The Exception (12 page)

Each time he kissed me I wanted – no – I needed him more. I began to scoot back into his truck and Jake moved with me, hopping in and shutting the door with ease. He kissed me so passionately I gave no thought to the fact that we were in the middle of the senior parking lot. I was officially starting to lose the little control I still had over myself when it came to Jake. That fact made me feel both nervous and exhilarated at the same time.

Chapter Ten

There was no point in walking into the last twenty minutes of class, so we decided to go to Sonic and get a drink before practice. I decided the first time I saw my friends again was going to be awkward no matter what, so it would be better to go to practice and get it over with. Plus, it helped having Jake with me to break the ice.

Jake and I got to practice after everyone else. When they saw us walk onto the courts hand in hand, we got a few nods and one forced smile that came from Gabe. The only person that wasn’t making an effort to let me know all was well was Maya; she didn’t even as much as look in our direction. Since I wanted to get through practice without any more incidents today, I followed Jake to a court to warm up instead of taking the spot by her.

The start of practice went smoother than I thought – much, much smoother. No one even mentioned what happened this morning. Even though at some point today, I want to clear up the details about what really happened.

When coach told us to take a lap around the school, I fell into my rhythm and didn’t notice the person beside me until she spoke up. “Walk break?” she asked once we got to a spot coach could no longer see us.

I glanced over to see Maya jogging next to me. “No. I just want to finish this lap and get back to the courts. OK?” I phrased it as a question, but when I kept jogging it became clear that it was more of a statement.

Maya jogged ahead of me and I thought I was in the clear until she quickly turned and stopped right in front of me. “Not OK. Listen, Em. Stephen is getting worse. So, when everything happened the other day, I just lost it.”

At the mention of her dad’s name, I stopped dead in my tracks. “What? What happened? Did he hurt you?” I asked with genuine concern in my voice. I wouldn’t put it past that man to lay his hands on either of them. Even before he started making both of their lives hell, something about him had always given me the creeps.

“No,” she looked away, “but he shoved my mom and made her hit her head, and then told me it was my fault.” She kicked a rock away from us and then looked right at me. “Em, that asshole told me it was my fault that he put his hands on my mom because I didn’t know when to shut up. I hate him. I hate him so much. I wish she would just leave him.”  Tears were now pouring down her face, and I immediately wrapped her in a hug.

“I’m so sorry, Maya. About everything,” I soothed as she cried. Tears welled up in my own eyes for hurt for my friend and for hatred of the man that was supposed to love and protect her.

She nodded into my shoulder and sniffed, “Me too.” She took a step back and wiped her eyes. “You must think I’m a pretty shitty friend, huh?” she said with a forced laugh.

“Nah. You’re not a shitty friend.” I wiped a tear that escaped from my eye. “I don’t know how you hold it together with everything that man puts you through,” I offered a smile that she returned.

“Ya know, sometimes I wish so badly that we were kids again. When my biggest problem was scraping my knees when we would go roller skating, because there was no way in hell I would be caught in those tacky knee guards.”

I laughed, remembering all the times Maya hurt herself on those stupid skates. “Those tacky knee guards would have prevented you from busting up your knees. That and slowing down or watching where you were going,” I teased.

“Well. I was never too worried because you were always there to help me up,” she said with a warm smile. “And share your skittles,” she added with a smirk.

“I’ll always be there to help you up, Maya.” I reached out and squeezed her hand. “Always. Although, I may not always share my skittles.”

She let out a small laugh. “Love you, Em.”

“Love you too.”

Knowing coach was not going to be happy that we were going to be the last two back, we immediately started jogging. Quickly. Falling in to a sprint when the courts were in sight. We were both completely out of breath by the time we made it back.

***

After practice, I was putting my stuff in my car when Maya leaned against the side. “So you and Jake, huh?” I looked up to see her wiggling both her brows with a stupid grin on her face.

“Oh, shut it!” I laughed. “There is no me and Jake. Not like that.”

“OK,” she giggled. “But just tell me one thing.” Maya leaned closer with a serious look on her face. “Would you say he was more like this, or like this?” she said using her two pointer fingers to indicate a smaller or larger length.

“Maya! Oh my God! I just told you nothing happened! And even if it would have, I am not going to discuss the size of my boyfriend’s…”

Maya cleared her throat just as Jake walked up behind me. “The size of my what?” he questioned, sounding amused.

I looked at Maya with wide eyes. “Nothing,” I replied as heat rose to my cheeks, knowing he knew exactly what we were talking about.

“Well, I guess I’ll leave you two to talk about…nothing.” Maya looked from me to Jake with a smile that looked like she was fighting off cracking up. “Toodles.” She wiggled her fingers at us as she sauntered off.

“So, I’d love to hear what you were going to say,” Jake teased.

“Yeah. Not gunna happen.”

“Meh. It was worth a shot.” I rolled my eyes. “Don’t you roll your eyes at me, Blondie,” he said with a playful edge in his voice.

“Or what?” I challenged.

All of a sudden Jake reached out for me and pinned me against my Jeep with a sexy smirk on his face. “Or this.” He connected his lips to mine, which caused those still in the parking lot to start whistling. He broke the kiss, and we both looked in the direction of the noise with huge smiles on our faces. With a breathy laugh, he rested his forehead on mine. “A few of my friends are going to my ranch this weekend for the long weekend. Any chance you would be able to go?”

“You have a ranch?”

“Yes, Emma,” he chuckled.

“Sorry. I don’t know why I was so surprised by that,” I said sheepishly. I was a little embarrassed that was the first thing to come out of my mouth, but Jake didn’t seem to mind.

“Do you think your parents would let you go?” he asked again.

“Away with my boyfriend? For the weekend? Are your parents going?”

“No.”

“Um. That would be a big fat no. Like such a big no, I’m not even going to bother asking.” Was he serious? Like anybody’s parents would let their kid go away with a boyfriend or girlfriend for the weekend. Much less mine. It was such an absurd idea that I couldn’t help but laugh.

Jake’s brows furrowed. “What’s so funny?”

The fact that Jake was so serious made me laugh even harder. “Really? Whose parents willingly let them go out of town with the person they’re dating?”

“Mine,” he said so matter-of-fact it caused me to stop laughing and look right at him.

“Seriously?”

“Eeek! Did he ask you?” Maya squealed as she came running up.

I still had a look of disbelief on my face when I turned to look at Maya. “You mean about the ranch?”

“Yes! It’s going to be so much fun!” she squealed.

“Maya. You know my parents would never let me go.”

“Duh. That’s why we’re going to do what we do when one set of our parents leaves town,” she said simply.

“No. That’s totally different. I am still in town then. What if they call and check up on me and figure out I skipped town?” I asked with panic in my voice.

“Chill out, Em. That is never going to happen. That would require our parents actually talking to each other. I don’t even think your parents have the number to my house.”

She was right. They probably didn’t. That was the one good thing about her jerk of a father. My parents were more or less in the loop about Maya’s home situation, and I’m almost positive Maya’s mom was aware of that fact. Therefore, neither side talked to the other more than they had to, which was at the occasional tournament her mom bothered to show up for. Because of that, any time one of our parents left town we would both say we were staying with the other for the weekend. Therefore, we had an entire house to ourselves for the whole weekend, and it was awesome!

“I don’t know. It never seemed like a big deal when we were in town. But out of town? For a long weekend? There is just a lot that could go wrong. What if my parents ever talked to Jake’s parents and it came out? I would be grounded until I was thirty.”

“Do your parents even know each other?” Maya asked.

“No. But…”

“No buts, Em. They clearly are not going to meet before tomorrow, and, when they finally do, why would they be like oh what did y’all do for that long weekend a month ago?”

“Well that’s a good point, but Jake does know my parents and I’m not going to make him have to lie to them.”

“It’s not something I would like to do,” Jake chimed in, “but if it meant getting to spend the weekend with you at the ranch, it would be worth bending the truth a little bit.” He shrugged. “Plus, I could finally teach you how to shoot.”

“OK, that’s cheating. You know how badly I want to learn.”

“Now you know how badly I want you to come this weekend, darlin’,” he added with a sexy drawl.

“Oh, so you’re resorting to that now are you?” I laughed as Jake smiled. I let out a sigh. “Fine. I’ll ask my parents tonight if I can stay with Maya for the weekend. But if this gets out, I hope you two are OK with never seeing me outside of school ever again.” I couldn’t stop the smile from spreading across my face as Maya squealed and clapped her hands together.

“It won’t, Em. This weekend is going to be so much fun!” Maya beamed.

It hit me then for the first time that Maya was a little too excited about me going away with Jake for the weekend. “Wait. Are you going too?”

“Pfft. Yeah. Evan asked me right before I ran back over here to you guys.”

Exactly one hour and twenty-seven minutes later, I was sitting in my bowl chair with my knees to my chest calling Maya to let her know I was “staying with her” for the weekend.

“That’s great, Em. I knew this wasn’t going to be an issue. And why are you whispering?” She sounded totally normal. Not nervous at all.
How do I seem to be the only one who feels like my nerves are about to burst out of my chest like a swarm of butterflies?

“Because we both know what we are really doing this weekend. Assuming your parents said yes.” I was still whispering. I couldn’t stop. It was like I was expecting my mom to swing open my bedroom door, at any moment, and tell me I was caught.

“You know they don’t care. And, Em, you really need to chill out before your parents ask you why you’re acting so weird. It’s going to be fine. You’ll see,” she reassured me. In the back of my mind I knew she was right, but my nerves couldn’t seem to get the memo. “Now go pack. Tell your mom that you are going straight to my house after school tomorrow. I don’t trust how your little ball of nerves would handle swinging back by your house to get your stuff tomorrow after school.

“Good point. See you tomorrow.” I was still whispering and could practically feel Maya rolling her eyes through the phone as she hung up.

***

Practice was optional on Friday because of the long weekend. So after school Evan, Maya, and I loaded up in Jake’s truck while Heath, Spencer, and Spencer’s girlfriend, Alli, loaded up in Heath’s truck. We decided to leave the rest of our cars at school near the tennis courts since it could look like we were parked for the courts or the houses across the street.

As soon as we were pulling out of the school parking lot Jake turned on the radio, then reached over and laced our fingers together. He pulled my hand over, placed a kiss on the back of my hand, and then set our hands down on the center of my lap, letting his arm rest against my thigh. I looked over at him, and he gave me one of his perfect smiles before refocusing on the road with the most content look on his face. All the nerves in the world were worth chancing a weekend getaway with Jake.

I was so caught up in the excitement of this weekend that I almost didn’t feel my phone vibrate, in my purse, against my foot. I instantly panicked, thinking it was going to be my parents; that they somehow knew and that I was so busted. I quickly reached down, grabbed my phone, and was flooded with relief at the sight of Gabe’s name.

I was not about to put a damper on Jake’s mood by answering Gabe’s call. So I silenced the vibrations and slid my phone back into my purse, making a mental note to call him back when we got home on Monday.

Three hours and forty-five minutes later, we pulled off the main road and up to a big gate with an R at the top. Jake handed Evan a key and he hopped out of the truck to go unlock the gate. Jake pulled in, driving far enough to let Heath pull in behind us before stopping to wait for Evan to get the gate closed and climb back in the truck. We drove a few minutes up the road before a huge house with front porch lights on came into view.

“Damn, Jake,” Maya said, leaning up from the backseat as we pulled up to the house, “Any other giant ass houses we need to know about?”

“Just this one,” Jake chuckled, then looked over at me with a sexy grin. “Ready to go inside?”