But I wouldn’t go back to Utah if I could. My life is here now. Wherever Frankie is, is where I need to be, even if I’m going to be forced to watch her from afar.
God, I could kill Vaughn and every other guy in that locker room for even suggesting hooking up with her.
I’m seconds away from going back to the school to beat Vaughn’s ass again when my phone rings.
“What?” I snap, answering without even looking at the phone.
“And you wonder why she wants nothing to do with you?”
I clamp my teeth together at Dalton’s familiar voice. I haven’t interacted much with him, but I hear them talking all the time in Frankie’s room. Apparently Piper and Dalton aren’t supposed to be dating, and since they live so close to each other, they spend time together at Frankie’s to keep out of the watchful eye of Piper’s dad.
“Maybe you should mind your own business,” I hiss.
His chuckle coming through the line makes me want to snap his neck. I didn’t hit him back when he punched me because I knew I had it coming, but I’m too damn on edge to let anything go this time around.
“Frankie is my business,” he says.
Yep, that’s enough to make me sit up and reach for my boots.
“Frankie is mine.”
“Because she’s pregnant?”
I shouldn’t be shocked. Of course, he knows. The entire school knows thanks to Bronwyn and her group of friends.
All the anger drains out of me as if I’ve been shot with a full magazine of bullets.
“I fucked up,” I mutter.
“Big time,” Dalton says, drilling the point home. “And if you want to be anything more than a sperm donor, you need to get your shit together.”
“I don’t even know where to start,” I confess. “She won’t talk to me. She won’t even look at me.”
“You expected anything different?” This guy isn’t cutting me any slack. “You hurt that girl.”
I don’t even open my mouth. Everything he’s saying is true.
“But fortunately for you, I know a thing or two about messing up big time and having to beg for forgiveness.”
“Why are you helping me?”
Silence fills my ear as he pauses before answering. “Because I see the way you look at her when you don’t think anyone is watching.”
A lump forms in my throat.
“What should I do?”
“Get her back.”
I shake my head again. Is this guy dense? Did he not just listen to me telling him she won’t even give me the time of day?
“How?” I hiss.
“Actions speak louder than words.”
The phone goes dead.
I appreciate his help, but damn, he could’ve thrown me a bone or something. I don’t even know where to start. Frankie is pregnant with my kid, and that’s huge, but I doubt flowers and candy are going to win me any points. She deserves a grand gesture, but I don’t even know where to start.
Actions speak louder than words.
Dalton’s statement echoes in my head all damn night, but I wake up the next day determined to make that girl see that she means the world to me. I’m over letting my own stubbornness get in between the two of us.Chapter 42Frankie
“It’s going to be fine,” Piper assures me as we make our way into the school and head for our lockers. “It’s yesterday’s news.”
I want to believe her, but people are lined up and down the hallway, ceasing their conversations when we walk by.
Dalton snapping at the people yesterday when the stuff fell out of my locker helped some, but there are still small groups that no longer bow to his anger. He ruled this school last year, and from the way people are chatting and laughing as we walk by, it’s evident he no longer holds the highest rank at Westover Prep.
“Everyone is staring at us,” I mutter.
“They’re staring at me,” Dalton says with a quick grin. “They can’t get over how amazing my new haircut is.”
“It is hot,” Piper adds with a wicked grin of her own as she looks around me.
Dalton and Piper have me sandwiched between them, and by doing so, I’m softening a little more to the boy who used to make our daily lives a living hell. Dalton having my back at school is the last thing I thought would ever happen, but here he is, staying close and keeping an eye on me. It makes me wonder if Hell has frozen over, but I know that isn’t the case with everyone’s heated glares burning into my face.
As we walk, I can feel their eyes sweep down the length of my body, stopping first on my stomach before looking into my eyes to confirm the truth. I didn’t deny it in the hallway yesterday, so that’s as good as a confession.
Staying at school yesterday was brutal, just like waking up this morning and returning has been. Zeke didn’t bother to come to first period yesterday, and he wasn’t in the cafeteria for lunch either. By the time I made it to Algebra, it was clear that he had left school altogether.