Lila's Thunder: The Almeida Brothers, Book One (7 page)

Jack leaned next to her, unaware of what had just transpired, and held out her coffee.  Lila took it, absently, still watching the blue truck as it disappeared down the street.  Weird, she thought.  With a shake of her head she brought the coffee to her lips and wrapped them around the plastic opening, sucking softly as her long eyelashes tickled her cheeks.  She kept her eyes closed for a long while, savoring it, and Jack drank her in, imagining his cock in place of that drink. “You don’t want to have a seat inside?”

Her eyes popped open
, and she stood tall. “No, I should really get down to the school.  I wanted to get there early today to look in on a meeting that the principal is having.  She promised she would bring up the funding for a school trip I’m planning, and I want to poke my head in and make sure she keeps her word.”

“A trip?”

“Yeah,” Lila said, absently, staring off.  “I like to take the kids somewhere every year and I might have gotten a little too excited this time around…”  She waved her hand as if it wasn’t a big deal, but Jack could see that it was.

He hesitated.
  “You really love those kids, huh?” he asked, softly, opening her door for her.

Li
la climbed in without answering.

As Jack pulled out of the Starbucks he proceeded to take the longest possible route to the Dalton school, driving a little below the speed limit.
 He could tell that he had almost overstepped his bounds in the parking lot by bringing up the kids, but the fact that she hadn’t completely ripped his head off was a good sign.  He didn’t want this morning to end, couldn’t get enough of her, and he was now unable to hinder himself from speaking to her freely, especially since he had no idea when he’d see her again.

“
I never knew you had a sister,” he said, looking over to her in the passenger’s seat.

Lila was snapped out of her revere at the comment and tossed her head to the side to look at him, not sure how to respond.

The car came to a stop light and Jack couldn’t help but fill the silence.  “You know, it’s my grandmother’s wedding anniversary today. She called me this morning and left a very shrill voicemail message telling me how excited she was—then she told me the only gift she wanted was that I visit my parents.”

“Do you not visit them often?”
Lila asked, unable to fight her curiosity.

Jack was silent for a long
while. “No.”

Lila nodded.

“But I’m glad I did today.”

She lowered her eyes, not realizing that she’d been clawing her nails into her jeans since the moment he’d started talking.
  She relaxed her hands and took a deep breath.

Jack rested his elbow on the window as he ran his fingers through his short hair, watching her out of the corner of his eye.
  “Is that why you were crying at the wedding? Because it's Danielle’s birthday today?”

“Is this a cross-examination?”
Lila teased, softly. “Should I have a lawyer present?”

Jack gave her a look. She was playing it off like a big joke, but he wasn’t joking. After spending the morning with her he knew that if he had to go another day without answers there was a strong possibility that he would call off work and follow her into that damn school.

Lila
didn’t
want to talk about it, but she found herself unable to be nasty to him.  He’d been so good to her that morning and for the first time since she’d met him she found herself trusting him.  “It was a celebration.  I didn’t want to darken anyone’s doorway with my problems.  Well, except yours…”  She smirked at him.

“You didn’t darken my doorway.”

Lila remained silent, staring ahead.

“You could have talked to me about it…”

“I don’t talk about it.  I drink it away, or fight it away, or fuck it away.”

Jack’s eyebrows rose.

Lila pretended to be looking out of the window as she jammed her eyes shut. She couldn't believe she'd just said that to him.  Had Jessica spiked her coffee?

“So that’s all you wanted
that night?  To fuck it away?”

She looked back to him with desperate eyes, but she’d never seen him more stubborn or determined.
  He was not going to be talked or tricked out of this conversation.  It was happening, whether she liked it or not.  She’d never seen him in a more open and honest state than he was right then, his golden eyes gentle and completely undefended.  He’d dropped every last shield and she’d have to be a complete monster to take a swing at him now.  All she could say was what was true. “I’m no angel, Jack.”

The knowledge behind his eyes when he looked at her left her feeling a little too exposed, so she turned to look out of the window. “I’ve tried the whole ‘talking about it’ thing.
  Doesn’t work. People get uncomfortable, and I don’t want to make anyone uncomfortable.”

Jack understood what she was saying so completely that all he could do was remind
himself to breathe, watching her so heavily that he only knew the light had turned green when the car behind him began to honk. As he accelerated he continued to glance over at her.

He wanted to tell her that she could never make him uncomfortable because he understood. He wanted her to know that he would never judge her
, and if she wanted to fuck the pain away he’d be happy to be of service.

Instead he rode the r
est of the way in silence. As he was pulled his car up onto the curb next to The Dalton School he was wishing he could circle the corner one more time, ask her to meet him for lunch.  Something.  Anything.  But he couldn’t.  Nothing seemed right or worthy.

“Thanks for the ride, Harvard.” She opened the door and began gathering her things.

He clutched the steering wheel in a death grip as she jumped out of the truck and slammed the door.  It had all gone by so damn quickly, and now she was sauntering away from him, her sexy hips swinging as she took the steps to the open doors of the school. He could see kids gathered in the halls, many of them waving to her as she walked in.

She made it to the doors and looked back to see if he was still there.
   Their eyes met just as Chase came up next to her and took her arm in his.

Jack’s heart stopped.

---

Lila turned to Chase, her mouth dropping open in shock at the sight of him. She hadn’t seen him since the moment they’d had in the closet the day before
, and had expected him to be very angry, but he was actually smiling at her.  She returned the gesture, feeling extremely relieved that there wasn’t going to be any bad blood between them.

“
Hey,” he said, releasing her arm and placing his hands in his pockets.

“
Hi,”  Lila said, looking out onto the street and feeling strangely disappointed when she saw that Jack’s truck was gone.  Had he seen Chase?  Closing her eyes, she told herself to focus.  “What are you doing here so early?”

He motioned around him. “There are tons of kids here, why wouldn't I be?”

“Because the only kids who get here an hour early are the ones who have to take the bus from the Bronx,” she said, breezing past him, knowing he would follow.

“Are you implying that the Bronx kids make bigger sacrifices than I do just because they have to take a bus?”

Lila thought long and hard. “Yes.”

“Well,” Chase began, taking her arm, again until she stopped walking and looked at him.
  “I just wanted to tell you that I’m not going to be at the group sessions anymore.”

Lila’s eyes widened. “But—“

“I have a uh…”  He smiled down at her. “I can’t really afford to miss another second of Calculus.  I’m already drowning as it is…”

Lila almost told him to come by her place later so
she could help him could catch up but realization hit her before she could.  Her eyes fell to her feet.  “Okay…” she said softly.

“Okay.”
  Chase’s smile widened.  “I’ll see you later.”  He touched her shoulder and walked away from her, making sure that he was completely out of eyesight before the smile disappeared from his face. His chest heaved as he took the breath he felt like he’d been holding since the moment she’d walked in the door. Even as he took a much needed deep breath, he did not feel releif when he exhaled.  All he could feel was pain.

---

“And I’m just absolutely devastated.”  Ashley, a pretty red-headed sophmore, rolled her eyes into the top of her head as alligator tears welled up in her blue eyes.  “Mitsy was such a good little snail.  So sweet and considerate. I simply don’t know what I’m going to do without her.”

Lila took a deep breath and looked around at the faces of the many kids she’d grown to know and love.
  All fifteen of them had shown up today, and they’d all settled in the middle of the football field, having decided to take advantage of the beautiful day.  Some of them were cross-legged and listening to Ashley intently, others were lying on their backs staring up at the sky. Most were texting on their cellphones, something that Lila usually vehemently reproached when someone was speaking, but would make an exception for that morning.

“Ashley, thank you so much for
sharing your story with us,” she said, holding her palms together.  “We’re so happy to have you.”

“Happy to be here,”
Ashley blubbered.

Lila tilted her head.
  “And you joined us just in time. We’ve just finished planning the group fishing trip to Lake Mungo in Midland, Texas.”

Ashley’s face fell.
  “Mungo?
Texas
?”  Her eyes moved from eye to eye as she scanned the group.  “But… I thought you guys were going to Hawaii.”

Lila’s head fell to the side and she feigned confusion.

Ashley fidgeted, then stammered, then shook her head, hopping up on the grass so quickly that Lila almost pulled a muscle in her neck as she watched her stand.  “I’ve gotta go, I just remembered I have to be…” Ashley’s eyes rolled into the top of her head as she tried to think. “Somewhere,” she finally spat, speed walking away from the group of fifteen kids as quickly as possible.

Lila
waited until she was gone to meet the eyes of her kids before joining in on the slow chuckles that had begun to build.  Pretty soon, they were all hysterically laughing.

“
Unbelievable,” Lila said, shaking her head.  “Okay.  Seriously.  That’s the third student that has come to us with some bullshit sob story.  Who spilled the beans about Hawaii?  Huh?  Who’s the rat?”  A plethora of innocent faces looked back to her, but she was unconvinced.  Her kids ranged from the ages of twelve to seventeen so she knew that this wasn’t exactly the group you’d give the Nuclear Codes to, but she’d at least trusted them to keep their mouths shut about Hawaii.

One by one, all the eyes of her kids began to gaze over her shoulder and she realized that someone was behind her.
  When she turned and locked eyes with Grace, Lila jumped to her feet.  “Principal White,” she beamed. “We were just—“

“
Is that a cuss word I just heard come out of your mouth, Miss James?”

“
No.”  Lila frowned. “No, never that.”

“I believe the exact phrase
was… ‘some bullshit sob story’,” Grace repeated, touching the tip of her finger to her chin.

“Uh…”
  Lila’s eyes narrowed.

A chorus of ‘
ooooohs’ leapt from the crowd of kids and Lila turned to give them a death glare before meeting Grace’s eyes once again.  “Fine. I let them cuss, okay? And I cuss in front of them sometimes—okay all the time.”

Grace’s eyes widened.

“I want them to feel comfortable with me and I feel that if I make them feel censored they will only see me as someone who can’t be trusted and not someone they can talk to.  This has to be a safe space,” she said, motioning around her.

“Uh huh,”
Grace hummed, in that special way only she always did.  “I need to talk to you,” she added, before looking over Lila’s shoulder.  “Okay, kids, I have to steal Lila away for today and with the midterm scores I’ve seen coming across my desk I think a little extra class time this Thursday morning wouldn’t hurt you one bit.”

Lila’s shoulders dropped and she felt terrible when all of the kids began to groan and sadly gather all of their things, each giving her a hug on their way off of the football field.
  Only when she’d said goodbye to each and every one of them and watched them disappear into the doors of the school did Lila and Grace begin to slowly make their way towards the school, as well.

“So I had a meeting with administration this morning and I brought up your vacation with the kids—“

“Not a vacation,” Lila corrected.

“Uh huh.”
  Grace waved a hand.  “Anyway.  I have good news.”

Lila’s eyes widened.
  “They’re giving us the money?”

“No,
” Grace said, flatly.

Lila’s smile fell.