I’ll just have to make sure no one can get to her again, and now that I think about it, staying close might be the best thing. I panicked last night and this morning, this is all new to me, having to look out for someone that was coming to mean so much to me, and I fucked up like a first-year rookie.
But as I sat in my classes all morning, it finally struck me that keeping myself away from her, ghosting her in essence, might lead her to think that I was mad at her still, or worse yet, that I no longer wanted her, and nothing could be further from the truth.
I kissed her temple again just for the hell of it, just happy that I hadn’t done too much damage with my idiot move. “How was your morning, love?”
“I missed you.” From the way she bit into her lip after saying it and the way she blushed, I knew she hadn’t meant to admit that out loud.
“I’m sorry, baby, it won’t happen again. No matter what, I’ll always be there from now on.” I breathed easy because she didn’t give me a hard time which is what I deserved, but just rested her head on my arm as we headed to the cafeteria. Her silence somehow made me feel worst.
I’ve been trying to get her to open up, to be more sure of herself, after having noticed that she never had that. She hasn’t come right out and said she was sheltered from life, but it’s easy to read between the lines. I want to see her reach her true potential, to see that little flicker I see in her eyes become a blaze. I want my girl to be happy.
My girl! It’s not the first time I thought of her that way in my head, but it was the first time it felt absolutely right. The fact that I’d spent the last few hours stressing about her is more than enough to tell me all I need to know. As with everything else in my life, there was no need to question it, but just accept it for what it is.
Lisa is my girl. Dad always said I’d know her when I find her, the way he had with mom. He also taught me how to treat this one special woman in my life, how to protect her, and how to shield her from anything that could bring her harm. On the other hand, dad never had a Susie to deal with, but I’m not going to let her take this away from me because she’s fucking nuts.
Lisa’s girls watched us as we walked to the table where it had become the norm for her crew and my boys to eat lunch together. She seemed fine but a little distracted, and I put it down to leftover bullshit from this whole situation. I wouldn’t tell her not to worry or not to think about it because that doesn’t ever work. But what I can do, is make sure she’s never made to feel as helpless as she did last night.
“Alexis, Jess, if either of you get any more of these messages, I’m gonna need you to come to me. I’ll let it pass this time because you don’t know me, but what you did in your haste to convict me is hurt Lisa; that’s not acceptable no matter your reasons.” The whole table went silent because my statement came completely out of left field.
I was surprised when Jess held her fist out to me for a fist bump. “You’ve got it. Right, Alexis?”
Alexis nodded in agreement and apologized again. A look passed between the three of them that I couldn’t quite interpret, but as long as she’d lost that look in her eyes, I was fine.
My boys knew better than to bring up anything we’d discussed in front of her, so we kept the conversation light, all while I scoured the cafeteria for Susie, who hadn’t been here since the day after she’d drugged me. That, too, her absence gave me a bad feeling in my gut, and I made up my mind to stick closer to Lisa from now on, even closer than we’ve been.
On one of my perusals around the room, my eyes met someone else’s that had been staring at our table, and a lightbulb went off in my head. Shit, it can’t be this easy.
CODY
“What the hell are they doing up there?” Chad’s eyes followed mine up to the stands where Lisa had been joined by her friends.
“Homework, it looks like.”
“Lisa hasn’t turned a page in that book in the last ten minutes, and neither has the other two.”
“I wasn’t staring at them that hard, Cap, so I wouldn’t know.” He grinned and cuffed my shoulder before we both turned and walked back onto the field after our mini-break.