run states away, making sure that she wouldn’t be bothered. “Do you think she is ever going to forgive us?”

“Us, I think she is just pissed at me.”

“Maybe, but how does she know about Olivia?”

“It’s not true. She is pregnant, but it’s not mine. Olivia is just saying that because she doesn’t want to admit she was with a lot of other people. I always wrapped it up. Don’t want to be tied down before I even get started. Can’t be drafted with a wife.”

“Who’s is it?”

Jared shrugged. There was no telling. She liked to get it on more than he did and when they were together, he found out that she had slept with most of the football team. He just knew that it wasn’t his. “Never mind that, what was she talking about with you?”

His brother turned a little red. “It was just something that happened when she was rubbing my knee. I told you how I got her to straddle my leg.”

He sighed and looked back through the windshield. “Well we fucked it up Brandon. You are never going to get your chance now.” Jared was mourning his own chance. Unlike his brother, he had gotten a small sampling and it had made him want her that much more.

“I looked, but I didn’t touch. It was you that made it all weird. How could you get caught in the first place?”

Jared didn’t know. It had just happened. It had been the way she had looked up at him. He didn’t even remember why they had gotten so close. He just remembered her standing beneath him looking up at him with those big blue eyes. He wasn’t going to justify that moment to anyone, not even Brandon. His brother did have a point. Jared had gone over the line when he had touched her. It was not something that he could have known would happen. The fact that they were caught had definitely not even been on his mind at the time.

“It just happened.”

“Well now you know how I feel, wanting something that you can never have.”

Jared wasn’t ready to give up yet. She had given him the small hope that he needed to move forward. He just had to find a way to get her home and then get his hands on her. It was hard to forget how she had melted against him. All he had to do was touch her just right and Jared was sure that she would be his. He was getting as bad as Brandon, thinking of only Clarke.

***

His plan to get her home was not going so well. Clarke ignored his calls at work. When another month had passed, she finally answered to tell him to stop calling her. Jared tried to not hear the aggravation in her tone or the way that she sounded. But he got the hint and stopped calling her at work. Jared would just have to think of another angle to get what he wanted. He wasn’t ready to give up just yet.

The next angle was his stepmom. He knew that Marla was missing her daughter. Marla insisted that they didn’t talk about her, almost tearing up when Jared mentioned her going to their last game. It was a big deal because they were going to unveil who they would be drafted with, in the next draft. Jared knew that she would be surprised to find out that it was only going to be right down the road from her. If she was going to run away, he was determined to follow. Brandon didn’t care as long as they played together and the money was right.

“I was really hoping she could come up for the last game. I know it is tense around here, but it feels like a family thing, don’t you think?”

She sighed and pushed her dyed hair back from her face. “I still don’t know what to make of it all. I did not expect her to leave like that.” Marla had been more surprised than many when she took off because they had always been so close. Her daughter was changing and she wasn’t sure that she liked it. Her moving off was completely out of character, but she realized that her stepbrothers had something to do with it. Jared had something to do with it, that much was clear, but she had seen the way Brandon looked at her too.

“Yeah it was a surprise to me as well. Why don’t you invite her for the game and the party afterwards? It has been a while. We can invite her friends and maybe she will miss being here.”

Marla looked at him and wondered why he was so interested. They had never gotten along before, that much was clear. The three of them had years of arguing behind them. “I still don’t see why you are so worried about it Jared.”

“I miss her. I know we argued a lot, but it’s just strange without her here. Me and Brandon are leaving after the draft and this will be our last year together. I don’t know. It is just different without her here.”

She knew there was more to it, but she was thinking the same thing about time not being on her side. Marla was already feeling the stirrings of empty-nest. Soon they would all be gone. For that reason alone Clarke should come home. Jared was right, it was a big deal.

“You’re right Jared. Soon everything is going to change. I might call her. Your last game will give me an excuse to call her at least.”

Jared smiled to her and hoped that she would follow through with it. He was sick of thinking about her and nothing happening. “Well don’t say that I mentioned it.”

“And why is that?”

“Because of everything that happened, it’s been pretty awkward. She wouldn’t even give me her new number.”

Marla still wondered what had really went on between the two of them, but everyone wanted to keep their secrets.